Business Analyst - Solution Owner

Job content

Company overview

Our client is a global group of life-saving technology companies. Named one of Britain’s Most Admired Companies in 2019, they provide innovative solutions to many of the key problems facing the world today.

The purpose is to grow a safer, cleaner, healthier future for everyone, every day.

The purpose drives every business decision they make, and ensures they are working towards it every day. It defines the three broad market areas where they operate:

• Safety: protecting life as populations grow and urbanise, and protecting the lives of workers.
• Environment: improving food and water quality, and monitoring air pollution.
• Health: meeting rising healthcare demand as growing populations age and lifestyles change.

Context

The company is one of the top-performing businesses in the FTSE index, comprising over 40 individual operating companies, operating in over 20 countries, and with a combined total of over 6000 employees worldwide.

Recognizing the importance of creating digital business models to sustain the growth, they are implementing a new group-wide IT strategy intended to facilitate future value creation through the increased adoption of both operational and strategic technology. The scope of the technology initiatives within this strategy span Enterprise and Business Application Architecture; Data and Analytics; Digital and IoT Platforms; and Core IT Infrastructure.

They are in the early stages of devising and launching these initiatives, which requires them to build out a new team of technology experts and architects to define solutions across the initiatives, and to then facilitate the successful build and adoption at both the company group level and across the individual companies that form the group. To achieve this they will require intelligent, articulate, consultative professionals who fit the culture and can operate in the company’s autonomous and decentralised model.

Summary

In support of the various company technology initiatives, the Business Analyst (BA) / Solution Owner (SO) will be instrumental in identifying and driving the definition of the solutions required to deliver on those initiatives across the business HQ and the individual companies. They will also be responsible for the subsequent stewardship of the resulting solutions. The BA / SO will be the subject matter expert for those solutions, from both a functional and technical perspective. This is a hands-on role with significant growth potential into delivery management and / or architecture leadership positions.

Role Responsibilities

• Solution Ownership
• Operate as the global subject matter expert for one or more application solution(s), owning and managing the solution scope and the configuration/customisation across the suite for the solution.
• Identify and document requirements for different capabilities and features, prioritizing based on stakeholder input
• Stay current with underlying vendor roadmap updates and assist our client and its subsidiaries in adopting the latest features for optimal value
• Create and maintain reference business processes that can be adopted by the broader user community
• Identify functional and technical opportunities / constraints for different solution options
• Define best practice solution configuration and adoption guidelines and policies
• Consult with solution stakeholders to advise on solution adoption and usage
• Actively maintain solution configurations in support of evolving requirements

• Business Analysis
• Create detailed problem and opportunity statements for a broad range of functional and technical topics
• Define functional and technical scope for various solution areas
• Capture and articulate business, detailed functional, and non-functional requirements from multiple stakeholder communities
• Create use cases/user stories and prepare test cases
• Demonstrate use cases/user stories to show how a target solution platform may be implemented, and the benefits it will bring through adoption
• Support system and user acceptance testing
• Create business process documentation and recommendations
• Support business change programmes and training activities
• Engage with suppliers and integration partners as part of all the above

Profile Attributes

Operational Excellence - Previous experience in an Application Specialist / Business Analysis role. Must be comfortable with working across multiple complex work streams simultaneously.

Entrepreneurial “can-do approach” – Will be determined, creative, and resilient, with a ferocious work ethic. Will be highly resourceful and pragmatic and find a way to get to the right answer. Will be comfortable operating in an entrepreneurial, high-growth investment environment.

Commercial, analytic & strategic – Will have demonstrated previous success in working with internal and external stakeholders and suppliers. Will have superb communication and negotiation skills with an analytical mindset, with exceptional clarity of thought and problem solving capabilities. Will adopt a hands-on approach, and be close to the detail, as needed.

Cultural fit – Will be non-political, energetic, hungry, smart, organised, collaborative, transparent, down-to-earth, highly motivated, and entrepreneurial. Have high integrity, passionate, accountable, disciplined, detailed, a problem-solver, results-focused and a ‘can do’ attitude. Critically, must be empathic and intuitive with a strong level of people skills and the ability to build strong relationships of trust at every level within the organisation. Must be a pragmatic, low-ego team-player with a high degree of emotional intelligence.

Business and Technical Experience Required

• Strong functional knowledge and understanding of business applications and technology solutions, for areas such as Finance, HR, Sales, CRM, eCommerce, etc, ideally for manufacturing companies.
• A minimum of 4 years hands-on proven functional experience in configuration, standard customisation, standard workflows, dashboards, forms, views, and standard reports development.
• A minimum of 4 years as of strong business analysis skills
• Experience in a delivery-orientated technology environment, using the agile methodology.
• Experience of Dev Ops preferred
• A proven track record of successful implementation of a number of solutions within large client companies.

Location

The office headquarters are located in Amersham in Buckinghamshire. They operate a flexible working environment so the expectations are that there will be a mixture of working in the office, traveling, and home working.

Cultural Genes

These are the unique cultural and behavioural principles that they require, protect and leverage to effectively optimise the organisational genes and deliver its purpose.

Live the purpose

Be passionate about making the world safer, cleaner, and healthier. See real problems and create innovative solutions.

Embrace the adventure

Continually grow and change, as individuals and collectively. Challenge assumptions and see opportunities. Seek insight from all directions and leverage diverse points of view.

Be an entrepreneur

Be an owner, risk-taker, visionary. Transform bold ambitions into reality. Be agile and responsive in the face of constant change. Be successful through and with others.

Say Yes, and...

Be comfortable with paradox. Choose Yes, and... to seemingly conflicting priorities. Build for tomorrow and deliver today. Have stability and constantly evolve. Enjoy autonomy and eagerly collaborate.

Just be a good person

Play to win, but not at the expense of others. Operate with impeccable ethics, transparency and integrity in all that you do.

Our client suits people who are passionate about sustainability and the world around them.

Diversity

This company is an equal opportunity employer and achieving diversity is a priority for us. They actively seek to balance gender and ethnicity in the workforce.