Lead Business Architect - North America

Company Description

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.  

Job Description

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 <insert business division> 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 Ente