Regional Manager, Automation Business Partner  

Position Responsibilities

The Senior Automation Business Partner (ABP) owns the end-to-end ABP portfolio—from pain-point intake and process diagnosis through solution recommendation, build handoff, implementation and adoption. The role serves as a trusted technical and transformation advisor to department heads, objectively assessing process changes, tools, vendors and technology options. It also leads delivery governance to ensure each initiative is properly assessed, communicated, documented and tracked to completion.

Consulting and Advisory
  • Serve as the primary automation consultant to department heads, translating business pain points into clearly defined problems and solution options.
  • Lead structured process studies to identify root causes, quantify effort and size business opportunities.
  • Recommend quick-win and structural solutions with clear trade-offs, costs, risks and timelines.
  • Evaluate build-versus-buy options, tools and vendors objectively, and present recommendations to senior leadership.
Delivery and Portfolio Management
  • Own the ABP intake pipeline, including triage, prioritisation, capacity planning and engagement scheduling.
  • Manage handoffs to Tech squads and remain accountable until solutions are live, adopted and delivering the intended outcome.
  • Plan and track initiatives with clear milestones, owners, dependencies, risks and executive-level status reporting.
  • Maintain dashboards showing pipeline health, cycle time, adoption and measurable business impact.
Governance and Risk
  • Establish delivery governance for automations affecting production systems, including risk assessments, rollback plans and change communications.
  • Represent ABP in change advisory processes and ensure compliance with internal controls and audit requirements.
  • Maintain the single source of truth for active automations, ownership, dependencies and operational status.
Vendor and Stakeholder Management
  • Manage vendors, implementation partners, contracts, SLAs and escalations across ABP initiatives.
  • Build trusted relationships with department heads so ABP becomes the first point of consultation for process and tooling challenges.
Team Leadership
  • Coach Automation Business Analysts and enablement staff.
  • Set quality standards for process maps, requirements, documentation, testing and business handover.
  • Develop ABP playbooks, operating standards and scalable regional ways of working.
Success Measure
  • Measurable time and cost savings across partner departments.
  • A governed pipeline from intake through implementation and closure.
  • No dropped handoffs between ABP, Tech, business teams and vendors.
  • Every rollout supported by risk assessment, rollback planning and clear communication.
  • Strong adoption and sustained business ownership after go-live.
  • Department heads recognise ABP as a trusted advisor rather than a ticket queue.

Qualification and Experience

  • More than 5 years of experience in technology or management consulting, IT service delivery, transformation or technology project management.
  • Regional or multi-country delivery exposure.
  • Proven ability to advise senior stakeholders and influence C-level decisions.
  • Demonstrated end-to-end delivery of cross-functional initiatives involving business teams, vendors and engineers.
  • Strong grounding in incident, change and escalation management; ITIL or equivalent is advantageous.
  • Hands-on ability to prototype or interrogate solutions using scripting, SQL, dashboards or low-code platforms.
  • Excellent executive communication, documentation and knowledge-management skills.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computing, Engineering, Business or a related discipline.
  • Demonstrated experience managing end-to-end project and product lifecycles, from discovery and business-case development through prioritisation, delivery, launch, adoption and benefits realisation.
  • Strong understanding of product management principles, including roadmap planning, backlog prioritisation, user discovery, outcome definition and product performance measurement.
  • Proven ability to manage complex portfolios involving multiple business owners, delivery teams, vendors, dependencies, budgets, risks and competing priorities.
  • Practical experience working in Agile delivery environments and collaborating with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, business stakeholders and multidisciplinary technology teams.
  • Working knowledge of Scrum and Kanban, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives and incremental delivery.
  • Ability to select and apply suitable delivery approaches—Agile, Waterfall or hybrid—based on project complexity, risk, governance requirements and desired outcomes.
  • Experience defining measurable project and product outcomes, including adoption, operational impact, customer value and benefits realisation.
Core Competencies
  • Consultative problem-solving and root-cause analysis.
  • Executive presence and stakeholder management.
  • Delivery discipline, ownership and follow-through.
  • Commercial judgement in vendor and tooling decisions.
  • Risk management and governance.
  • People leadership and capability development.
a Necessity, not a Luxury