Business Analyst

As the living, growing home of our national story, The National Archives is a special place to work. We’re an institution nearly 200 years old with a collection spanning 1,000 years of history. We’ve set ourselves the challenge of becoming the 21st Century national archive - a different kind of cultural and heritage institution: Inclusive, Entrepreneurial, Disruptive. We won’t become this overnight. It will take time, focus, effort and daring. That’s where you come in. Because we can’t do this without you.

We are seeking a business analyst to help create outstanding digital services. The role sits within our Digital Archiving department which brings digital records into the archive, preserves them for the future and opens up access for diverse audiences. You’ll work in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary environment to gather requirements, shape ideas and drive smarter ways of working.

You will design business processes, develop specifications, and capture and validate requirements to ensure products align with strategic goals and user needs. You will structure complex analysis, break down problems, and communicate findings clearly. You will understand wider impacts while working through detailed analysis. You’ll provide the information teams need to succeed, helping them to prioritise requirements and build a culture of learning and transparency.

This role involves working independently with multidisciplinary Agile teams that transfer, preserve and provide access to digital records. You will help to align, connect and develop these services.

The position would suit self-motivated individuals who enjoy complex challenges, can adapt to changing needs, and build strong working relationships. In return, we offer a supportive, welcoming workplace in Kew, with excellent benefits including the Civil Service pension, alongside opportunities to grow your professional expertise.

This is a full-time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department. A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time.

Application Process:

• Interviews will be held on-site on Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th September.
• We ask all applicants to submit work history details and a personal statement, not exceeding 1200 words.

Essential criteria for application:

• Significant practical experience of carrying out business analysis, gained in a professional context, or a recent qualification in business analysis from a professional body.
• Handling complexity. Ability to understand complex issues quickly, break them down with a structured and thorough approach, and capture findings clearly and concisely.
• User and data focused. Ability to understand the needs of internal and external stakeholders, identify business and process improvements and support the development of design approaches within product teams.

In the event of a high volume of applications we will conduct an initial sift based on the following essential criteria:

• Significant practical experience of carrying out business analysis, gained in a professional context, or a recent qualification in business analysis from a professional body.

During the interview, candidates will be assessed on all of the essential criteria shown in the job description below.

Role and Responsibilities

This role aligns with the Business Analyst role in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework with elements of the Junior Business Analyst HEO skills.

Requirements and User Needs Analysis:

• Elicit, analyse, challenge and validate business needs, taking action to check assumptions and resolve areas of ambiguity.
• Select appropriate techniques to clearly capture, and develop the analysis being carried out.
• Identify and decide the most appropriate handling for different stakeholders, balancing internal business requirements against external user need.
• Build consensus between stakeholders where differing viewpoints exist, using evidence and structured analysis to explain and resolve issues.
• Capture and communicate resulting decisions.
• Support the prioritisation of requirements within the department to ensure alignment with departmental objectives.
• Monitor, analyse and communicate the impact on requirements and scheduling of changing departmental and team objectives.
• Work alongside UX researchers to ensure UX and business analysis output complement each other without duplication of effort.
• Work with Agile product teams to develop the detailed specifications required to develop.

Business Process and Systems Analysis:

• Analyse and evaluate business processes to identify problems and potential improvements.
• Identify and analyse system functionality and gaps, producing system and data models or documentation that address the issues under examination.
• Work with specialists in multidisciplinary teams to understand the implications of system or process changes on user needs and service performance.

Business Modelling and Documentation:

• Decide on appropriate business modelling techniques to support analysis and decision-making (e.g., process models, data flows, logical models).
• Create clear, accessible models and documentation to explain processes, relationships, dependencies and interactions.
• Present analysis in an easy-to-understand format, tailored to the needs of different audiences.

Problem Solving and Option Analysis:

• Decide on appropriate techniques to understand the context, evaluate root causes and develop options for addressing business and user needs.
• Communicate how analysis and recommendations align with strategic goals and service outcomes.

Working Conditions:

• Normal office environment.
• Display Screen Equipment user.

Person Specification

Essential criteria:

• Significant practical experience of carrying out business analysis, gained in a professional context, or a recent qualification in business analysis from a professional body.
• Handling complexity. Ability to understand complex issues quickly, break them down with a structured and thorough approach, and capture findings clearly and concisely.
• User and data focused. Ability to understand the needs of internal and external stakeholders, identify business and process improvements and support the development of design approaches within product teams.
• Proactive. A self-starter with the ability to proactively contribute business and stakeholder needs to inform decision making.
• Delivery focused. Ability to align the requirements of interdependent services with team and department objectives in order to work towards coherent medium and long term goals.
• Communication and relationships. Strong, diplomatic communication and relationship building skills, with the ability and willingness to develop relationships with and represent TNA digital, internally, across Government and externally.
• Resourceful, flexible and positive. Comfortable working with ambiguity, conflicting and changing priorities, with the ability to support teams to learn, adapt and improve.

Desirable criteria:

• Knowledge of the following or a willingness to develop skills in these areas:
• Training and/or practical experience of data analysis and specification of data products.
• Ability to produce structured process and data flow models.
• Understanding of the digital and technology landscape in relevant sector(s) such as UK government, digital archives, digital information services, culture and heritage.

Other requirements:

• Hybrid working pattern, 60% of time spent working on site, up to 40% remote.
• Applicants must be able to travel to our Kew site regularly.

Benefits:

• Generous benefits package, including pension, sports and social club facilities, onsite gym, discounted rates at our on-site cafe and opportunities for training and development.
• Annual leave entitlement of 22 days per calendar year (rising to 25 after the first year, and incrementally to 30 days after six years) and 10½ days public and privilege holidays per annum.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact The National Archives via careers@nationalarchives.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

This job is broadly open to UK nationals, nationals of the Republic of Ireland, nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK, and nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.