Business Engagement Manager

Smiths Detection, a global leader in threat detection and screening technologies for aviation, ports & borders, defense, and urban security. Our expertise is spread across 5 R&D centers, 21 Global Offices and 7 Manufacturing Sites with 3000 Brilliant minds globally contributing for over 40 years at the frontline which enables us to deliver the solutions needed to protect our society from any threat and illegal passage of explosives, prohibited weapons, contraband, toxic chemicals, and narcotics. Every minute of every day, our technology and talented team members help to make the world a safer place - https://youtu.be/JmcKLJTrHLc

The IT Business Engagement Manager (IT Business Partner) acts as the strategic interface between IT and the business. The role ensures technology investments, digital initiatives, and operational services directly support organisational goals. This leader builds trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, shapes demand, translates business strategy into technology roadmaps, and ensures IT delivers measurable value. The position blends strategic advisory, relationship management, and delivery oversight. It requires a deep understanding of business priorities, processes, and pain points, combined with the ability to translate these into actionable technology roadmaps and initiatives. The IT Business Partner champions the voice of the business within IT, ensuring that demand is understood, prioritised, and delivered effectively. At the same time, they represent IT to the business, communicating strategy, capabilities, constraints, and opportunities in a clear and compelling way.

Duties:

• Strategic Partnership & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary IT point of contact for designated business units.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with senior leaders, understanding their goals, challenges, and priorities.
• Translate business strategies into technology opportunities, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, cyber and the IT strategy.
• Facilitate strategic planning sessions, shaping multi‑year roadmaps.

• Demand Management & Portfolio Shaping
  • Capture, assess, and prioritise business demand for technology solutions.
  • Evaluate business cases, ensuring clear value, ROI, and alignment with strategic objectives.
  • Manage the intake process for new initiatives, ensuring clarity of scope, benefits, and dependencies.
  • Work with PMO and delivery teams to maintain an accurate view of the IT portfolio.

• Service Excellence & Operational Alignment
  • Ensure business units receive high‑quality IT services, acting as escalation point for service issues.
  • Review service performance, SLAs, and customer feedback, driving improvements where needed.

Work closely with IT operations to ensure stability, resilience, and proactive service management.

Technical Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Knowledge

• Proven experience in IT Business Partnering, IT Engagement, or senior Business Analysis/Consulting roles.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship‑building skills at senior leadership level.
• Ability to translate business strategy into actionable technology plans.
• Solid understanding of IT delivery models (Agile, Waterfall, hybrid).
• Understanding of PMO processes, governance frameworks, and stage‑gate controls.

Skills

• Experience managing portfolios, roadmaps, or complex multi‑team initiatives.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving capability.
• Sector‑specific experience
• Ability to shape business cases, define scope, and evaluate ROI and benefits.
• Ability to oversee multiple initiatives, manage dependencies, and support prioritisation.
• Ability to translate business needs into functional and non‑functional requirements.

Planning and Decision Making:

• Shape and maintain multi‑year technology roadmaps that align business strategy, enterprise architecture, and IT capability, ensuring clear prioritisation of initiatives based on value, risk, and organisational readiness.
• Assess and prioritise business demand, balancing strategic initiatives, operational needs, and resource constraints to ensure the IT portfolio delivers maximum value.
• Act as a key decision influencer in steering groups, governance forums, and prioritisation sessions, ensuring decisions are transparent, evidence‑based, and aligned with enterprise strategy.
• Balance short‑term operational needs with long‑term strategic goals, ensuring technology investments support sustainable growth and resilience.
• Champion standardisation and simplification, making decisions that reduce technical debt, improve interoperability, and enhance the overall technology landscape.
• Ensure benefits realisation is embedded into planning, with clear success measures, KPIs, and value tracking agreed upfront.

To find out more about life at Smiths Detection check out our LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/smiths-detection/ and follow our story

Join us for a great career and competitive compensation & benefits whilst keeping the world a safer place.

Diversity & Inclusion:

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.

At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Detection, Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (www.smithsdetection.com/careers)

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.

At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)