Business Analyst - Consultant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Location: Hybrid - Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester

Commitment: Permanent - Employee

Want to solve impactful problems? Are you looking to make a positive impact in your work? Do you want to work in an environment where you can grow, while solving problems to help improve government, healthcare and private sector services? If so, Opencast could be the place for you. We're a growing technology consultancy that creates user-centred solutions with purpose.

The role involves:

• Collaborating in multi-disciplinary teams with product managers, software developers, user researchers, designers and other specialists to tackle interesting problems and deliver meaningful solutions for clients.
• Building strong relationships with client stakeholders, understanding their needs and translating them into clear, actionable requirements.
• Ensuring that all work meets Opencast's high standards, including quality, environmental and information security policies, as well as any applicable client requirements and standards.

Requirements:

• This role involves weekly on-site working. Applicants should be able to travel, as part of their daily commute, to client sites in one of the following locations: Newcastle, Leeds or Manchester.
• We are looking for people who value in-person collaboration, enjoy building strong relationships, and are passionate about delivering solutions that make a real difference for our clients.
• Due to the nature of this role, you must either hold active Security Check (SC) clearance or be eligible and willing to undergo the clearance process.
• Typically, applicants must have UK citizenship and have lived continuously in the UK for at least the past five years, with no single absence exceeding 28 consecutive days.

To succeed in this role, you'll have experience as a Business Analyst and be able to demonstrate, with tangible examples, that you can:

• Apply business analysis techniques (e.g. SWOT, 5 Whys) to understand business context, processes, and systems; analyse root causes, define problems, evaluate options, and make recommendations aligned with strategic goals.
• Elicit, analyse, validate and prioritise business and user requirements, using techniques such as BPMN process flows, wireframing and data analysis.
• Define epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria and non-functional requirements; maintain traceability and facilitate prioritisation.
• Use business modelling, process improvement and digital/data systems analysis to represent organisations, processes, relationships, and systems; identify gaps, recommend improvements, and support implementation and validation.
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships and cross-functional teams, communicating clearly, reaching consensus and adapting messages to different audiences.
• Analyse and prioritise user experience needs, presenting insights in an accessible, data-informed way.
• Support testing by defining business scenarios and acceptance criteria, reviewing prototypes, test plans and outcomes to ensure solutions meet requirements.
• Deliver to the highest quality, adhering to recognised industry standards and frameworks (e.g. GOV.UK Service Standards), in large and complex organisations.
• Work collaboratively in multidisciplinary Agile teams, validating process and system improvements and delivering project objectives effectively.
• Present complex information in a way that is easy to understand, engaging both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

With a significant proportion of our client base in the public sector, we are particularly interested in candidates with experience working in central or local government and/or the NHS. Experience working to the GOV.UK Service Standards, including passing service standard assessments at different stages is highly desirable.

Essential consulting skills:

• Contribute to improving ways of working and driving continuous improvements within your teams.
• Share knowledge and best practice with fellow business analysts and other disciplines, including proactively engaging in client and Opencast communities of practice.
• Positively challenge decisions or solutions you don’t agree with, striving for the best client outcomes.
• Create lasting value in the projects you work on, ensuring a user-centric, sustainable approach.
• Engage with Opencast in a meaningful way, supporting the growth of your practice and wider capability.
• Support Opencast's growth plans, by providing case studies and updates into the relevant forums of your project work.

What we offer:

• A competitive package including a 7% employer pension contribution, share options, and a discretionary bonus.
• 25 days' holiday and access to 3 annual "life happens" days to support unexpected situations.
• Wellbeing support, ongoing professional development, volunteering opportunities, and the chance to be part of a genuinely supportive team.

Where you'll work:

This role requires regular on-site attendance at our HQ, hub offices, and client sites, as well as the ability to work from home. Applicants must be able to travel to offices and client sites across the UK as part of their normal working arrangements, as travel is essential for fulfilling the responsibilities of the role.

We welcome candidates from all identities, attributes, ways of thinking and backgrounds to thrive in a career at Op.