Business Analyst

united kingdom

When we started Kensington we were the first specialist lender to offer mortgages to people the high street turned down. Over 25 years later, we're the UK's leading specialist mortgage lender still blazing a trail offering people the chance to get a mortgage. Where high street lenders see black and white, we've always used our expertise and manual underwriting capability to see the shades in between. In a market where changing lifestyles mean more people are falling outside the traditional mortgage criteria, it's an approach that can make a real difference to people who want to own a property.It's what we call the Kensington Difference.Kensington Mortgage Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Bank UK PLC from 1 March 2023, and the principal activity of the Company is the origination and servicing of mortgage assets. The Company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority for regulated activities.Overall Purpose of JobThe Business Analyst will assume a key role within the organisation, applying skills and knowledge to manage and drive complex change programmes, working closely with Clients, Business representatives and IT specialists, providing key analytical support, advice and expertise to ensure business outcomes, needs and requirements are understood, documented, delivered and tested in order that loan migration, technology, process and organisational changes can be deployed and supported effectively.Work directly with Project Managers to plan project deliverables and work packages, whilst taking responsibility for planning, stakeholder engagement, requirements elicitation activities, user journeys, processes maps, analysis, and producing documentation to enable expeditious project delivery.Key AccountabilitiesPlan, prepare for and facilitate requirement elicitation activities at all levels and provide relevant and validated requirements and success criteria that are fit for purpose for all stakeholders and in line with the desired business outcomes.Support stakeholders in methodologies and analysis practises to enable understanding, information flow and collaborative project and change delivery.Undertake Impact Assessments to identify operational and technical gaps in operating processes, functionality and operating models.Identify and assess risk, supporting the business in planning and executing mitigating action plans.Gap Analysis and Current State Assessments (Benchmarking as required) to drive requirements definition for projects and programmes.Input to the production of business cases to allow the business to evaluate and understand the expected benefits of new initiatives, which will help to drive outcomes and project prioritiesConsulting, working with and supporting the IT/DTD Team during system functional specification, design and construction processes - effectively representing the business user, ensuring requirements are met.Providing input into User Acceptance, System Integration, End to End and Operational Acceptance Testing, working with the SMEs to support and prepare end users for UAT cycles.Ability to produce UAT scenarios and scripts from signed off Business Requirements, User Journeys, process Flows and Solution documentation.Ability to produce traceability matrices and pragmatically manage inconsistencies between requirements and solution.Providing input into definition of training requirements and liaising with operations and L&D to prepare training plans and materials, including communications.Work with the business and Business Implementation Team to ensure change is effectively implemented and success criteria met.Experience, Knowledge, SkillsAt least 3 years' experience in a Business Analyst role, within a mortgage lending or other financial institution or significant demonstrable experience in complex, regulated environments.Working experience of project and analysis techniques and supporting tools for requirement definition and documentation.Experience working in an agile environment and familiarity with Scrum, Kanban and other methodologiesExperience in the use of ADO or Jira to capture and track user stories, requirements, test conditionsExperience of managing 3rd party relationships.Excellent interpersonal, negotiation and presentation skills.Understanding of IT systems and applications.Excellent communication skills both written and oral.Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team.Experience in mortgage lending and securitisation preferred.Previous client or customer relationship management would be preferential.Candidates will be effective at:Logical and analytical thinking.Demonstrating an ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.Planning, prioritising and demonstrating time management skills.Communicating with and managing expectations of key stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.Co-ordination of relevant business areas and 3rd parties.Co-ordinating and prioritising activities, on time and on budget, to the mutual satisfaction of Acenden and the client(s).Creating action through influencing skills and change management.Energetic and enthusiastic with a can-do attitude, tenacious and resilient.Self-motivated, requiring little support.Managing workload to tight and often conflicting deadlines.QualificationsDegree or International Diploma in Business Analysis preferred (if not already held, must be working towards the diploma)