IT Business Relationship Manager

Position Overview

The Illinois Tollway is dedicated to providing and promoting a safe and efficient system of highways while ensuring the highest possible level of service to our customers. Whether it's I-PASS, the Move Illinois Program, open road tolling or keeping you safe with our H.E.L.P. trucks, we are committed to delivering great benefits and services to customers. 

The Tollway is a user-fee system – no state or federal tax dollars are used to support maintenance and operations. Operations are funded by toll and concession revenues. 

Under the leadership of the Board of Directors and Executive Staff, the Tollway is committed to achieving the following goals: increase collaboration with regional transportation and planning agencies, promote the regional economy, maintain financial integrity, foster environmental responsibility and sustainability, maintain the safety and efficiency of the Tollway system, further transparency, and accountability, enhance customer service, and maintain public trust. 

In support of this mission, the IT Business Relationship Manager (BRM) acts as a liaison between IT and other business units within the organization to ensure the business needs are communicated effectively and that the solutions are understood and accepted by the business. The Business Relationship Manager role is that of a strategic, senior-level business partner who shares ownership for business value results, as well as business strategy.

Essential Job Functions

• Prioritizes Business Need - Understands the business need, help to prioritize projects or phases with the Deputy Chief of IT Project Management, and ensures that projects or phases align to the technology that will provide the best return on investment (ROI).
• Monitor and Track Goals - Translates business requirements into IT solution requirements to meet the goals and the benefits defined for a project. Continue to track and monitor that they are being achieved throughout the project.
• Mediate Conflicts – Ensure that conflicting Stakeholders’ requirements are mediated appropriately. 
• Manages Escalations – Handle escalations and complaints from Stakeholders in a formal by sympathetic way.
• Build Partnerships – Develop strategic relationships with business partners to shape demand and ensure that the business’s products and services meet their need.
• Collaborate with Leaders – Work with leaders inside and outside the organization to ensure that strategic initiatives deliver meaningful results to the Illinois Tollway.
• Reports to Deputy Chief of IT Project Management. 
• Understand Business Objectives – BRMs need a deep understanding of the business. They collaborate with the business leaders to understand their goal, challenges, and strategies. 
• Communication – BRMs act as a strategic partner between business units. They facilitate clear communication, ensuring that business needs are effectively communicated and that solutions are understood and accepted by the business.  They translate business language into IT-friendly dialogues and vice versa, ensuring clarity and understanding.
• Nurturing and Building Relationships – One or the key roles of a BRM is to establish and maintain strong, trust-based relationships. This requires consistent engagement, understanding partner perspectives, and proactively addressing their concerns.
• Value Management – BRMs support the value management process by discovering opportunities and shaping demand in service and/or products to increase organizational value.
• Strategic Alignment – BRMs are instrumental in providing insights into how technology, can support and drive business initiatives, helping to align the two. Presenting initiative at governance gate reviews. 
• Project Partnership – BRMs work closely with the Project Managers to provide guidance with prioritization, optimization, organization change management, testing strategies and training needs for the business. Specifically,
  1. Manages the expectations of the business area.
  2. Supports and promotes organizational change management within the business.
  3. First escalation point for business related items.
  4. Gains approval for project change requests from the Business.
  5. Ensures Project is tied directly to Illinois Tollway’s Strategic Goals.
  6. Ensures Return on Investment (ROI) for the Project is defined.

Qualifications

Education (Required)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or related field. Coursework in Business is required.

Education (Preferred) 

• PMP - Project Management Professional

Skills and Qualifications (Required) 

• Five (5) years of senior project management experience with an emphasis on Third-Party software meeting business needs and/or application development. 
• Comprehensive knowledge of procedures and techniques of conducting requirement gathering, feasibility and design studies, understanding relational database, graphical interface and development of technical implementation and optimization of business systems. 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with both technical and non-technical is crucial. 
• Influential relationship building skills – being able to work well with others, including forming and leading cross-functional teams.
• Negotiation skill is required. 
• Problem solving is required.
• Strategic thinking is required. 
• Meeting facilitation skills is required.
• Attention to detail is required. 
• Excellent analytical skills are required. 
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. 

The Illinois Tollway is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, marital status, national origin or ancestry, disability, unfavorable discharge from military services, age, order of protection status, military status, sex or sexual orientation.