Lead Business Analyst - People Manager

At M&G our purpose is to help people manage and grow their savings and investments, responsibly. As a business, we are continuing to take steps towards a sustainable future, delivering better long-term solutions for our customers and clients and identifying new opportunities to make a positive impact for our environment and communities. To help us achieve our vision we’re looking for exceptional people who live our values of care and integrity and who can inspire others; embrace change; deliver results and keep it simple. We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role. The Role: The purpose of the role is to lead the overall business analysis and requirements definition for the Sustainability Programme. There is a requirement for a holistic view of the Sustainability business analysis and for a structure to record and manage requirements. The incumbent will further support the Head of Business Analysis in developing the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Business Analysts including aspects such as the requirements management strategy, frameworks, techniques and tooling to contribute to the develop standards for Centre of Excellence, to ensure business analysts’ efforts best align with business outcomes. From a technical perspective as part of projects and programmes, this position requires the individual to also be responsible for the successful delivery of key analytical deliverables such as the analysis needed for a business case, the business and technical requirements specifications, change management and the testing alignment needed to deliver on the relevant project / workstream objectives. The output of the workstream will feed directly into the overall Sustainability Programme, so will require close co-operation with the respective leaders of those workstreams. Key responsibilities for this role: Lead Business Analyst responsibilities:

• Perform an overall coordination and leadership role for the Sustainability Programme with accountability for all business analysis output on the programme
• Ensure consistent framework and templates are in place to capture, track and clearly articulate business requirements such that they can be progressed to delivery
• Manage the scope of work delivered by the respective BAs for each team, address conflicting requirements and ensure that there is no duplication of effort
• Put in place requirements traceability matrix across the programme ensuring there is clear line of sight of common / shared requirements
• Support the prioritization of requirements aligned to business benefit, regulatory requirements etc.
• Establish quality criteria for requirements definition and ensure assurance in place for these to be met
• Ensure clear process in place to manage requirement demand and work in collaboration with PM peers across the programme to ensure requirements are progressed through logical gateway approval framework
• Work with technical and business teams to define and deliver robust solution design ensuring approval by relevant M&G architecture bodies
• Ensure requirements are clearly linked in to test management process and alignment between testing and traceability matrix
• Help to oversee BA resource demand and general delivery performance, working with the head of Business Analysis to manage resource demand and allocation
• Work with business stakeholders to ensure robust process in place to elicit and elaborate on requirement demand – ensure process and framework is clearly documented and communicated
• Ensure all processes are clearly mapped and documented in line with M&G standards, working with M&G Global process mapping team as appropriate
• Work in collaboration with head of BA to ensure tools, frameworks and processes are documented and shared to build knowledge and capability across the team
• Drive effective utilization of SME time and input across the programme
• Work with programme team to ensure clear timeline for requirement delivery as part of the overall programme plan, with clear set of milestones articulated and under management
• Drive a data mapping strategy and process with defined approach to the data dictionary for this programme
• Critically evaluate information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a general understanding, and distinguish user requests from the underlying true needs.
• Proactively communicate and collaborate with external and internal parties to analyse information needs, functional requirements, existing capabilities and feasibility, with the objective of delivering a clear implementation framework.
• Be a self-starter who can work independently and with users to define concepts and under direction of the project /programme manager.
• Drive and challenge project team members on their assumptions of how they will successfully execute their plans.
• Work with the product business teams to lead operational readiness.
• Ensure that there is a plan and that business is ready to adopt the new solution.

Key Skills, Competencies & Experience: Skills and Competencies

• Ability to manage and coach business analyst resources. Please detail team size and responsibilities within your CV
• Ability to engage both business and technology stakeholders, to C-suite and executive level.
• Ability to drive the strategic business and technical requirements definition across large projects and programmes.
• Strong facilitation skills to elicit information from key stakeholders internally and externally.
• Ability to tailor and present complex data to different stakeholders.
• Confident and effective communicator (both written and verbal) across all levels of the organisation.
• Passionate about developing a work environment that embraces and values diversity.
• Well-developed understanding and practical application of business feasibility assessments.
• Deep understanding of business analysis tools, techniques and standards to drive the highest quality user documentation, impact assessments and cost benefits analysis.
• Advanced process mapping and design skills, including facilitation of process improvement.
• Ability to expertly apply multiple approaches and techniques, in order to lead data analysis.
• Creative thinking to contribute to the overall solution design.
• Proven and demonstrable analytical and problem-solving skills essential, with the ability to think laterally and generate creative solutions.
• Ability to identify benefits and support their realisation.
• Ability to align business solution outcomes to overall corporate strategy requirements.
• Excellent MS Office skills, particularly with MS Excel and Visio.
• Advanced knowledge of Agile and associated ceremonies.
• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills with a keen attention to detail and ability to manage multiple deliverables, with complexity.
• Ability to support the test strategy to ensure alignment to project and programme outcomes.
• Support the system training and change management strategy.
• Strong risk mindset to support the project manager in risk identification and mitigation proposals.

Experience:

• Experience in managing and developing others
• Highly experienced BA with a proven track record in successful delivery
• Proactive and delivery focused with excellent communication skills.
• Transformation and project delivery experience
• Understanding SUSTAINABILITY concepts and principles

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G plc, underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities, advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality or disability we are looking to attract, promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.