Principal Specialist Business Relations

Job Description

Principal Specialist Business Relations

Job Objective
Manage the relationship with internal organizational units within UAE Accountability Authority (UAEAA) to understand business strategy, and analyze business processes and requirements to ensure effective solutions implementations; as well as external stakeholders such as vendors, regulators, and other identified government entities to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the IT solutions, and alignment with the IT strategy, industry's standards and best practices in order to support the overall business objectives.

Key Responsibilities/Duties

• Strategy and Planning
• Develop and manage the implementation and update of the section related policy, procedures manual, delegation of authority, systems user manuals and standard forms, and ensure compliance across the Authority and alignment with UAEAA's overall policies and procedures.
• Develop and manage the implementation, and update of the section's strategic, budget and procurement, and operational plans ensuring alignment with the department and sector's strategy and objectives, and UAEAA's mission and vision.
• Ensure effective cascading of the department and sector strategy and objectives, and UAEAA's mission and vision into the section's strategic, budget and procurement, and operational plans to achieve UAEAA's overall objectives.
• Develop the section's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in line with UAEAA's overall objectives and ensure individual KPIs are met to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• IT Governance And Strategy
• Manage the development and maintenance of the strategic framework and methodology of IT services, support operational plans which guide all information systems integration and development, and provide effective and responsible information technology practices whilst ensuring alignment with the UAEAA overall strategy.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of IT strategies and initiatives ensuring alignment with the IT strategy in order to support the overall business objectives.
• IT Business Relations
• Manage the identification, documentation and analysis of IT related requirements from UAEAA's organizational units and develop IT solutions to facilitate and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the IT operations; and the review of system technical documentation and development cycle process manual to ensure accurate design architecture of the necessary IT solutions.
• Manage the identification of IT synergy potentials across UAEAA's organizational units and ensure that the relevant organizational units understand the technology solution, overall solution delivery, and compliance to governance processes and architecture standards in order to support overall strategic objectives.
• Manage the collaboration and assessment with other IT Organization within government entities to identify opportunities and benchmark their IT technologies/solutions/services in order to ensure alignment with current business technologies, forecast future IT infrastructure and stay ahead of industry standards.
• Ensure team member to stay abreast of latest technologies as per best practices in the market and their ability to provide a competitive edge to assigned systems and communicate to relevant stakeholders.
• Manage Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Operation Level Agreement (OLA) negotiations with relevant internal and external stakeholders to enhance performance and user satisfaction.
• Manage the change control procedures which discipline the applications development process, ensuring that adjustments to business requirements are effectively rationalized and, when approved, adequately funded.
• Ensure awareness of current and proposed technology issues and concerns within UAEAA and recommend potential solutions to meet expectations and forecasted requirements.
• Manage business process mapping to ensure that business requirements are translated into functional requirements.
• Manage the review of the IT Scope of Work (SOW) to ensure they clearly articulate the business need and elevates concern if estimates don't seem to be in line with the work effort required to deliver the solution.
• Manage the review of requirement traceability throughout the application development lifecycle to ensure business needs are met and validate application features.
• Participate in annual budget planning for IT department in collaboration with UAEAA's organizational units based on the business requirements.
• Monitor budget performance based on business requirements forecasted budget to ensure areas of unsatisfactory performance are identified and recommend solutions for any deviations.
• Manage, lead and drive IT awareness initiatives within UAEAA to ensure employees are well informed of IT enhancements, new IT solutions and initiatives to support business requirements.
• Manage collaborations with external stakeholders in terms of benchmarking, project management, IT services enhancement to ensure alignment with industry's standards.
• IT Project Management
• Develop and manage the implementation of information technology project management framework and quality standards across the entity.
• Manage the research, review and analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of the existing business requirements-gathering processes, cost effectiveness of the solution recommendations, and development of strategies for enhancing or further leveraging these processes.
• Set priorities for IT projects and ensure proper delegation with relevant stakeholders in alignment with the strategic objectives.
• Manage IT project/plans and ensure status and deliverables are monitored and communicated to ensure timely completion as per the agreed timeline.
• Manage the preparation of cost-benefit analyses for IT projects and the monitoring of project execution to ensure quality, timely delivery and approved costs are met whilst ensuring adherence to IT project methodology and framework.
• Manage the development of schedule/timeline in order to ensure IT Project Management, Development, Testing and Implementation activities are established per project with IT suppliers; monitor progress and review remedial action in case of deviation.
• Lead in representing the business to ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget and per defined requirements, in-line with service levels.
• Manage the trials and piloting of new tools and provision of appropriate support and expertise in testing procedures and development of appropriate testing standards, testing and distribution, implementation, reporting, tracking, and project planning support.
• Manage and lead User Acceptance Testing (UAT) during the systems, programs and application development to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the systems.
• Talent Management and Development
• Manage the effective achievement of assigned section operational goals through effective leadership by setting individual objectives, managing performance within the section, and developing and motivating the team to maximize performance.
• Monitor a section's training plan to ensure that the team attends all trainings and development activities required for the role for continuous performance improvements.
• Conduct performance evaluation of subordinates against KPIs by monitoring individual performance, reviewing progress reports, recommending corrective actions and providing overall assessment to support the achievement of UAEAA's overall objectives.
• Manage team workload within the section through the appropriate delegation of work.
• Motivate subordinates, especially focusing on developing capabilities of UAE National employees, to develop a motivated and high performance team.
• Corporate
• Ensure employee adherence and compliance with all UAEAA corporate policies, procedures and guidelines (HR, IT, Procurement, Finance, Health and Safety etc.) within the assigned section.
• Manage and review section's related correspondence such as e-mails, memos, and letters to ensure professionalism, completeness and accuracy of information.
• Manage the retention, documentation, preservation, and archive of section's related physical and electronic records in accordance with relevant policies and procedures.
• Manage any section related queries and ensure that required response and support are provided to relevant UAEAA's organizational units and employees as and when required.
• Ensure relevant technologies used within UAEAA are utilized by employees in order to optimize work efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with UAEAA's values, Code of Business Conduct and ethics at all times to support the establishment of a value driven culture within the Authority.
• Ensure the implementation of the relevant health and safety legislation, policies and procedures, in the performance of duties within the assigned section.
• Lead the identification of opportunities for continuous improvement and sustainability of systems, processes and practices considering global standards, productivity improvement and cost reduction.
• Ensure that all reports are prepared accurately, submitted timely and meet UAEAA requirements and quality standards.
• General
• The level of performance should reflect the academic qualification, type of courses in the field of specialization, employee job level, and the level of productivity.
• The academic and professional certificates required and approved by UAEAA should be acquired within the period specified and based on the employee's Individual Development Plan.
• Perform the task and responsibilities independently unless an approval or directive was obtained to delegate the task to other employees in case of incapability to perform the tasks and responsibilities.
• Ensure teamwork, collaboration and dedication in performing duties.
• Showcase a strong leadership to the team members.
• Knowledge and awareness about the capabilities of the subordinates and showcase a strong knowledge in the field of specialization.
• Provide the required support and guidance to the subordinates.
• Take responsibility of the decisions made.

Requirements Minimum

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in relevant field

Professional Certifications

• Business Relations Management IT course (ITIL framework)
• Agile & Scrum related to IT
• Project Management Institute (PMI) Certifications

Professional Experience

• 10 12+ years of relevant experience with preferably 6 years in supervisory role

Language Proficiency
Proficiency in Arabic and English