About the job

Job summary

If you would like to find out more about the role, the Business Analysis team and what it’s like to work at DBT, we are holding a Hiring Manager Q&A session for this role where you can virtually 'meet the team' on 26th February 2024. Please click here to book your spot.

This role is available in seven UK locations and can only be worked from within the UK, not overseas. If your office location is London, you will be eligible to receive London weighting. DBT employees work in a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in the office on average. Changes to these working arrangements are available in certain circumstances but must be agreed with the vacancy manager and in line with the requirements of the role and can only be discussed with successful candidates. Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DBT, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

Find out about life at DBT, our benefits and meet the team by watching our recruitment video, visiting our website or reading our blog!

We are the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). We champion free trade, help British businesses unleash their potential, and create new investment opportunities. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) team develops and operates tools, services, and platforms such as great.gov.uk that enable the UK government to provide world leading support to businesses in the UK and overseas.

Work with us to constantly push boundaries in an environment free of heavy legacy, driven by curiosity, social purpose, diversity of thought, entrepreneurship, and the aspiration to offer an incredible experience to all our users.

We’re looking for Senior Business Analysts (BAs) to join us to shape, deliver and improve our products and services in line with the Department’s vision to champion open and fair trading that drives growth, creates better jobs and higher wages, and improves living standards in this country and round the world.

Job description

Our Senior Business Analysts identify and draw upon a variety of evidence to define, analyse and document challenging business problems and user needs. They lead on mapping how user and organisational needs align with the business architecture and fit with the service vision and business strategy.

Senior Business Analysts work across a portfolio of products, helping their teams to deliver in line with the strategy and in sync with one another.  As a Senior BA, you will be working with several teams across multiple complex, fast-moving, and innovative projects.

Your role will be to lead the business analysis and make sure product decisions are based on a sound business analysis by working closely with service owners, product and delivery teams.

We encourage our Senior Business Analysts to challenge constructively and act as a critical friend to achieve solutions that are fit for purpose, while facilitating collaboration and leading effective communication with all stakeholders to support the design, build and delivery of products and services that meet user needs.

You will support the Head of Profession to build a sustainable, diverse, and engaged Business Analyst community within DBT who work together towards a common goal and share ideas openly, establishing standards and consistency to support rapid delivery through sharing and learning from one another.

You will line manage more junior Business Analysts, providing advice and direction on their activities and supporting them to develop their skills and experience.

Responsibilities

In your day-to-day role, you will:

• Articulate business and user problems, identifying opportunities and ways to address them and providing recommendations
• Lead on the analysis of business requirements and user needs related to all aspects of the service(s) you are supporting
• Work with Service Owners, Product Managers and Delivery Managers to assess how your analysis should inform the team’s activities
• Lead on business process analysis and re-engineering where applicable and write and edit the relevant documentation
• Apply proven communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to ensure that the team’s plans and objectives are achieved
• Work as part of multi-disciplinary teams to deliver solutions and ensure they are sufficiently tested and meet business and user needs
• Contribute to an active and supportive community of practice and support the development of junior business analysts

Person specification

Essential Skills and Experience

You should be able to demonstrate essential skills and experience of:

• Agile Working: You apply agile methodology to your work and can help the team decide the best approach
• Business Analysis: You can advise on the best business analysis approaches to investigate and assess complex business problems and opportunities and inform both tactical decision making and strategic plans. You can recommend the approach to options analysis and feasibility assessment, assess business benefits and ensure proposed solutions align with business objectives, as well business and user needs
• Requirements Definition & Management: You can advise on the approach to requirements definition and management for complex change initiatives and ensure requirements traceability throughout their lifecycle. You can coordinate and review the prioritisation of requirements and engage in the negotiation of solutions to help meet business objectives and user needs
• Stakeholder Management: You can lead on communicating with stakeholders in challenging situations, clarifying needs and commitments through consultation and considering consequences while focusing on user and business needs. You can develop or apply communication strategies to build relationships, engage with stakeholders at all levels and work to resolve conflict where required
• Process Management: You can lead on modelling business processes at all levels of complexity and identify opportunities to improve business performance. You can lead the analysis, design, prioritisation and implementation of process changes, and support business process testing and usability evaluations. You can use systems analysis to support a deeper understanding of how processes and systems work, and to identify gaps
• Ways of Working: You understand the importance of Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) standards outside your discipline and can collaborate effectively with other DDaT professions within a multi-disciplinary delivery team and assess the effect of proposed solutions on users

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience of working at portfolio level or across multiple products

Personal Attributes and Skills

 The ideal candidate will be:

• Flexible, with the ability to move and work effectively across a number of services and products within the portfolio
• Adaptable to confidently engage key stakeholders from different functions from across DBT
• A critical thinker
• Proactive, in order to drive activities and identify solutions to problems

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £52,000, Department for Business and Trade contributes £14,040 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Assessment and Interview

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Technical Skills and Behaviours.

Unless otherwise specified, all interviews are currently being held online. Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

DBT sift will take place week commencing: Monday 11th March 2024

Interviews will take place week commencing: Monday 25th March 2024

Please notes these dates are indicative and may be subject to change.

As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a CV which outlines your experience, skills and fit for the role. Inspire People will assess your application against the essential criteria listed above to compile a longlist of applications, which will then be sifted by DBT. If you are progressed through at this stage, you will be asked to complete a short, pre-recorded video screening interview with Inspire People or alternately provide written answers to questions. These applications will then be sifted by DBT hiring managers. If you are successful, you will be invited to interview.

 

How you’ll be assessed

At the interview stage for this role, you will be asked to demonstrate relevant Technical Skills and Behaviours from the Success Profiles framework. A role-specific list of these can be found below. There will be a presentation as part of the interview process, details of which will be sent out beforehand.

• Agile working   
• Business analysis
• Business modelling
• Business process improvement
• Requirements definition and management
• Stakeholder relationship management 
• Systems analysis
• User experience analysis

You will also be assessed against the Behaviours of:

• Changing and Improving​
• Communicating and Influencing​
• Seeing the Big Picture​
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace​

 

Offer Stage 

Appointments may be made to candidates in merit order based on location preferences.

The salary we will offer is determined using interview performance. Scores at interview translate to proficiency levels and an associated salary. Once a successful candidate has a proficiency level and is part of the capability framework, they will be given opportunities to self-assess to progress through the pay scale within their grade during their time at DBT. For further explanation of proficiency levels and more information about DDaT click here.

Candidates who pass the bar at interview but are not the highest scoring will be held on a 12-month reserve list for future appointments. Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be offered a post at the grade below the one advertised.

Security Clearance Details

This role requires you to undergo Security Clearance. The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years. You will be asked to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK. Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.

Checks will be made against:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services record
• Location details

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.