Business Analyst

What if you could work with remarkable people on extraordinary things? What if the end result was something a little bit special? What if your role was mission critical?

For nearly 70 years, AWE has been at the forefront of nuclear weapons research and development. We have a critical mission: to provide the warheads for the UK’s ultimate deterrent – Trident. We also use our unique skills to provide wider UK government with counter-terrorism and nuclear threat reduction solutions.

It takes a special sort of person to work at AWE. What if that person was you?

Information Services and Security have a vital role to play in a crucial national mission.  We’re here to enable the organisation to deliver through the use of technology.  As AWE transforms itself to meet the needs of the UK’s next-generation nuclear deterrent, we need to adapt to deliver data-driven decision making, flexible and future-proofed IT services, adaptable cyber security, support to a multi-billion Pound building programme, and many more. 

IS Business Engagement is the trusted partner and front door for the Business into IS&S surfacing and shaping business demands, translating requirements scoping and for this role, facilitating adoption and exploitation of our collaboration tools and information via user engagement, communications and training.  This is a role where you’ll contribute to a legacy of national security for decades to come.

The Business Analyst role takes responsibility for investigative work to determine business requirements and specify effective business processes, through improvements in information systems, information management, practices, procedures, and organisation change. They select, adopt and adapt appropriate business analysis methods, tools and techniques; selecting appropriately from predictive (plan-driven) approaches or adaptive (iterative/agile) approaches.

The BA collaborates with stakeholders at all levels, in the conduct of investigations for strategy studies, business requirements specifications and feasibility studies. They prepare business cases which define potential benefits, options for achieving these benefits through development of new or changed processes, and associated business risks.

The Business Analyst role forms part of a pooled resource with a reporting line into the IS BA Team Lead and task-managed by an IS PM.

Location – Reading area. Although there are opportunities to work from home occasionally you will be required to travel to site as per business demands.

Salary - £38,350 - £50,000 per annum DOE

As part of our People Promise, AWE (one of the best 25 big companies to work for in the UK) has a range of benefits to suit you. These include:

• Time to recharge your batteries with 270 hours of annual leave (plus every other Friday off work)
• Consideration for flexible working arrangements so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know on your application if you wish to work part time
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development that include funding for the annual membership of a relevant professional body, access to mentors and training
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services
• A generous defined contribution Group Personal Pension (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your own contribution)
• Life Assurance
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring for your family
• A host of voluntary & core benefits to suit your health and wellbeing – more information available on our careers site

Key Accountabilities:

• Ensuring the business requirements are defined and addressed.
• Identifying and evaluating relevant solutions to business problems.
• Work with the BRMs to assure the realisation of business benefits.
• Maintain good knowledge of IS Governance and IS processes; specifically the front end and delivery processes.
• Maintain good overall understanding of AWE Business and Business Strategy and if appropriate specific areas of the business.
• Maintain and promote high personal standards in environment, safety, health, security and quality and be a great team player.
• Additional accountabilities for this job profile may be defined and appointed through the Chief Engineer Management Arrangements, with appointees listed within the Company Design Authorities and Technical Authorities, as held in the company management system.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop Request Brief documentation that clearly defines the business issue, need for change and recommended approaches, for presentation to IS Governance Boards (including Front End Governance Board (FEGB), Delivery Governance Board (DGB)).
• Provide scoping services to help clarify business problems, objectives and potential solutions by using appropriate business analysis techniques including: Data Analysis, Process Analysis, Business Case Assessments and Root Cause Analysis.
• Elicit and validate requirements through the effective use of requirements gathering workshops and resolve any complex requirement conflicts through effective stakeholder engagement.
• Work with the BRMs and Delivery Managers to identify stakeholders who are affected by a proposed initiative or who share a common business need.
• Work closely with IS Architects to identify and evaluate potential solutions and also to validate the recommended solution addresses the business requirements.
• If appropriate, identify and document project risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies and undertake impact analysis.
• The Company may require you to fulfil any other reasonable duties aligned to your position from time to time in line with business needs.

Essential skills:

• Strong experience as a Business Analyst
• Comfortable working in a Waterfall/Agile environment
• Experience delivering BA artefacts at pace to concurrent projects or programmes:
• Work Package and Problem Statement definition
• Impact Analysis, Gap analysis, Root cause Analysis
• Definition of Scope and Objectives, Stakeholder mapping
• RAID development
• Requirements Management: elicitation, documentation, validation, prioritisation, review and sign-off
• Workshop facilitation, stakeholder 121s, questionnaire creation, focus groups
• Functional and Non-Functional Requirements definition: Functional Breakdown Structure, High and Low-level Requirements definition, User stories and Acceptance criteria; Requirements Catalogue, Business Rules, Wireframing, Business Context Diagrams, Business Process Modelling and Mapping; Business Process Re-engineering
• Solution assessment and validation
• Input to Release and Launch planning; User Training and Education strategies
• Definition of MVPs, KPIs and metrics for Financial and Operational Benefits Realisation 
• Good Stakeholder Management and Communication skills
• Experience delivering work-packages at pace in a highly regulated, change-focussed environment.
• Professional certification e.g BCS International Diploma is Business Analysis;  IIBA CBAP is desirable.

All Candidates must be willing and able to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role.

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide us will be used to encourage and support you through the application process and will be held only for this purpose in accordance with GDPR.