Senior Business Analyst

The role of Senior Business Analyst is to deliver a robust analysis service which meets the demands of our business and clients, working with our diverse technology solutions and cross functional development teams, no two days are the same. The role requires collaboration with our Product teams, business stakeholders and technical teams playing a key role in shaping our current and future technology and product delivery.

The successful candidate will look to become an expert in the products, be comfortable working with cloud based back-office systems and/or digital platforms within a technical and data driven landscape.

By working with the Product and Software Engineering Teams the successful candidate will help to define problems and understand challenges. You will clearly analyse, document, and manage requirements, getting buy-in from stakeholders to identify viable business solutions across the full product lifecycle.

This role will operate within one of our agile development squads and will be supporting projects and product development activities. This role will need to interact with clients and CDL teams across the business and need you to flex your analysis skills between enterprise level, project and detailed level analysis depending on the piece of work in question.

If you’re an experienced analyst with good technical understanding and like solving business problems we would love to hear from you!

About CDL
CDL is one of the UK’s leading software development houses, employing over 600 people at its campus in Stockport. It has a consistent history in the high-volume retail insurance sector. CDL has spearheaded developments in the aggregator, web and telematics space, including connected home, enrichment and self-service solutions. As a result, the company’s robust and innovative technologies have enabled its customers to thrive in the highly competitive UK insurance marketplace.

We have built a collaborative and creative culture where we employ agile techniques to deliver our pace-setting applications. We pride ourselves on cultivating an inspiring working environment with our employees at the heart of our company.

In a nutshell we are the market leading software house in our industry, creating the software, websites & apps for the Insurance & Finance sector across the UK. If you were to go on a price comparison website, approximately 65% of the companies on there are our clients!

Key Responsibilities

• Works with Product Owners to prioritise the squad backlog in line with business priorities.
• Significantly contributes to complex change; sometimes multi-person projects that cross squad boundaries including external stakeholder management.
• Research into feasibility of requests, and elicitation and gathering of requirements and produce documentation including diagrams using relevant modelling tools.
• Works with software engineering teams to shape and propose solutions to business problems.
• Leads in the design review process, seeking and providing constructive criticism.
• Breaks down complex projects or ideas into simple deliverables that can be effectively built and maintained.
• Involved in solution design including architectural and other stakeholder reviews.
• Works collaboratively with the squads to break down features into user stories and shape these into feasible solutions for delivery.
• Collaborates and contributes in agile ceremonies, facilitating where required.
• Ensures Stories meet the Squad’s agreed Definition of Ready/Done.
• Supports the Business Analysis community of practice, sharing knowledge, skills and experience to improve the Business analysis processes and deliverables.
• Serves as coach and mentor for business analysts.
• Contributes to objectives for Intermediate and Junior analysts.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

• Has an extensive analysis toolkit and knows when to apply the relevant techniques.
• Ability to formally, concisely and clearly state a problem to then help derive a solution.
• Extensive business analysis experience, preferably within an insurance environment and with a full understanding of software development processes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to facilitate workshops with colleagues at all levels.
• Understanding of what makes a good User Story - acceptance criteria, BDD, practical application of INVEST principles, ensuring the Stories meet the agreed Definition of Ready, delivering a working vertical slice.
• Experience of working in a complex technical environment undertaking systems analysis activities, modelling and design.
• Good understanding of Agile values, principles, and methodologies.
• Knowledge of JIRA or similar.
• Organised and able to work in a fast-paced environment, supporting multiple pieces of work at once.
• Ability to prioritise workload and push back where needed.
• Contribute to initiatives and continuous improvement of working practices both within the Analyst Community of Practice and software engineering team.
• Proactively demonstrates willingness to learn and increase their knowledge of CDL's family of products.

Benefits

Salary

The salary for the role of Senior Business Analyst (Level 5) pays up to £50,000p.a. providing a fantastic opportunity for career progression through CDL’s clearly defined career framework (https://progression.cdl.co.uk/).

Your growth and advancement within CDL are only limited by your own ambition and effort.

Benefits 

• Hybrid Working (2 Days a Week in the office - SK4 2HD)
• Truly flexible working.
• 25 days holiday to start, increasing by 1 day per 1 year of service up to 30 days.
• Top employer for 9th year running
• Excellent training and development platform
• Opportunities for career progression
• Health and Wellbeing programme
• Virtual activities, lunch and learns, coffee mornings and meetups.
• Life and health assurance
• Electric Vehicle Scheme
• Established Recognition Award System
• Great Parental Benefits
• Diversity and Inclusion network 
• Pension scheme
• Community projects and volunteer days 
• Refer a friend bonus 

Campus Benefits:

• On-site free parking
• Open plan modern offices
• Quiet Spaces are also available
• Shuttle bus to and from the station
• Subsidised restaurant
• Games room and chill out zone
• Annual Hackathon & Deep Racer Events
• Social activities, regular social events through our social group Xtra, including a summer BBQ, competitions, bowling, go-karting, football games, Winter party and much more!
• Car wash, barber, yoga classes, boot camp and massage services all on site
• Cycle to work scheme
• Shower and dry rooms

Diversity and inclusion
We’re on a journey to keep innovating, that means welcoming new ideas and ways of thinking.

CDL recognises that building a diverse workforce is critical to the success of our business. We strongly encourage applications from a diverse talent pool and  welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility requirements and workplace  adjustments with all our applicants.

About CDL Software

The UKs biggest insurance retailers rely on CDLs trend setting solutions to drive success and growth. Our ambition and commitment has produced a track record of delivering exactly that. The result is a client base that includes some of the most profitable insurance operations in the UK.