Senior Business Analyst

Location: National

Closing Date: 11th September 2026

Interviews: Week Commencing the 14th of September

Grade: Grade 7

Salary: London: £63,343 – £70,725 (May Include an allowance of £332) National: £58,511 – £65,329

Working pattern: Full-time, part-time, flexible working (Minimum 28-30 hours over 4 days)

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 20

Vacancy number: 21446

We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office.

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU.

Multiple vacancies are available across Justice Digital, Data & Science. Candidates who are not successful at the advertised grade may be offered an opportunity at SEO grade, subject to suitability and vacancy availability.

The Role

This role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Applicants must normally have been resident in the UK for at least the past five years to be eligible for SC clearance.

We’re recruiting for Senior Business Analysts here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Probation Digital, Prisons Digital, Digital Infrastructure and Security Operations and the Legal Aid Agency Digital.

This role aligns against Senior Business Analyst from the Government Digital and Data Framework.

At JDDS, we're looking for exceptional Senior Business Analysts to help solve some of the most complex and meaningful challenges in government. Our Business Analysts work at the heart of multidisciplinary teams, bringing together user needs, business priorities, operational realities, policy objectives and technology opportunities to create services that improve outcomes for millions of people across the justice system.

You might be leading discovery work on a critical service transformation, shaping strategic investment decisions, helping teams navigate ambiguity, or coaching others to grow their business analysis capability.

Every day is different, but the common thread is helping key stakeholders understand problems, identify opportunities, make evidence-based decisions and deliver meaningful change.

This reflects the role's emphasis on leading complex projects, understanding strategic contexts and developing others.

We're looking for experienced Senior Business Analysts who can demonstrate proficiency across most skills described within the Government Digital and Data capability framework and can operate confidently across complex business, service and delivery environments.

You will have experience of developing best practice, mentoring others to develop knowledge, confidence and skills, as well as actively contributing to community of practice activities.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours, designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

Key Responsibilities:

• Determine and agree the business analysis approach within multidisciplinary teams, adapting it to the team’s delivery methodology.
• Define and agree the scope of analysis activity, negotiate delivery priorities with colleagues and stakeholders, and communicate the value of iterative delivery and realising benefits early.
• Lead the approach to understanding complex problems and opportunities, their context and root causes.
• Set goals for analysis work that align with organisational strategy, lead the development and evaluation of multiple options, and advocate for evidence-based recommendations to gain stakeholder support.
• Champion the value of business analysis across services, the wider business area and the Business Analysis community, promoting consistent practice and shared learning.
• Own and build trusted relationships with stakeholders at all levels, influencing decisions, resolving issues and developing shared understanding.
• Work across organisational boundaries to align analysis and delivery activity with wider strategic objectives.
• Lead the elicitation, analysis, validation and prioritisation of complex business and user needs, negotiating and resolving conflicts.
• Define and assure appropriate artefacts, including problem statements, epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria and non-functional requirements—and ensure needs remain traceable to strategic objectives and intended outcomes.
• Guide the selection and consistent use of appropriate business modelling techniques.
• Lead the creation of models and artefacts representing complex services, problem spaces, business domains, processes, information, system interactions and end-to-end journeys, using modelling outcomes to support strategic decision-making.
• Lead the analysis and evaluation of business processes to define business performance problems and opportunities, including required activities to design, implement, test and assess process improvements.
• Lead analysis of functionality that services and systems currently deliver or need to deliver.
• Create, and support others to create, system and data models and documentation; assess the effects of proposed changes; and work with multidisciplinary teams to identify gaps in functionality and user experience.
• Advise on the analysis, prioritisation and validation of user experience needs.
• Recommend appropriate techniques and communicate how user experience needs affect the design of systems and services.
• Recommend the value of testing and advise teams on relevant tools and techniques to ensure test validity.
• Advise on business scenarios and acceptance criteria, review prototypes, test plans and test outcome reporting to provide assurance that changes meet agreed business and user needs.
• Contribute to the definition of success measures and support the monitoring of outcomes, performance and benefits throughout the service lifecycle.
• Assess how proposed services and changes fit within the existing business and operational context, identifying the business changes and transition activities needed to support successful implementation.
• Mentor other Business Analysts, contribute to the development of business analysis best practice and manage community-of-practice activities within the business area.
• Undertake functional or line-management responsibilities and contribute to recruitment, performance assessment and professional development.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential Technical Criteria

• Adapting to Delivery methodologies: You can determine the business analysis approach within your team’s delivery methodology, define and agree the scope of analysis activity, negotiate delivery priorities and communicate the value of iterative delivery and realising benefits early.
• Context, problem and option analysis: You can lead the approach to understanding complex problems, their context and root causes. You can set goals aligned with organisational strategy, lead the development and evaluation of multiple options, and advocate for evidence-based recommendations to gain stakeholder support.
• Business modelling: You can guide the selection and consistent use of appropriate business modelling techniques, create models representing complex or large-scale situations and use modelling outcomes to support strategic decision-making.
• Business process improvement: You can lead process analysis and evaluation to identify business performance problems and opportunities, and support the design, testing, implementation and assessment of process improvements.
• Defining and managing business needs, user needs and requirements: You can lead the elicitation, analysis, validation and prioritisation of complex business and user needs, negotiate and resolve conflicts, assure appropriate requirements artefacts and ensure needs remain traceable to strategic objectives and intended outcomes.
• Digital and data systems analysis: You can lead the analysis of existing and required system functionality, create and support others to create system and data models, assess the effects of proposed changes and identify gaps in functionality and user experience.
• Stakeholder relationship management: You can build long-term strategic relationships, influence stakeholders, resolve issues and work with multidisciplinary teams to develop shared understanding and effective stakeholder communication.

Experience Criteria

• Previous experience as a Business Analyst: Experience delivering large-scale digital or technology-enabled change within complex organisations, navigating multiple policies, processes and stakeholder requirements to achieve successful outcomes.
• Identifying capability and development needs in yourself and others: Creating a safe space and opportunities for your Business Analysts to develop through various approaches, including mentoring or coaching and contributing to the development of business analysis.
• Leading business analysis in complex environment: Working with ambiguity, incomplete evidence, conflicting needs and complex organisational constraints.
• Working with a range of stakeholders beyond own team, organisational or service boundaries: Ensure that everyone is aligned and working to a common goal, using experience in communicating and influencing to manage conflicts and challenging situations.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

Salary Information: Base salary for this role is from London: £63,343 – £70,725 & National: £58,511 – £65,329.

How to Apply: In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience and Technical skills during the assessment process.