Senior Business Analyst

Great journeys start with great people

Here at LNER, we're shaping the future of rail on one of the UK's most iconic routes. From our high-speed Azuma fleet, redefining long-distance travel, to our next generation of trains, Serenza, this is a moment of real transformation for LNER. We're investing in cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and most importantly our people, to deliver outstanding experiences for our customers. There has never been a more exciting time to grow your career with LNER!

So, what exactly does our Senior Business Analyst do?

Are you passionate about building enterprise capability through digital transformation and business process improvement? LNER is looking for a Senior Business Analyst to help shape how change is identified, prioritised, designed and delivered across the organisation. Working within the Transformation team, you will lead the analysis of cross-functional processes, information flows, business rules and compliance requirements, ensuring that digital investment creates reusable organisational capability and measurable outcomes for LNER.

You will work across business, operational and technology teams to establish shared standards for business analysis, process design and requirements management. You will ensure that proposed solutions address validated business needs, support LNER's corporate and digital strategies, and can be adopted, governed and scaled across the organisation. Success will require strong expertise in process optimisation, modelling, requirements engineering, digitisation, automation and stakeholder leadership, together with the judgement to challenge assumptions and guide senior decision-makers through complex change.

How success will be measured

You will be successful in this role by improving the quality and consistency of business analysis across LNER, creating reusable standards and assets, increasing the proportion of opportunities supported by robust evidence, and enabling solutions that deliver measurable benefits and can be scaled beyond a single team or project.

Within this role you'll be expected to:

• Establish and continuously improve LNER's enterprise business analysis capability, including common methods, standards, templates, quality controls and communities of practice.
• Identify, assess and prioritise opportunities to optimise, simplify, standardise and automate end-to-end processes, using evidence to distinguish enterprise opportunities from local improvements.
• Translate business and process problems into clearly defined outcomes, measurable benefits, baseline performance measures and success criteria, and support benefit owners in tracking whether expected value is realised.
• Capture and maintain ‘as-is' and ‘to-be' business processes, customer and colleague journeys, data flows, business rules and compliance requirements. Identify dependencies, controls and change impacts across functions, and work with process owners to agree accountable ownership of the future state.
• Drive business efficiency and digital strategy realisation through process optimisation, automation and technology-enabled transformation.
• Evaluate opportunities to use emerging technologies such as machine learning, AI and big data, assessing strategic fit, user need, data readiness, risk, cost and expected value before recommending experimentation or investment.
• Lead, coach and assure the work of business analysts, creating effective collaboration across multidisciplinary teams and building a sustainable professional practice.
• Facilitate workshops that engage stakeholders, test assumptions, resolve ambiguity and build alignment around problems, priorities and future-state designs.
• Prepare and present clear, compelling, evidence-based recommendations, reports and presentations for operational, technical and senior leadership audiences.
• Develop operational improvement measures and key performance indicators that connect transformation activity to customer, colleague, financial and operational outcomes.
• Apply recognised business analysis, service design and agile techniques to ensure that digital services align with the Digital Service vision, user needs and enterprise standards.
• Lead business analysis throughout the change lifecycle: frame the problem, validate objectives, define scope, elicit and manage requirements, assess options, support business cases, maintain traceability, enable user testing and adoption, and confirm that completion and benefits-realisation criteria have been met.
• Assess organisational readiness and work with change, communications, learning and operational teams to ensure that new processes, roles and digital capabilities are understood, adopted and sustained.
• Work collaboratively with Solution, Enterprise and Data Architecture colleagues to ensure that proposed changes align with agreed principles, target architectures, integration standards and reusable enterprise capabilities.
• Collaborate with Testing and delivery teams to define acceptance criteria, maintain end-to-end requirements traceability, resolve defects and confirm that delivered outcomes meet agreed business, operational, accessibility and compliance needs.
• Maintain and develop professional expertise, keeping current with business analysis, digital transformation, process optimisation and responsible technology practices.
• Ensure that critical business analysis knowledge, artefacts and decision records are accessible, maintained and transferable, providing proportionate support during operational disruption where transformation expertise is required.

What you'll need

• Demonstrable experience assessing and shaping automation opportunities across technologies such as workflow automation, RPA, low-code or no-code platforms and AI, including the ability to identify where automation is not the appropriate solution.
• Excellent business analysis leadership skills, with the ability to work effectively within programme and project delivery environments and to maintain analytical quality from discovery through implementation and benefits realisation.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with operational, technical and senior leadership stakeholders, facilitate difficult decisions, challenge assumptions constructively and create alignment across competing priorities.
• Experience managing relationships with external suppliers and partners within a complex delivery ecosystem.
• Experience leading, coaching and assuring the work of business analysts, developing professional practice and creating an environment in which consistent standards and high-quality analysis can be sustained.
• A strong commitment to continuous improvement, evidence-led decision-making and measurable business outcomes.
• Excellent problem-solving and systems-thinking skills, with the ability to make complex issues and options clear to different audiences.
• High emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt your approach while retaining clarity, constructive challenge and professional independence.
• The judgement and resilience to manage ambiguity, pressure and competing priorities without compromising analytical quality.

Knowledge, Skills, Experience, and Technical Qualifications

• Substantial experience leading business analysis for complex, cross-functional, technology-enabled transformation, with evidence of improving organisational capability as well as delivering successful change outcomes.
• Professional qualifications such as the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis or IIBA accreditation are desirable.
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to create clear, engaging and persuasive documents for strategic, operational and technical audiences.
• Proven ability to work with technically complex or conceptually abstract ideas and turn them into practical choices, recommendations and actions.
• Practical experience applying recognised business process modelling standards and tools, with the ability to select an appropriate level of detail for strategic, operational and technical audiences.
• Practical understanding of emerging technologies such as machine learning, AI and big data, including their potential value, limitations, data requirements, ethical considerations and operational risks.
• Understanding of RDG and RSP accreditation frameworks is advantageous.
• A collaborative, inclusive professional with strong business ethics and a focus on achieving sustainable outcomes.

You'll enjoy

• Free travel on LNER, plus 75% off other companies' tickets (for you and your dependents).
• Discounted international train tickets (after one year's service).
• 50% discount on LNER tickets for friends and family.
• Generous pension scheme.
• Annual cycle to work schemes/electric vehicle scheme.
• Discount, savings and cashback scheme from top retailers.
• Health and wellbeing schemes and discounts.
• A host of training opportunities to help further your career.
• Rewards and awards to recognise when you shine.