Business Analyst Ref. 2494

Stonewall Top Employer AwardSocial Mobility Foundation AwardThe Times Top 100Disability confident leader

Technology Roles
London, Greater Manchester
Permanent
£45,592 - £47,368 depending on skills, experience and location
About us

We are MI5, we protect the UK from threats to national security such as terrorism and espionage. We gather intelligence and work closely with the police and law enforcement to detect threats and work out ways to stop them.

The role  
             
Technology is at the heart of everything we do. As a Business Analyst, you’ll help us stay ahead in an evolving digital work and help us to keep the country safe. You’ll do this by understanding our unique problems and delivering real technology and business transformation. You’ll work with key stakeholders to create effective solutions that fit the user needs. Plus, you’ll tailor your message to different people and use evidence to explain key decisions.

As part of a multi-disciplinary product team, you’ll work alongside engineers, product management and agile delivery specialists. You’ll champion the programme and/or product vision, and drive the development of strategies and roadmaps to support this. Plus, you’ll use a range of techniques, including process maps, use cases, user journeys, epics and user stories. This will help you to deliver the right solution.

You’ll also be expected to analyse the impact of change on users, process, culture and IT. Sharing your learnings and knowledge with the wider community, you’ll help us work to best practices. This is also how you’ll provide excellent management and mentoring to other business analysts. And keen to develop your own skills, you’ll stay up to date with the latest process and IT advancements to automate and modernise products.

About you

You’ll have experience of user-centred design and working as a business analyst to assess business problems. As part of this, you’ll know how to gather requirements from different customers and stakeholders. And able to prioritise needs, you’ll identify solutions that maximise business value and consider human factors.

This will all be supported by your experience of questioning tools and techniques, impact analysis, identifying risks and make recommendations. Plus, you’ll also have a breadth of experience working across various delivery approaches – Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid and particularly Agile/SAFe delivery.

You can also show how you’ve embedded change and worked with business users to deliver the benefits. This means you might have held interviews or taken part in forums or workshops and used quantitative and qualitative data to turn user focus into business outcomes.

Importantly, you’ll also need to be confident talking to – and influencing – a variety of stakeholders adapting your style and detail to suit the audience.  You’ll be able to facilitate difficult conversations and convey difficult messages.

Training and development

We’re hugely committed to staff development, so you’ll benefit from a broad range of development and training opportunities. As soon as you join, we’ll help you understand what we do and how we do it – and we’ll support you to achieve your full potential. This might mean you grow as a leader, or you develop within a business analysis specialism. Either way, you’ll enjoy having a real sense of purpose. With a wide variety of classroom and online learning available, you’ll have plenty of tools and support to take advantage of.

You’ll receive a starting salary of £45,592 plus other benefits including:

-    25 days’ annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays
-    Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
-    Opportunities to work flexibly, subject to business needs
-    Interest-free season ticket loan
-    Excellent pension scheme
-    Cycle to work scheme
-    Paid parental and adoption leave
-    Facilities such as a subsidised gym and restaurant, and on-site coffee bars

Culture and working environment

As part of our team, you’ll discover an inclusive workplace that’s welcoming, supportive and encouraging. You’ll be part of an organisation where people want to support one another and make a difference. Aside from fostering an open culture, we’ve got a range of growing affinity groups. For example:
 
•    Ethnic Minority and gender equality networks
•    Groups supporting wellbeing, mental health, neurodiversity and disability
•    Faith/No Faith communities for staff to come together
•    LGBTQ+ support networks

You’ll also find a variety of sports, activity and social groups to help you settle in and connect with people with similar interests.

Before you apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen. We do have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Honesty and integrity are really important if you want to work at MI5. Take some time to read about the vetting process and make sure you meet the criteria in the vetting pages of the ‘How to Apply’ section. The process can take some time, but this is just because it’s thorough. Giving misleading information and omitting or concealing information during the recruitment and vetting process is viewed very seriously.

The role is based in London or Manchester, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application.

Equal opportunities

At MI5, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ages, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce.

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview where practicable; this is known as ‘Offer of an Interview’. To secure an interview for this vacancy, you’ll need to show (as a minimum) you have experience of working across various delivery methods (Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid and in particular, Agile/SAFe delivery.)

Ability to demonstrate experience of working across various delivery methods (Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid and in particular, Agile/SAFe delivery).

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply, you must be a British Citizen. One of your parents must be a British Citizen or must have the nationality or citizenship from our approved list of countries (for more info link to website / JD). If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. (for more info link to website / JD). Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for seven out of the last ten years. This is particularly important if you were born outside the UK. You can apply at the age of 17 years and 6 months, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday. Discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside of the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. Further information on our eligibility criteria can be found on the Applying section.

What to Expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

•    We’ll sift applications and assess your suitability.
•    If you pass, you’ll be invited to a technical telephone interview.
•    If you pass, you’ll be invited to an assessment centre.
•    If you pass, you’ll start out vetting process.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process in order to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Our vetting

To work in this role you will need the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community has to go through and it can take some time. As part of the DV process you will be asked to fill in a detailed questionnaire and attend an interview with a vetting officer. In your interview the vetting officer will have a thorough, compassionate and honest discussion with you about you as a person and your life experiences, to ensure holding a DV clearance is right for you. You don’t need to do any preparation for your vetting interview, just be honest and be yourself. All applicants for DV are treated impartially and consistently, irrespective of gender, race, disability, religion, age, sexual orientation and other protected characteristics.

Right to withdraw:

Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.



This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.