Senior Technical Business Analyst in Southampton

We are an alternative financial lender looking for a Senior Technical Business Analyst to join our team. We have an established internal lending platform that is now also used by third parties. The system is actively growing and there is plenty of work to do - there are still many traditional finance processes to rethink, and leadership is supportive of technology-led change. You will be delivering value to colleagues you work with directly, which means quick feedback and visible impact. The culture is open, low on politics, and the people are smart and easy to work with.

The core of this role is ensuring developers understand what they are building and why. You will work with business requirement owners to understand their problems, challenge their assumptions, and turn their needs into clear specifications. You will then stay involved throughout development - answering questions, clarifying requirements, and resolving issues as they come up. This means daily interaction with the development team, not handing over documents and moving on. You will run 3 amigos sessions, review API specs, write SQL queries, and work with the Tech Lead to understand technical constraints. This is a senior individual contributor role. You will have autonomy in how you work and influence over what gets delivered, but the backlog is owned by the Technical Director. There is no team to manage and no path into management. If career progression into leadership is important to you, this is probably not the right role.

This is a remote role with approximately monthly visits to one of our offices in Blackburn, Wilmslow, Chester, or Manchester - whichever is most convenient for you. The development team is a mix of UK-based and remote, but everyone works UK hours.

Key Responsibilities

• Work with business requirement owners to understand the underlying problem, not just the stated requirement.
• Challenge requirements, question assumptions, and ensure proposed solutions will actually address the need.
• Distinguish must-haves from nice-to-haves and maintain focus on business value.
• Identify gaps, ambiguities, and conflicts early.
• Translate business requirements into specifications developers can work from.
• Write functional specifications, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Create process flows and data models where appropriate.
• Document API integration requirements.

Development Team

• Daily involvement with developers throughout implementation.
• Work with the Tech Lead to understand the technical approach.
• Run 3 amigos sessions for each requirement.
• Be available to clarify requirements and answer questions as work progresses.
• Validate delivered functionality against requirements.

Stakeholders

• Manage expectations and communicate trade-offs between business needs and technical constraints.
• Keep stakeholders updated on progress and blockers.
• Help resolve conflicting priorities.

Required Skills and Experience

Technical

• Able to read and interpret API specifications (REST, OpenAPI/Swagger, JSON).
• Comfortable reviewing API contracts and testing APIs to understand integration requirements.
• Proficient in SQL for data analysis and validation.
• Understanding of relational databases and data modelling.
• Familiar with agile and iterative delivery.

Business Analysis

• Experience gathering and documenting requirements in a software development environment.
• Ability to break down complex requirements into small, deliverable pieces.
• Strong attention to detail.
• We use Confluence and JIRA, but these can be learned.

Communication

• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Comfortable with frequent, informal communication alongside scheduled meetings.
• Able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical people.
• Experience working with distributed teams.

What can we offer you?

• Competitive salary plus discretionary yearly bonus.
• Company pension scheme.
• 25 days' holiday (plus bank holidays).
• Your birthday off.
• Private Vitality healthcare for you and your immediate dependents.
• Enhanced family friendly policies.
• Financial, physical and mental wellbeing support.
• Death in service insurance.
• Cycle 2 Work scheme.
• Techscheme (Currys PC World).
• Social events, including summer and Christmas parties.
• Plenty of learning opportunities; we're passionate about developing our people.

At Praetura we understand everybody has different needs, and we are committed to being an inclusive employer. We have an equal opportunities policy, and it's important to us that everybody has the opportunity to perform at their best. So if you require any reasonable adjustments during the interview process please let the People team know in your application or by contacting apply@praetura.co.uk.