Lead Business Analyst

FULL JOB DESCRIPTION 

About the job

A Lead Business Analyst will have a good understanding of strategic arenas, leading large/complex projects. Strong people management, mentoring and coaching skills

Able to develop best practice and assist with communities of practice. Ensuring outcomes are aligned to service vision/ business strategy by connecting the current/future business models whilst delivering future business architecture strategy. Support and inform iteration, evolution and optimisation.

Strong stakeholder management skills, forming strategic relationships with senior stakeholders. Challenge constructively, acting as a critical voice to stakeholders and delivery colleagues to achieve outcomes. Lead effective communications to support design, build and delivery teams which meet user needs and business objectives.

Where business needs allow some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.

Watch this short video to hear from members of Home Office Digital talking about the projects they work on and their experience of working here:

The Home Office Digital directorate designs, builds and develops services for the rest of the department and for government. Every year our systems support up to 3 million visa applications, checks on 100 million border crossings, up to 8 million passport applications and deliver 140 million police checks on people, vehicles and property.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Networks and Infrastructure PMO Team in Enterprise Services as a Lead Business Analyst. Networks and Infrastructure provide Hosting, Connectivity and Cloud services across the Home Office.

The post holder will play a key role in shaping the N&I Business Analysis team and service offering, working closely with the PMO Lead and Head of Delivery to ensure the best outcomes for our internal and customer deliveries. They will also play a key role in supporting significant commercial tenders, ensuring the right supplier is selected to deliver the department’s requirements and anticipated benefits.

Employer: Home office

Position: Lead Business Analyst

Salary: £60,300 – £70,730

Job Type: Full-time, Job share, Part-time,

Work location:Cardiff, Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Southport

Your main day to day responsibilities will be:

• Defining, planning and leading Business Analysis delivery on significant assignments. This will include providing recommendation and rationale to programme/project leads to critically shape project scope and to the Principal Business Analyst to accurately and dynamically inform resource planning across the Profession.
• Working with the Head of Role to develop and embed clear and consistent Business Analysis standards, guidance and templates across the Profession.
• Understanding and defining the problem to be solved and ensuring strategic decision-making supports business outcomes as well as user needs.
• Planning and leading significant areas of Business Analysis delivery, leading the challenge and driving through to conclusions.
• Developing a specialist area and delivering coaching and mentoring to staff within this area to develop their Business Analysis and professional skillset, confidence and strategic thinking. Overseeing the work of other business analysts to ensure work is focused on the right solution to deliver business value.
• Advising the business around which metrics to put in place to ensure the product is adding business value and to identify service improvement opportunities.
• Modelling complex processes/procedures using established techniques with understanding of their purpose and importance.

Person specification

Essential Skills

• Building strong, strategic relationships with the ability to understand, empathise, negotiate and influence individuals and groups.
• Collaborating with user researchers and championing user research to focus on all users. Defining approaches to understand the user story.
• Recent experience of working in the delivery of technology.
• Strategic thinking skills with the ability to turn longer term goals and business outcomes into strategic and tactical solutions as required.
• Guiding your team to decide the best approach, helping them to visualise outcomes, prioritise work and agree minimum viable product.
• Eliciting requirements and needs and leading investigations and implementations of changes to programme scope.

SFIA capability framework

Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework:  All skills A – Z English (sfia-online.org).

We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.

The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework).  Use the SFIA levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skills listed below.

SFIA Technical skills:

Strategy and Architecture

-Technical Strategy and Planning

• Consultancy (CNSL) – Level 4

Change and Transformation

-Business Change Management

• Business Situation Analysis (BUSA) – Level 5
• Business Modelling (BSMO) – Level 3
• Requirements Definition and Management (REQM) – Level 3

Development and Implementation

-User Experience

• Feasibility Assessment (FEAS) – Level 4

Relationships and Engagement

-Stakeholder Management

• Stakeholder Relationships Management (RLMT) – Level 3

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Requirements Definition and Management (REQM) – Level 3
• Business Situation Analysis (BUSA) – Level 5
• Business Modelling (BSMO) – Level 3

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,300, Home Office contributes £17,468 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Why work for us…

• A competitive starting salary.
• A civil service pension with employer contribution rates of at least 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• The ability to potentially adopt flexible working options that suit your work/life balance, plus the opportunity in future to take a career break.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
• Eight days public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• 26 weeks maternity, adoption or shared parental leave at full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, after qualifying service.
• Maternity and adoption support leave (also known as paternity leave) of two weeks full pay, after qualifying service.
• Paid leave for fostering approval processes, support when a child is substantively placed with you plus a foster to adopt policy.
• Support for guardians and kinship carers.
• Corporate membership of ‘Employers for Carers’ providing additional information and advice for carers, plus a ‘Carer’s Passport’ to discuss workplace needs and underpin supportive conversations.
• Time off to deal with emergencies and certain other unplanned special circumstances.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement (1000 words). Please note your CV and personal statement should include all relevant experience that relates to our essential skills criteria listed in the advert and role description.  We recommend that you use the STAR format in your examples and ensure that both components are completed thoroughly.

Remove information that identifies you (for example your name, age or place of education) so that you will be judged on merit alone and not your personal background, circumstances, race or gender. Do NOT include e-mail addresses or links to online profiles, resumés, or prior work, either personal or business. Active links or e-mail addresses will result in your application being rejected.

Plagiarism and artificial intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application; however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate, and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn, and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.  Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.​

Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all civil servants.

Sift stage

The sift will be held on the CV and personal statement. Please read the essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirements.

In the event of a high number of applications received, an initial sift may be held on the personal statement.

Interview stage

Candidates reaching the required standard will then be invited to attend an interview. The interview will assess your technical skills (SFIA Framework) and behaviours using technical and behaviour-based questions.

If you are invited to an interview, you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks. Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Sift and interview dates

The sift will commence from 25th November 2025.

Interviews are expected to take place from 8th December 2025 (subject to the panel’s operational requirements/priorities).

Interviews will be conducted remotely via MS Teams.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Further information

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.  Applicants can raise any queries about this to the email address at the bottom of the advert.

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application, please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service/Disclosure Scotland on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms directly. If you are 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.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

Reserve list

A reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Reserve lists may be held for each location. Candidates will be appointed in merit order by location where this applies.

Similar roles

We often have similar roles available at different grades. Job offers to this post are made based on merit. We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.

UK residency and security requirements

For meaningful security checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. Learn more on our website.

Please note that this role requires Security Check (SC) clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years.

However, in exceptional circumstances security clearance applications for candidates who have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years may be considered. Failure to meet this residency requirement will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

Visa sponsorship

We are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License.

Recruitment and Retention Allowance

This role has access to a Digital Capability-Based Allowance – Recruitment and Retention Allowance. Applicants who are successful at interview will be invited to complete a Capability and Skills Assessment post-interview. Any allowance awarded will be based on the assessment of your capability against the six skills advertised for this role.

The allowance values are set by the Home Office, subject to remaining in a qualifying role. This allowance is non-contractual, subject to an annual review and could be withdrawn at any time.​

For both new entrants and existing civil servants, the total compensation offer is a combination of base salary and, if applicable, a capability-based allowance. ​

Working at the Home Office

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people can bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

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.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing civil servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

You will need to meet the nationality requirements for this role and obtain the necessary security clearance to take it up.

Any move to the Home Office 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.

Application Process

check out more information on the  Official website   and apply now!