Business Analyst in Sheffield

Who are we? First Rail is one of the UK's most established and forward-thinking rail operators, connecting millions of customers every year across a diverse portfolio that includes Great Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, and our open-access operators Hull Trains and Lumo. Together, we support more than 300 million passenger journeys annually, operating everything from high-speed intercity services to commuter, regional, and sleeper routes across the UK. At the heart of our operation is a relentless focus on customer experience. We are continuously evolving how we serve our customers, investing in industry-leading digital platforms and technology to deliver fast, reliable, and high-quality support at every touchpoint.

Our Customer Contact Centre plays a critical role in this journey, ensuring customer enquiries are resolved efficiently, consistently, and with care. Our delivery teams support a wide and varied range of customer services, including Delay Repay and compensation claims, complaints handling, group travel, assisted and special services, retail sales for individuals and corporate customers, as well as quality assurance and fraud prevention. This breadth of responsibility creates a dynamic, high-impact environment where technology, data, and people come together to improve outcomes for customers every day.

About the job: Reporting to the Head of IT & Applications, the Business Analyst will take responsibility for consulting with internal customers and the wider group to discover and design systems and solutions. The role will enable our customer support teams to meet their customer service targets through your expert knowledge and specialist skills. Our teams are responsible for a variety of customer support matters which range from processing customer compensation claims to complaints handling, retail sales, quality assurance and fraud analysis.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify business needs, goals, and objectives.
• Conduct research and analysis to identify trends and best practices in the industry.
• Develop and document business requirements, including functional specifications and user stories.
• Work with project teams to design and implement business solutions, including systems and processes.
• Analyse data to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities for improvement.
• Prepare reports and presentations to communicate findings and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Monitor and track project progress, identifying potential issues and risks and providing recommendations for mitigation.
• Support the testing and validation of new systems and processes to ensure they meet business requirements.
• Provide training and support to end-users to ensure successful adoption of new systems and processes.

As a minimum, you will need to have:

• A broad range of IT knowledge including infrastructure, security, and applications.
• Strong understanding of Salesforce Service Cloud ecosystem.
• Understanding of intelligent automation technologies such as chatbots and AI in the context of Customer Contact Centres.
• Sound understanding of digital landscapes.
• Understanding and mapping user journeys.
• Experience managing IT projects spanning multiple teams and business areas.
• Experience in working in an Agile environment.
• Strong written, verbal and visual communication skills.
• Writing and refining user stories, including definition of Acceptance Criteria.
• Facilitating discovery and design sessions to define requirements and the solution.
• Ability to build and maintain good client relationships.
• Strong decision making and judgement, influencing, and presentation skills.
• Any knowledge of Call Centre or Rail Industries would be advantageous.

About the location: This role is based at our modern offices in Sheffield city centre, located approximately ten minutes' walk from Sheffield Station. Hybrid working arrangements may be considered, however regular attendance at the Sheffield office will be required to support effective collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and delivery. Travel to other UK locations will be required as appropriate to support business needs.

Working pattern: 37.5 hours per week, between 0800 and 1800 Monday to Friday; some weekend working by exception. 3 days per week in the office.

The Reward: 25 days Holiday plus National Bank Holidays. Travel Offers for Bus and Rail. Payroll Giving – donate directly from your pay to a Charity of your Choice. Shopping Discounts including discounts and cashback on electrical goods, your weekly shop, holidays, cinema trips, car insurance, upgrading your mobile and lots more. All employee Share Schemes. Employee Assistance Helpline – free, confidential employee support service provided by an independent provider after 6 months of employment.

We all belong at First Customer Contact. FirstGroup's vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment. We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent. We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.