Lead Business Analyst -Automation & Innovation - Home Office - Grade 7

Location

Croydon, Manchester, Sheffield.

About the Job

As Lead Business Analyst, you’ll play a key role in this multi‑disciplinary team, shaping our early project lifecycle and benefits approach. The team identifies new opportunities, defines and delivers benefits across the project lifecycle and establishing a long‑term, sustainable automation and AI function for the department.

You’ll develop tools and processes to support feasibility assessments, manage and track financial benefits throughout delivery, and ensure benefits are realised once solutions go live. You’ll also help build wider understanding of benefits management and create resources that support business leads outside technology when assessing changes to ways of working.

A self‑starter, you’ll be confident managing a diverse range of stakeholders and leading the triage and benefits journey end to end.

Job Summary

A Lead Business Analyst will have a good understanding of strategic arenas, leading large/complex projects. Strong people management, mentoring and coaching skills.

Able to develop best practice and assist with communities of practice. Ensuring outcomes are aligned to service vision/ business strategy by connecting the current/future business models whilst delivering future business architecture strategy. Support and inform iteration, evolution and optimisation.

Strong stakeholder management skills, forming strategic relationships with senior stakeholders. Challenge constructively, acting as a critical voice to stakeholders and delivery colleagues to achieve outcomes. Lead effective communications to support design, build and delivery teams which meet user needs and business objectives. 

Person Specification 

Main Responsibilities

• Developing a specialist area and delivering coaching and mentoring to staff within this area to develop their Business Analysis and professional skillset, confidence and strategic thinking. Overseeing the work of other business analysts to ensure work is focused on the right solution to deliver business value.
• Understanding and defining the problem to be solved and ensuring strategic decision-making supports business outcomes as well as user needs.
• Planning and leading significant areas of Business Analysis delivery, leading the challenge and driving through to conclusions.
• Defining, planning and leading Business Analysis delivery on significant assignments. This will include providing recommendation and rationale to programme/project leads to critically shape project scope and to the Principal Business Analyst to accurately and dynamically inform resource planning across the Profession.
• Advising the business around which metrics to put in place to ensure the product is adding business value and to identify service improvement opportunities.
• Modelling complex processes/procedures using established techniques with understanding of their purpose and importance.
• Working with the Head of Role to develop and embed clear and consistent Business Analysis standards, guidance and templates across the Profession.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis. However, compressed hours are available. 

Essential Skills 

• Building strong, strategic relationships with the ability to understand, empathise, negotiate and influence individuals and groups.
• Strategic thinking skills with the ability to turn longer term goals and business outcomes into strategic and tactical solutions as required.
• Guiding your team to decide the best approach, helping them to visualise outcomes, prioritise work and agree minimum viable product.
• Eliciting requirements and needs and leading investigations and implementations of changes to programme scope.
• Recent experience of working in the delivery of technology.
• Collaborating with user researchers and championing user research to focus on all users. Defining approaches to understand the user story.