Job Description:

We are looking for an experienced Data Business Analyst to lead a team of Business Analysts and drive business analysis, data analysis, requirements management, and solution definition across business and technology initiatives. The role will work closely with business stakeholders, data teams, architects, developers, and downstream consumers to understand business needs, assess data impacts, and deliver effective solutions.

The successful candidate will support projects and initiatives across the UK and European businesses, covering new and existing products and functionality throughout the full project lifecycle. Strong relationship management and communication skills will be essential to ensure effective collaboration with business and technology stakeholders and maintain a high level of service to clients.

Key Responsibilities:

- Lead and mentor a team of Business Analysts, providing direction, guidance, and support across multiple projects and initiatives.

- Own and drive business and data analysis activities from requirements gathering through solution delivery.

- Work closely with business stakeholders to understand customer and business problems and translate them into clear requirements and actionable solutions.

- Act as a data owner/business data SME, understanding the end-to-end journey of data from both business and technical perspectives.

- Analyze the impact of upstream system or data changes and communicate potential downstream impacts to relevant stakeholders.

- Perform detailed data analysis using SQL to validate requirements, investigate data issues, identify trends, and support business decisions.

- Develop and maintain data dictionaries, data catalogues, data mappings, and business definitions.

- Document and analyze business processes, particularly processes and functionality associated with Transfer Agency operations.

- Lead business process analysis, gap analysis, process re-engineering, and requirement definition activities.

- Create data mappings across different data, reporting, and downstream platforms.

- Gather, analyze, and document functional and non-functional requirements throughout the project lifecycle.

- Prepare high-quality Functional Specification Documents (FSDs), Solution Design Specifications (SDS), System Requirement Specifications (SRS/SRA), user stories, and other SDLC artefacts.

- Work closely with Solution Architects and development teams to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions.

- Support the creation and review of solution designs, ensuring that business requirements and data impacts are appropriately addressed.

- Define and document API contracts using Swagger/OpenAPI in collaboration with technical teams.

- Manage product backlogs by ensuring requirements are clearly documented, prioritized, refined, and understood by delivery teams.

- Identify requirement gaps, dependencies, risks, and impacts and drive discussions with stakeholders to reach timely decisions.

- Ensure the BA team and downstream stakeholders understand the business and data impact of proposed changes.

- Coordinate with stakeholders across different geographies, including business, technology, data, architecture, and external teams.

- Support projects through the complete lifecycle, including requirements, analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, and post-production support.

- Facilitate workshops, requirement discussions, solution walkthroughs, and stakeholder meetings.

- Provide guidance to technical teams by translating complex business requirements into clear and actionable specifications.

- Support Agile delivery through user stories, acceptance criteria, backlog refinement, sprint planning, and other Agile ceremonies.

- Ensure appropriate documentation, traceability, and governance of requirements and solution decisions.

- Build strong relationships with business stakeholders and ensure solutions remain aligned with business objectives and customer needs.

Required Skills & Experience:

- 6 - 9 years of overall experience in Business Analysis, Data Analysis, or a related role, preferably within data-intensive environments.

- Demonstrated experience leading or managing a team of Business Analysts.

- Strong hands-on experience with SQL and in-depth data analysis.

- Strong understanding of data modelling, relational databases, data flows, data mappings, and data lineage.

- Experience creating and maintaining data dictionaries, data catalogues, and data mappings.

- Strong experience in business requirement gathering, process analysis, gap analysis, and business process re-engineering.

- Experience preparing FSDs, SDS/SRS/SRA documents, user stories, and other SDLC artefacts.

- Experience working closely with Solution Architects, developers, data teams, and other technical stakeholders.

- Experience defining or documenting API contracts using Swagger/OpenAPI.

- Strong understanding of Agile methodologies and Agile requirements artefacts.

- Experience managing requirements and working with product backlogs.

- Proven ability to analyze the impact of upstream changes and communicate downstream data and system impacts.

- Experience working with multiple stakeholders across different geographies.

- Strong stakeholder management, facilitation, presentation, documentation, and communication skills.

- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with the confidence to challenge requirements and drive decisions.

- Ability to translate complex business requirements into clear technical requirements for development teams.

- Strong customer awareness and business focus with a delivery- and results-oriented approach.

Good to Have:

- Experience in Transfer Agency, Asset Management, Financial Services, or related domains.

- Knowledge of e-Business, e-Commerce, and Internet technologies.

- Experience with UML, Enterprise Architect (EA), Rational Rose, or similar business modelling tools.

- Experience working with data and reporting platforms in enterprise environments.

- Exposure to modern API, integration, and data architecture practices.

- Experience working with globally distributed teams and international stakeholders.