Business Analyst
Summary
Business Analyst in Defra's Finance Digital Experience & Service Design team, shaping user-centred digital services for Finance. Day to day: running discovery, eliciting and documenting requirements as epics, user stories and acceptance criteria, prioritising backlogs, facilitating workshops, and supporting UAT within agile teams. 24-month fixed term at £44,052.
- Job grade: Senior Executive Officer
- Contract type: Fixed term, Secondment
- Length of employment: 17th August 2028
- Business area: DEFRA - DGCS - Finance - Finance Digital Experience & Service Design (FDESD)
- Type of role: Finance
- Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
- Number of jobs available: 3
Location
About the job
Job summary
We're looking for a Business Analyst to help shape and deliver user-centred digital services across Finance. You'll work closely with stakeholders, users and technical teams to understand business challenges, define requirements and support the delivery of solutions that provide measurable value.
This role is ideal for someone who enjoys translating complex problems into clear, actionable requirements and can balance user needs, business priorities and technical constraints. Working in an agile environment, you'll support discovery activities, define MVP scope and help ensure products and services are delivered iteratively, efficiently and with the user at the centre.
Job description
As a Business Analyst, you will play a key role throughout the delivery lifecycle, helping to identify opportunities for improvement, understand user needs and shape solutions that support Finance's digital transformation ambitions.
You will support discovery activities by analysing current processes, identifying pain points and helping stakeholders define desired outcomes. Working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams, you will gather and document requirements, translating these into clear epics, features and user stories with robust acceptance criteria.
A key aspect of the role is maintaining a prioritised and well-defined backlog, ensuring work is understood, deliverable and aligned to business objectives. You will facilitate workshops and discussions to build consensus, reduce ambiguity and support effective decision-making, while helping teams maintain focus on delivering value through minimum viable products and iterative releases.
You will also work closely with technical colleagues to ensure proposed solutions are feasible and aligned with data, platform and governance requirements. Supporting user acceptance testing, you will help define test scenarios and validate that delivered solutions meet agreed business needs.
The role requires strong collaboration with business stakeholders, technical teams and users to ensure that delivered services achieve defined outcomes, realise benefits and continually improve based on feedback and evidence.
Person specification
We are looking for someone with strong business analysis skills and experience of working within agile delivery environments. You'll be able to engage confidently with stakeholders at all levels and translate business needs into clear, structured requirements that support effective delivery.
Essential
- Experience eliciting, analysing and documenting business and user requirements.
- Strong process mapping and requirements engineering skills.
- Experience writing user stories and acceptance criteria that are clear, testable and outcome focused.
- Ability to facilitate workshops, build stakeholder consensus and drive decision-making.
- Experience working within agile delivery teams and supporting iterative product development.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to balance user needs, business priorities and technical constraints.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Desirable (not assessed)
- Experience supporting digital transformation, service design or business change initiatives.
- Knowledge of MVP delivery approaches and backlog management.
- Understanding of governance, data management or GDPR considerations.
- Experience working within Finance or other corporate service functions.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
As a full-time new entrant to the Civil Service, or a Civil Servant on modernised terms and conditions, you will be entitled to 25 days’ annual leave (rising, over 5 years, to 30 days). If you are an existing Civil Servant on pre-modernised terms, these will remain the same.
In addition, you will receive 8 public holidays a year, plus an additional day in May to mark the King’s Birthday.
Things you need to know
Artificial intelligence
Selection process details
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and behaviour statements. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead behaviour, communicating and influencing. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
Interview
If successful at the application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on the behaviour questions listed in this advert.
Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Location
We are flexible on location and welcome applications from candidates based at any Defra office. Birmingham and Bristol are our main hub locations, and regular attendance at either office may be beneficial for collaboration and team engagement.
As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).
Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.
Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.
The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.
Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.
Salary
New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.
Childcare Vouchers
Any move to Defra from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Accessibility
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Visa Sponsorship Statement
Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.
Criminal Record Check
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Internal Fraud Database Check
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.
This is a Fixed-term Appointment as a Business Analyst in the Finance Digital Experience & Service Design (FDESD) team.
The post is not permanent. It is time limited due to a fixed funding period or as part of a specific project. The fixed term will end when the funding or the project expires.
This post will therefore begin from the candidate's start date and end after 24 months.
All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold basic security clearance. Candidates posted to London may be subject to a higher level of clearance because of the security requirements for that location. Job offers to these posts are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.
Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- 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) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Darren Matthews
- Email : Darren.Matthews@defra.gov.uk
- Telephone : 07920 702583
Recruitment team
- Email : defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here
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