IT Business Partner - Business Services

Who are we

Founded in 1896, Knight Frank was registered as Knight Frank LLP a Limited Liability Partnership, on 3 November 2003, registered in England & Wales at 55 Baker Street, London, W1U 8AN with the registered number of OC305934. Headquartered in London, UK, Knight Frank is one of the world's leading independent real estate consultancies. We work responsibly in partnership to enhance people's lives and environments in over 50 Markets, 600+ Offices, 20,000+ People, 1 Global Network.

At the heart of all we do are our Clients. A relationship built on trust is vital. As trusted partners in property, we act with integrity and care, understanding our clients’ unique needs and consistently thinking about the bigger picture to provide personalised, clear and considered advice across all areas of property. Through our deep understanding of key markets and sectors – both emerging and established – we are dedicated to meeting and exceeding their property goals.

A true partnership is a balanced one, and our People are passionate about, and committed to, making our business inclusive and diverse. We give every individual the space and opportunity to perform at their best and be recognised for the immense value they bring. We empower everyone to have autonomy in their role and encourage them to use their voice in how we can make a positive impact as a firm and shape the future of real estate, the built environment and the impact on the communities we serve. Our collaborative and engaged teams provide excellent and dedicated client service. In our workplace, opinions are respected, everyone is invited to contribute to the success of our business and innovation, and new ideas are celebrated.

In 2021 we celebrated our 125th anniversary and set out Our Desired Future, cemented in three pillars: People Potential, Client Centricity and always Creating our Future, together. Learn more about what sets us apart here.

About The Role

Knight Frank is looking to hire an IT Business Partner - Business Enablement o join their Head Office in Baker Street.

About the Role:

We are seeking a highly talented, motivated and experienced IT Business Partner to support us on the evolution of our IT Transformation and creation of a business partnering capability. This is a critical role within the Group IT department, responsible for partnering with our Business Enablement division to ensure IT enables the delivery of their strategic outcomes and goals. The role acts as the strategic link between the business and the wider IT function, ensuring our Business Enablement divisional strategy is understood across IT.

This role ensures technology solutions are aligned with business objectives and acts as the subject matter expert in IT for Business Enablement

This role is a senior leadership position with overall responsibility for the delivery of IT change into our Business Enablement, translating business needs into clear technology requirements, shaping the IT roadmap. The role provides product management across all Business Enablement products and services, working with the IT Operations team to ensure the technologies meet the divisional expectation.

This is a new position within the newly created IT Business Partnering team, with initial focus on defining and embedding a business partnering model and understanding both our current Business Enablement technologies, initiatives and resourcing but also partnering to define a strategic IT roadmap with supporting investment to build new and enhance existing capabilities.

Responsibilities:

Business Partnering – Establish and embed a new business partnering model that builds a deep understanding of divisional strategy and priorities. Develop trusted, outcome focused relationships with senior stakeholders, ensuring technology and business decisions are aligned to strategic goals. Actively identify opportunities to deliver measurable value, shape demand, and support the business in achieving its desired outcomes.

Technology Solutions - Proactively partner with the Business Enablement sub-divisions to identify, shape, and align technology solutions to strategic and operational outcomes. Translate business needs into high value technology capabilities, enhancing existing solutions and introducing new ones, where require.

Product Management – Lead the end-to-end product management of our existing Business Enablement products and services, developing a deep understanding of their value, performance, and customer impact. Drive product optimisation, including rationalisation or consolidation where appropriate, and identify opportunities to extract greater commercial and operational value from the current portfolio. Ensure product decisions are grounded in customer needs, business priorities, and clear commercial outcomes.

IT Change Management – Support the creation of investment briefs and business cases, translating business outcomes into technology enabled initiatives, balancing value, risk and resource constraints. Oversee the delivery of technology projects and products for Business Enablement.

Financial & Investment Management - Ensure total cost of IT delivery and operational service is known for Business Enablement. Own the IT budget for Business Enablement, excluding IT and platform products ensuring the cost of delivery is optimised, identifying cost saving or avoidance opportunities where appli-cable ensure these are managed, tracked and reported.

Continuous Improvement – Review and where applicable, improve, technology enabled business pro-cesses, automate workflows and improve data quality. Champion innovation and emerging technologies and use data and insights to measure performance and continuously improve the delivery of IT.

Team Management and Development – Whether in a matrix management or direct line management structure, continuously develop the business partnering team, providing leadership and mentoring.

Vendor Management – Working with the IT Operations team, build, manage and maintain strategic vendor relationships and ensuring vendor product and service roadmaps are understood and continue to sup-port business capability and where applicable, offer potential opportunities.

Understanding the Organisation – Knight Frank is complex, and changes frequently. Ability to understand the organisational structure, business strategy/requirements and key programmes and share this knowledge with the wider IT team, acting as SME for Business Enablement.

Commercial and Contractual Management – Have a deep understanding of the commercial and contractual aspects of vendor contracts that provide IT products and services to Business Enablement. Under-standing the scope and boundaries of a contract and maximising the value for Knight Frank.

Risk Management – Support the adherence to the IT risk management framework and approach to man-aging risks & issues for IT and ensure that mitigation plans are clearly articulated to the appropriate entity.

ITSC & BCP – Working with IT Operations ensure the criticality of products and services for Business Enablement are understood and IT Continuity plans exist for all critical and high-priority services, ensuring that they are tested and improved.

Key Experience Required:

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a similar IT Business Partnering role within experience of senior stakeholder engagement.

• Proven track record in creating outcome-based business roadmaps, creation of strategic business cases and the delivery of IT Projects, Products and initiatives.

• Experience of Product Management ensuring existing and new products deliver value to our business and customers.

• Experience of application and product portfolio management and consolidation.

• Experience of vendor analysis, strategic management and vendor rationalisation.

• Experience in people management, both direct and matrix within a team orientated, collaborative environment, with strong interpersonal and leadership skills.

• Experience of working within a matrix-management organization structure.

• Experience of stakeholder management in a complex partner-based organisation.

• Evidence of budget management, cost optimisation and resource planning.

• Confidence to successfully explain and guide people through the process and handle any low-level process issue

Key Skills Required:

• Ability to build trusted, outcome focused relationships with senior stakeholders, demonstrating strong commercial awareness, influencing skills, and the capability to translate business needs into actionable technology or operational initiatives.

• Strong knowledge of business enablement technologies, e.g. ERP, HCM and Digital, and a general interest in technology and future trends and opportunities.

• Talent in building long-term relationships with internal colleagues across the business, from junior to C-Suite.

• Ability to negotiate, persuade and reach agreement with complex and senior stakeholders.

• Ability to elicit technical requirements from business outcome-based conversations and create divisional and IT roadmaps.

• Ability to own activities, initiatives and issues and work independently and take decisions where necessary to resolver and/or deliver.

• Track record of successful delivery against commitments and deadlines.

• Promote and support standardisation and continuous improvement.

• Financial management including forecasting and budget management.

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral), with experience interacting with all levels of management and leadership.

• Ability to work effectively under pressure and manage multiple priorities.

• Commercially aware, forward-looking, and attention to detail.

• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
  Strong analytical and reporting capabilities.

• Personal accountability with a willingness to take charge and provide direction.

Qualifications Required:

• Masters/bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, computer engineering, or a closely related specialist field

• Professional certifications in Business Partner, e.g. BCS Practitioner or other desirable qualifications, e.g. Agile, Prince II, Lean, Six Sigma, ITIL.

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of business partnering and establishing and embedding a partnering model.

• Demonstrable knowledge of business outcome and product road mapping, turning strategy into actionable plans.

• A broad knowledge of IT technologies and governance, e.g. Cloud and Digital, Agile, Prince2, ISO's, Data Protection, GDPR etc.

• An understanding of data, data integration, data governance and the operational management of data.

• Working knowledge of Information Security

• Strong knowledge of portfolio analysis methodologies, e.g. TIME, 6Rs, APA, etc.

• Knowledge of vendor procurement (RFI/RFP) and rationalisation.

• Knowledge of commercial and financial management techniques and tools.

• Knowledge of business continuity planning, impact assessments and IT service continuity planning techniques and tools.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technology solutions in business terms, establish rapport and persuade others.

• Strong understanding of regulatory and legislative landscape, macroeconomic environment, and broader data governance landscape and key technologies.

Competitive salary

Please note: this is a Direct Search led by Knight Frank. Applications from recruitment agencies will not be accepted nor will fees be paid for unsolicited CVs, even if provided by PSL agencies.