Senior Business Analyst in Manchester

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. You will build strong relationships with client stakeholders, understanding their needs and translating them into clear, actionable requirements. You will also ensure 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 to client sites in Newcastle, Manchester or Leeds.
• Attendance at these sites is a routine part of the role's working pattern and involves frequent local travel; travel expenses are not covered.
• Applicants must either currently hold active Security Check (SC) Clearance or be eligible to obtain it. Eligibility typically requires UK citizenship and continuous residence in the UK for the past five years, with no single absence exceeding 28 consecutive days.

To succeed in this role, you will 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, and validate 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.
• Have worked on major transformation programmes and/or across multiple project workstreams.
• Line manage, coach or mentor junior business analysts, supporting their development and delegating work effectively.
• Build meaningful, long-term relationships with senior client and third-party stakeholders, managing competing interests and priorities.

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.
• Support other team members to help them overcome their own challenges, providing coaching and/or mentoring support.
• Proactively pursue feedback to improve your own work and behaviours and drive a culture of continuous improvement in your team.
• Contribute to the commercial needs of Opencast, including supporting new business pursuits with business analysis knowledge.

Consultant salary range: £60,000 - £65,000 per annum.

What we offer:

• A competitive package including a 7% employer pension contribution, share options and a discretionary bonus.
• Flexible working hours (aligned to client commitments), 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.

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

We welcome candidates from all identities, attributes, ways of thinking and backgrounds to thrive in a career at Opencast. Our aim is for the diversity of our people to be reflected in the solutions we deliver, to help create a fairer society for all.

Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. We are happy to make adjustments to support your needs.

Want to know more? Visit our website or email careers@opencastsoftware.com