Business Analysis Lead

Location: Hybrid / Stratford, London, UK
job type: Permanent / Full-time
Sector and subsector: Accounting & Finance Business Analyst
Salary: Competitive salary

Job title: Business Analysis Lead

Reporting to: Head of Integration & Technology

Hours: Full time Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm (37.5 hours per week)

Location: Hybrid working - must be willing to travel to all current & future Affinia office locations as required mainly in Southeast.

Affinia is the UK's largest purpose-led, purpose-built Accountancy firm, focused on building stronger, more valuable relationships. With over 1000 colleagues across the East, South East, London and the Midlands, we are dedicated to supporting our clients, colleagues and communities.

We advise businesses, public sector organisations, charities and individuals throughout the UK and internationally across six Service Lines - Accountancy & Advisory, Tax and Planning, Audit & Assurance, Corporate Finance, Payroll and Corporate Recovery. Our team also offer in-depth sector expertise across a number of sectors, ensuring our clientsreceive the best short to medium and long-term advice, tailored to them. We are committed to delivering excellence in every aspect of our work, adapting to the evolving technology and regulatory landscape while consistently exceeding client expectations.

Our people are our most valuable asset. We are therefore committed to supporting our colleagues throughout their professional development, providing guidance and training at whatever stage of the career they join us.

Purpose of the role:

We are seeking a highly organized Business Analysis Lead to join the Integration Management Office which manages the integration of multiple businesses per year as part of our private equity growth journey. The Business Analysis Lead will play a critical role in our organisation by bridging the gap between business needs and, where applicable, technology solutions. The Business Analysis Lead position is responsible for understanding the objectives of the company and translating them into actionable requirements for Business Change and IT projects/initiatives.

This critical role will be responsible for:

• Driving and maintaining our Target Operating Model
• Ensuring we have documented end to end business processes across the organisation for the different client and employee journeys.
• Collaborating with key stakeholders at all levels of the business up to and including C Suite.
• Understanding how a target acquisitions business processes map to the Affinia standard and identify where there are gaps and changes required post acquisition.
• Supporting the Organisation in identifying opportunities to drive business value through optimising processes, enhancing system functionality, and driving continuous improvement initiatives by bringing a holistic view of change.

Accountabilities:

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Building strong relationships, working closely with business SMEs, department heads, and other key stakeholders to understand business needs and priorities.
• Supporting the facilitation of workshops, meetings, and interviews to elicit and capture requirements, identify challenges, and explore opportunities for improvement.
• Facilitating the communication of complex concepts and solutions in a clear and concise manner appropriate for the audience.
• Acting as a transformation partner for our multiple business areas - helping them understand how change impacts themselves and our new acquired offices.

Business Analysis and Enterprise Architecture:

• Responsible for leading, planning, execution, monitoring, controlling and closing the analysis components for projects and programmes that are deemed high complexity.
• Conducting research in the discovery phase, defining problems, crafting propositions at a service design level and taking a human centred lens to embedding products and services.
• Facilitating the creation of design artefacts - e.g. personas, as is and future state customer journeys, service blueprints, storyboards, prototypes, etc.
• Supporting and contributing to the elicitation, documentation, and analysis of business requirements, ensuring they are comprehensive, accurate, and aligned with business goals.
• Collaborating with technical teams to ensure that business requirements are understood and translated into system design and functionality.
• Ensuring comprehensive documentation of acceptance criteria to enable meaningful testing, support defect triage to validate that solutions meet business needs and requirements.
• Ensuring that all deliverables meet the highest quality standards and comply with organisational standards and industry best practices.
• Supporting reviews and walkthroughs of business requirements and functional specifications with stakeholders and project teams.
• Analysing and document business processes, identify inefficiencies, and recommend solutions to optimize performance and enhance productivity.
• Supporting activities and initiatives to streamline workflows, reduce inefficiency, and improve overall business operations.
• Utilising data driven analysis to support decision making and provide actionable insights.
• Staying current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in business analysis and project management.
• Promoting a culture of continuous improvement by identifying opportunities for innovation and implementing best practices.

Skills/Qualifications:

• Extensive experience in business process designs and facilitation and proficiency in business analysis tools and methodologies.
• Target Operating Model design and maintenance (TOM).
• Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• Showcase good analytical and evaluating skills including:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with stakeholders at all levels
• Curiosity and tenacity to explore beyond the immediate circumstances to identify further improvements
• Proactively work with all relevant stakeholders to identify areas for continuous improvement
• Ability to manage and prioritise workload.
• Experience within Accounting or other Professional Services businesses or Financial Services.

Desired Experience:

• Experience working within an M&A environment, integrating multiple business together.
• BCS Diploma or relevant certifications in Business Analysis
• Working in a private equity backed environment.
• Excellent understanding of Project and Change Management.

Core Benefits:

• Opportunity to purchase 3 extra days holiday per year.
• Auto enrolment Pension Scheme with True Potential.
• Death in Service.
• Professional membership support.
• Paycare - claim money back for Dental / Optical / Professional Therapies
• Dress for your Diary Policy.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

Affinia is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion, or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy, or maternity, or sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.