How Devop.One Helped British American Tobacco (BAT) to Hire Incredible Enterprise Architect

BAT (British American Tobacco) is the leading, multi-category consumer goods business with a clear goal to reduce health impact and provide less risky but enjoyable products to global consumers. BAT was founded in 1902 and with over one century of experience, their purpose has remained unchanged – to build a better tomorrow.

When a company with a successful and remarkable history and with over 50 thousand dedicated employees announced that they are searching for someone that will “shape the future”, we decided it’s time for us to step in the ring.

Being the leading goods company and having authoritative goals makes the process of finding A class, perfectly fitting employees ten times harder. We can't say it didn't feel like a challenge, but we were ready to dig deep enough, find that top 1% talent in the world and provide him a lifetime opportunity!

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Not many available Enterprise Architects

It's June 2021 and BAT is announcing that they need an experienced and responsible person to fulfill the Enterprise Architect position. When we say “experienced”, we mean 5+ years of experience working in a large global organization as a senior architect within a global function. Sounds reasonable, right?

The problem lies in the fact that those highly experienced and educated talents already found their spots in other big companies and corporates, which makes the question for Enterprise Architect even harder.

‍“We had massive problems finding a qualified and promising person that will fit in with our incredible team and be able to handle the responsibility that this position carries. There was an urgency to fill out this position, but all attempts failed miserably”.

Must say that we, at Devop.One love challenges and finding 1% talent for BAT has really stepped up our game, which we are grateful for. Soon after BAT opened the Enterprise Architect position in June, we decided to send the pitch and explain our ways of approaching the difficulties they have faced while searching for their ideal employee.

A few days later, the call with BAT was scheduled and we were ready to give our best and win their trust!

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High requirements and ultra-responsible position

Sometimes, small businesses are struggling to find the right salesperson, a person that will meet their expectations and fit into their small but dedicated team. Now, imagine being on the market for over 100 years, having 50 thousand employees, and developing prime ideas into reality. There has to be a lot at stake.

Businesses with a history like BAT are having major difficulties finding that one A-class expert that will take the responsibility and embrace all opportunities that working in a surrounding like BAT’s brings.

Here is what BAT was looking for in the talent (only the important ones):

• At least 5 years experience working in a large global organization as a senior architect within a global function
• Awareness of emerging technologies that BAT should be interested in to evolve its current landscape. Areas include: DevSecOps, AI/ML, API, Automation, IoT, 5g
• Enterprise Architecture including good knowledge of TOGAF and strong skills in architecture modeling techniques like business and technology capability modeling, maturity modeling, change readiness assessments, impact assessments, etc.
• Modern Application Development approaches (SAFe preferred) and tools (Azure DevOps preferred)
• Good working knowledge of ITIL

And so on.

Once we got all requirements, we finalized a clear picture of how difficult it is going to be to dig that 1% of experts that will fit into the dynamic and challenging environment of BAT. To be completely honest, it didn’t happen overnight.

“Since many attempts of finding the right Enterprise Architect have already failed, we decided to go with Devop.One as their strategies and experience in finding top 1% talent in the world seemed very promising. After talking with their team, we finally started feeling hopeful that this expert hunt will be successfully finished soon. And we were right.”

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Problem solving at Devop.One

We started digging right after we finished the call with BAT. Platforms like Upwork or Linkedin couldn’t do the job, especially because BAT’s team already tried those tactics, so we ruled them out.

We knew that many experts with those qualifications and experience are already employed and most of them would not be willing to change the company – they already got adapted to the environment and the team and they got familiar with the target marketplace and the company’s goals.

The only way to approach this “hunting” was to search the internal groups and find those “hidden gems” that are being employed in smaller companies but have great potential, qualifications, and will to challenge their boundaries. We searched for people with amazing recommendations and mesmerizing portfolios since we knew that BAT is not willing to make compromises.

Being a part of closed communities and having our own candidate pool plays a huge role in us being connected to industry experts as those people usually tend to leave freelance platforms and social media behind.

It took us only 2 weeks to find the right candidates that fulfilled the long requirements list for Enterprise Architect, interview them and choose the best ones. In the end – BAT finally had the ideal expert for their business.

“We knew that finding the talent with all listed qualifications will be a tough task to complete since we couldn’t do it ourselves. That’s why we made no pressure on Devop.One and gave them the needed time to do their magic and find the right person for us. They did a great job. The talent they delivered was on the top of his game and he was able to start working almost immediately.

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Devop.One secret that keeps us on the top of the game

Every expert hunting takes time, effort, and brainstorming. You can spend two months looking for a perfect fit for your team but if you are looking in the wrong places, two years will not be enough.

Top-class experts are not going to show up around every corner, and in most cases, they are not going to apply to your Linkedin job opening. Why? Because they already have tons of offers.

That’s why we turned our search towards private groups and communities, forums, and blogs where 1% of experts spend their free time and a two weeks haunt has paid off.

Our job here was successfully finished.

“We were more than satisfied with the incredible talent that Devop.One has been delivered to us. After a few job interviews, he was fully ready to meet the rest of the team and start his new life path with us. We are thankful for their great team and they have our best recommendation”.

Must say we are proud that we got a chance to work with one of the leading global companies that have a century of history and a bright future ahead of them.

So, if you are looking for your 1% talent that will shape the future alongside your team, Devop.One has your back, reach out to us now!

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