Lead Business Analyst NEW

Tain
We are looking for an experienced Lead Business Analyst to support a complex Agile transformation and large-scale delivery program. This role will lead the analysis, scoping, dependency mapping, and planning readiness activities required to move strategic initiatives from concept through discovery, planning, delivery, release, and operational handover.

The Lead Business Analyst will work across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Infrastructure, Operations, Compliance, Integrations, Data, and Delivery teams to ensure that business needs are clearly understood, requirements are structured, dependencies are visible, and teams enter Joint Planning / PI Planning with enough clarity to make realistic delivery commitments.

This role is suited to someone who can operate at both strategic and detailed levels: facilitating senior stakeholder alignment, challenging assumptions, shaping complex scope, and ensuring that analysis outputs translate into clear backlogs, features, acceptance criteria, risks, dependencies, and decision records.

Key Responsibilities Strategic Scoping & Requirements Leadership

• Lead the elicitation, analysis, and documentation of business, product, operational, and technical requirements across complex initiatives.
• Translate business objectives and stakeholder needs into clearly structured features, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and supporting analysis artefacts.
• Ensure requirements are aligned to strategic outcomes, OKRs, product goals, operational readiness, and measurable business value.
• Support Product Owners and Product Leads in shaping initiatives into MVPs, releases, and incremental delivery slices.
• Ensure scope is defined clearly enough to support delivery, while remaining flexible enough to adapt as learning emerges during Agile delivery.

Joint Planning / PI Planning Readiness

• Lead the analysis work required to prepare initiatives for Joint Planning / PI Planning events.
• Work with Product Owners, Technical Project Managers, Engineering Managers, Scrum Masters, Architects, and team representatives to prepare feature definitions, program backlogs, dependency inputs, risks, assumptions, and planning materials.
• Support the creation of planning boards, dependency maps, confidence-vote inputs, ROAM risk inputs, and initiative-level readiness checklists.
• Ensure teams enter planning with a shared understanding of the problem, scope, constraints, dependencies, and intended outcomes.
• Help identify whether work is suitable for Scrum delivery, Kanban flow, or a hybrid delivery approach.

Dependency Mapping & Cross-Team Coordination

• Identify, document, visualise, and maintain cross-team and cross-system dependencies.
• Map dependencies across product teams, platform teams, integration teams, infrastructure teams, operational teams, compliance teams, and data/reporting teams.
• Ensure dependencies are visible in Jira, Confluence, planning boards, dependency logs, and governance forums.
• Support Scrum of Scrums / dependency forums by ensuring blockers, risks, and cross-team impacts are clearly articulated and owned.
• Highlight dependency risks early and elevate where delivery confidence is impacted.

Stakeholder Facilitation & Decision Support

• Facilitate workshops with senior stakeholders, Product, Engineering, Operations, Compliance, Commercial, and Delivery teams.
• Drive structured conversations to clarify ambiguity, resolve conflicting priorities, and support informed decision-making.
• Produce clear decision logs, options analysis, impact assessments, and recommendation papers where required.
• Help stakeholders distinguish between business need, product scope, technical solution, operational constraint, and delivery risk.
• Support leadership by providing clear visibility of what is known, what is unknown, what is blocked, and what decisions are required.

Agile Transformation Support

• Support the adoption of Agile ways of working across complex delivery environments.
• Champion strong backlog hygiene, Definition of Ready, Definition of Done, dependency transparency, iterative delivery, and outcome-focused planning.
• Help teams move away from large, ambiguous project scope into structured, incremental delivery.
• Support the creation and improvement of Agile analysis standards, templates, and working practices.
• Coach and guide other Business Analysts in Agile requirements practices, story mapping, backlog structuring, and dependency analysis.

Documentation, Traceability & Governance

• Create and maintain high-quality analysis artefacts, including feature briefs, story maps, process flows, data flows, RACI matrices, decision logs, dependency matrices, readiness checklists, and impact assessments.
• Ensure traceability from business objectives through to features, epics, stories, acceptance criteria, risks, dependencies, and delivery outcomes.
• Support initiative-level reporting and governance by providing clear analysis inputs into status, confidence, risks, dependencies, and scope change.
• Maintain documentation standards across Jira, Confluence, and visual collaboration tools.
• Ensure analysis outputs are practical, current, and useful to delivery teams rather than static documentation.

Mentoring, Standards & Team Management

• Provide day-to-day guidance to the Mid-Senior Business Analyst.
• Set clear expectations for documentation quality, analytical structure, stakeholder engagement, and dependency tracking.
• Review key BA deliverables and ensure consistency across the program.
• Help build a stronger Business Analysis capability within the Agile delivery model.
• Leading by example and effectively manage a team of BA, any people related cyclical programmes e.g. Appraisals, regular 121’s and supporting a feedback culture within the team.

Required Experience

• 7+ years of experience as a Business Analyst in software, product, technology, or digital delivery environments.
• At least 2 years in a Lead, Principal, Senior, or strategic BA role.
• Proven experience supporting complex programs involving multiple teams, systems, domains, and stakeholder groups.
• Experience working in Agile delivery environments, including Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid Agile models.
• Practical exposure to scaled Agile planning, Joint Planning, PI Planning, Big Room Planning, or multi-team release planning.
• Strong experience with backlog structuring, feature definition, user stories, acceptance criteria, and Agile requirements management.
• Proven ability to map and manage complex dependencies across multiple teams.
• Strong workshop facilitation skills, including the ability to work with senior stakeholders and technical teams.
• Experience producing clear, structured, and decision-ready documentation.
• Strong Jira and Confluence experience.
• Excellent written and verbal English.

Required Skills

• Strategic analysis and structured problem solving.
• Strong stakeholder management and facilitation.
• Ability to translate business needs into actionable delivery artefacts.
• Ability to challenge assumptions constructively.
• Strong understanding of software delivery, APIs, integrations, data flows, environments, and operational readiness.
• Ability to work across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Operations, Compliance, and Delivery functions.
• Strong dependency, risk, assumption, and decision management.
• Ability to create clarity from ambiguity.
• Strong documentation discipline without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Ability to mentor and raise standards across the BA function.

Nice to Have

• Experience in iGaming, live casino, gaming platforms, fintech, payments, SaaS, or B2B technology environments.
• Experience with operator integrations, API-based platforms, regulatory workflows, compliance requirements, or financial reporting.
• Experience with technology migration, platform modernisation, legacy system replacement, or sunset/sunrise initiatives.
• Exposure to SAFe, Agile at Scale, Lean-Agile, or Agile transformation programs.
• SAFe, Agile BA, Scrum, Product Owner, or similar certification.
• Experience with Miro, Lucidchart, Draw.io, or similar visual modelling tools.
• Experience supporting portfolio-level governance, OKR alignment, or initiative-level reporting.

Success Measures

• Complex initiatives enter Joint Planning / PI Planning with clear scope, visible dependencies, known risks, and actionable planning inputs.
• Product, Engineering, Delivery, and Operations stakeholders share a common understanding of the work.
• Dependencies are identified early, tracked clearly, and escalated before they become blockers.
• Requirements are traceable from business objectives to delivery backlog items.
• Business Analysis outputs help teams make decisions and deliver, rather than creating documentation overhead.
• The BA team is supported, aligned, and producing consistent analysis artefacts.

What’s in it for you?

• Experience a dynamic and team-orientated work environment.
• Opportunities for personal growth and learning
• An open, inclusive and supportive team where you will be valued, and your suggestions will be welcome.
• 26 days paid holiday per year. This is in addition to local bank holidays.
• Competitive salary . click apply for full job details