Manager – Business Architect

Job Reference: ANT-BA-MGR-0826
Function: Business Architecture / Technology / Transformation
Industry: Telecommunications / Technology / Enterprise IT
Location: Dubai, UAE
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience: 8–12 Years
Level: Manager

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Manager – Business Architect to lead business requirements, demand shaping and scope management across large-scale technology and transformation initiatives.

The role will act as a strategic bridge between Business, Product, Operations, Technology, Delivery and external partners, translating business objectives and investment requirements into clear, structured and execution-ready requirements.

The successful candidate will bring strong expertise in business analysis, requirements management, business architecture, stakeholder management and technology delivery, with the ability to structure complex business problems into measurable outcomes and well-defined delivery scope.

Experience within telecommunications, enterprise technology, digital transformation, BSS/OSS or other large-scale technology environments will be highly advantageous.

Key Responsibilities

1. Business Requirement Discovery

• Lead structured requirement discovery sessions with Business, Product, Operations, Technology and other stakeholders.
• Understand business objectives, investment cases and strategic priorities.
• Translate high-level business requirements into clear functional and non-functional requirements.
• Challenge assumptions, ambiguity and incomplete information.
• Ensure business requirements are measurable, outcome-driven and aligned with strategic objectives.
• Facilitate workshops, interviews and requirement walkthroughs with relevant stakeholders.

2. Requirements Analysis & Documentation

• Own the development and maintenance of high-quality business requirement documentation.
• Develop and manage artefacts including:
  • Business Requirement Documents (BRDs)
  • Epics
  • Features
  • User Stories
  • Acceptance Criteria
  • Process Flows
  • Requirement Traceability Matrices
• Ensure requirements remain implementation-agnostic and focus on what the business needs rather than how technology will deliver it.
• Maintain traceability between business objectives, requirements, scope and delivery outcomes.
• Ensure requirements are sufficiently detailed for estimation, planning and execution.

3. Demand Shaping & Delivery Readiness

• Work with Project Owners and Business stakeholders to shape initiatives into delivery-ready demand.
• Assess requirements for completeness, feasibility, dependencies and business value.
• Ensure initiatives meet defined entry criteria before progressing to estimation, planning and funding approval.
• Support backlog refinement, release planning and programme/phase readiness.
• Identify gaps, dependencies, risks and unresolved decisions that could impact delivery.
• Support prioritisation of requirements based on business value, urgency, complexity and investment.

4. Scope & Change Management

• Act as a key custodian of approved business requirements and scope.
• Establish clear baseline requirements for approved initiatives.
• Assess the impact of proposed changes on scope, cost, resources, timelines and delivery capacity.
• Support formal change-control processes and governance forums.
• Ensure changes are properly documented, assessed and approved.
• Minimise unnecessary scope expansion and requirements churn during execution.

5. Stakeholder Management

• Act as a central point of accountability for requirement clarity across assigned initiatives.
• Build strong working relationships with senior Business, Product, Technology and Delivery stakeholders.
• Facilitate requirement alignment workshops and decision-making sessions.
• Resolve conflicting requirements and stakeholder expectations.
• Ensure consistent understanding of scope across internal teams, vendors and delivery partners.
• Communicate complex business and technology requirements clearly to senior stakeholders.

6. Technology & Enterprise Alignment

• Work closely with Enterprise Architecture, Solution Architecture, Technology and Engineering teams.
• Ensure business requirements align with enterprise technology strategies and architectural principles.
• Support the evaluation of solution options from a business-value and requirements perspective.
• Understand dependencies across applications, platforms, integrations and technology domains.
• Ensure requirements appropriately address functional, non-functional, security, integration, performance and operational considerations.

7. Telecom / BSS / OSS Environment

• Support business and technology initiatives across complex telecom or enterprise environments.
• Develop an understanding of BSS/OSS ecosystems, digital platforms, customer journeys and enterprise applications.
• Work across initiatives involving customer-facing platforms, enterprise systems, digital channels, operations and technology services.
• Understand dependencies between business processes, applications, data and technology platforms.
• Support transformation and modernisation initiatives across large-scale technology environments.

8. Agile & Delivery Practices

• Work effectively within Agile, Waterfall or hybrid delivery environments.
• Support backlog refinement and sprint/release planning activities.
• Provide clear requirements and acceptance criteria to delivery teams.
• Support PI Planning and programme-level planning activities where applicable.
• Participate in UAT planning, business validation and acceptance activities.
• Ensure delivered solutions remain aligned with approved business requirements.

9. Vendor & Partner Management

• Work with technology vendors, implementation partners and system integrators.
• Ensure external partners have a clear understanding of approved requirements and scope.
• Participate in requirement clarification and solution evaluation sessions.
• Monitor requirement-related risks and dependencies across multi-vendor environments.
• Support vendor deliverables and acceptance activities from a business-requirements perspective.

Key Deliverables

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring:

• Clear and complete business requirements.
• Well-defined project and programme scope.
• Delivery-ready technology demand.
• Strong requirement traceability.
• Clear acceptance criteria and business outcomes.
• Effective stakeholder alignment.
• Controlled scope and change management.
• Improved estimation and delivery predictability.
• Reduced requirement-related rework during execution.

Candidate Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Administration or a related discipline.
• 8–12 years of experience in Business Analysis, Business Architecture, Requirements Management, Product Ownership or Technology Transformation.
• Proven experience supporting large-scale technology or CapEx-funded programmes.
• Strong experience in requirements elicitation, analysis and documentation.
• Experience working with multiple business and technology stakeholders.
• Experience in large enterprise, telecommunications, technology, banking or other complex environments.
• Experience working within multi-vendor delivery environments.
• Strong understanding of Agile and Waterfall delivery methodologies.
• Experience with backlog refinement, UAT and delivery lifecycle management.
• Strong understanding of scope and change management.
• Excellent facilitation, communication and stakeholder-management skills.

Technical & Functional Skills

Strong knowledge of several of the following:

• Business Architecture
• Business Analysis
• Requirements Management
• Requirement Traceability
• Business Process Analysis
• BRD / FRD Development
• Epics & User Stories
• Acceptance Criteria
• Product Ownership
• Demand Management
• Portfolio Management
• Scope & Change Control
• Agile / Scrum
• Waterfall
• PI Planning
• UAT
• Jira
• Confluence
• Enterprise Applications
• BSS / OSS
• Digital Transformation
• Enterprise IT

Preferred Certifications

One or more of the following would be advantageous:

• CBAP / CCBA
• PMI-PBA
• PMP
• PRINCE2
• Agile / Scrum certification
• SAFe certification
• TOGAF or equivalent architecture certification

The original role specifically identifies Project Management and Agile certifications as required/preferred, while CBAP or equivalent is an advantage.

Preferred Industry Background

Candidates from the following environments are encouraged to apply:

• Telecommunications
• Technology / IT Services
• Banking & Financial Services
• FinTech
• Digital Platforms
• Technology Consulting
• Enterprise Transformation
• Systems Integration
• Large-scale Consumer Technology

Telecom experience and BSS/OSS exposure will be particularly advantageous.

Leadership & Behavioural Competencies

• Strategic and analytical thinking
• Strong business acumen
• Structured problem-solving
• Excellent stakeholder management
• Strong facilitation and influencing skills
• Attention to detail
• Strong scope discipline
• Decision-making capability
• Commercial awareness
• Collaborative leadership
• Ability to operate effectively in complex environments
• Strong written and verbal communication

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured through:

• Quality and completeness of requirements entering delivery.
• Reduction in requirement-related rework and clarification.
• Improved estimation accuracy.
• Improved delivery predictability.
• Reduced scope churn.
• Clear alignment between business objectives and delivery outcomes.
• Improved stakeholder satisfaction.
• Strong governance of approved business requirements.

These measures closely reflect the current market role definition, which emphasises stable and complete requirements, reduced rework, improved estimation accuracy, delivery predictability and business satisfaction.