Lead Business Architect

Informa Markets, a division within Informa, creates global platforms for industries. We organise over 500 large-scale branded and transaction-oriented events in 14 specialist markets. These are typically not-to-be-missed annual events where buyers and sellers build relationships, see and show products and do business. 

We also provide year-round online platforms where companies showcase their businesses and products and buyers conduct research, generating valuable leads, and we provide data and digital content that supports the flow of knowledge and transactions in markets. 

Markets Technology 

We anticipate the need to enable customer touchpoints through digitalising processes that are currently offline, and through shaping and establishing a digital ecosystem over the next 5 years, developing a clear roadmap for modernisation and standardisation whilst developing new platforms, solutions and techniques we support Informa’s digital agenda and diverse global customer needs.  

The position of Lead Business Architect is a key strategic position supporting Informa's North America Business and will report to the Head of Business Architecture for Markets, part of the Markets Technology team, and working closely with Informa's community of Business Architects. 

The Lead Business Architect is accountable for interpreting the North America Business goals and drivers and translating business strategies and objectives into an operating model for a division. This role supports the work of Technology Business Partners and Technology Leadership, alongside Lead (Technical) Architects, to identify opportunities and business benefits of strategies that benefit the North America Business differentiation, innovation, and customer experiences, helping to assess its capacity to meet its targets and objectives using value stream tools and capability map analysis. 

To be successful in this role, the Lead Business Architect requires a unique skill set of both having strategic insight and ability to describe the interrelationships between people (customer and colleagues), organisation (division or region) service, process, data, information, technology and the external environment through business capability models, but also the ability to play a leading role in Business Architecture, leading teams of Architects on projects as well as line managing the team assigned to divisional portfolios and strategy. 

The role will have shared accountability for assuring the quality of business strategy inputs and business requirements, functional design and alignment to prioritised roadmap, in partnership with Technology Solutions & Services and Markets Technology leadership and will report to the Head of Business Architecture for Markets Technology and work closely with the SVP Technology & Transformation for North America.

Key Areas of Responsibility/Accountability 

Strategy, Planning & Transformation 

Working closely with regional brand teams, the Lead Business Architect will maintain and develop an ongoing three-year Markets North America Business view of the Business Strategy and Operating Model and its applications, ensuring integration of process, organisation and technology. The role will focus on determining the best path for solving business problems / opportunities that may include process improvement and user training as well as capturing all functional and end-user requirements for North America Business technologies. In conjunction with the Technology leadership, mapping strategic priorities, demand, and roadmaps for future initiatives. Raise awareness of the Informa Technology Strategy across Informa Markets North America Business and identify opportunities to exploit strategies that will benefit differentiation, innovation, and customer experiences. Bringing knowledge of Industry and Business Architecture best practice, new products and business models, and business priorities. 

Ideation & Shaping – apply a structured business architecture approach and methodology to review, analyse and evaluate ideas, projects, new vendors and business models to develop and present business cases for approval, funding and prioritisation, leveraging strategic solutions and services to meet cost and benefit targets. Helping to improve and establish key customer capabilities to enable to deliver its virtual, hybrid and physical events, pursue new revenue models and create product offerings owns the Ideation and Shaping phase of the change lifecycle. Leads the effort to identify and document the existing and new capabilities (roadmaps etc). Provides divisional or regional leadership / guidance and oversight to support the continued alignment to Enterprise Architecture governance including requirements gathering and recording, managing requests for changes and deviations from standard strategy.  

Design & Governance – Supports projects or change initiatives through the preparation of technical plans and application of design principles. Applies and utilises business modelling methods to ensure results-oriented deliverables in a way that can be used as a corporate knowledge resource. Creating business architecture models to demonstrate how products operations and systems operate within the organisation. Defines the set of strategic, core and support processes that transcend functional and organisational boundaries, identify and describe external entities such as customers, partners and external systems that interact with the business and describe which people, resources and controls are involved in the processes. Ensures that appropriate tools and methods are available, understood and employed in solution development, ensuring relevant technical strategies, policies, standards, and practices are correctly applied.  Leads the development of business architectures within the division and ensures that appropriate analysis resources are made available to support these activities. Participating in the planning and execution of projects that move ideas from Ideation to Shaping and prototyping, works with TS&S Enterprise Architecture, to ensure that key standards and principles are understood and adhered to when evaluating new and emerging technologies, vendors, and business models. 

Key Outputs and Outcomes  

The position of Lead Business Architect is a key technical expert within the Markets Strategy & Architecture team and across the North America Business and will ensure the business continues the ambitious (and industry changing) technology roadmaps on a regional basis. 

• Participate in driving greater effectiveness of the Architecture community across Informa, including through supporting the development of the Enterprise Architecture capability.  

• Success will be measured by the region’s adoption and migration to business processes reflecting the federated operating model of the North America Business within Informa; including the analysis of acquisition integration for business processes and operating models, demonstrating opportunities for simplification and consolidation. 

• Build a strong, high functioning and trusted partnership both with the business and TS&S. 

• Deliver clearly defined business capabilities and processes and a business architecture plan for the division. 

• Experienced in a broad, enterprise-wide view of the business and varying degrees of appreciation for strategy, processes and capabilities, enabling technologies, and governance 

• The ability to assimilate and correlate disconnected documentation and drawings, and articulate their collective relevance to the organization and to high-priority business issues 

• Experience using model-based representations that can be adjusted as required to collect, aggregate or disaggregate complex and conflicting information about the business 

• The ability to visualize and create high-level models that can be used in future analysis to extend and mature the business architecture 

• Experience modelling business processes using a variety of tools and techniques 

• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to communicate appropriately at all levels of the organization; this includes written and verbal communications as well as visualizations 

• Extensive experience of working with Product owners/ Leadership to align enterprise architecture to strategic plans and commercial objectives and KPIs 

• Understating of marketing, sales, and service processes  

• Experience in data modelling and graphic representations 

This posting will automatically expire on 04/08/2024

Employee experience is very important to us. On top of joining a supportive, diverse and ambitious team that welcomes all types of candidates. We are also flexible with different working patterns and prioritise promotions internally.   

Our benefits include:  

• Freedom & flexibility: colleagues rate us highly for the flexibility and trust they receive, and we support a range of working patterns
• Great community: a welcoming culture with in-person and online social events, our fantastic Walk the World charity day and active diversity and inclusion networks
• Broader impact: take up to four days per year to volunteer, with charity match funding available too
• Career opportunity: the opportunity to develop your career with bespoke training and learning, mentoring platforms and on-demand access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning. When it’s time for the next step, we encourage and support internal job moves
• Time out: 15 days PTO rising to 20 after three years and 25 after six years, plus 10 national holidays, a birthday leave day and the chance to work from (almost) anywhere for up to four weeks a year
• Competitive benefits, including a 401k match, parental leave and an ESPP offering company shares at a minimum 15% discount
• Strong wellbeing support through EAP assistance, mental health first aiders, free access to a wellness app and more
• Recognition for great work, with global awards and kudos programs
• As an international company, the chance to collaborate with teams around the world
• The salary range for this position is $85K-$110K/YR, depending on experience

We know that sometimes the 'perfect candidate' doesn't exist, and that people can be put off applying for a job if they don't fit all the requirements. If you're excited about working for us and have most of the skills or experience we're looking for, please go ahead and apply. You could be just what we need We believe strongly in the value of diversity and creating supportive, inclusive environments where our colleagues can succeed. As such, Informa is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, national origin, religion, or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other protected characteristics under federal, state or local law. See how Informa handles your personal data when you apply for a job here.