Business Analyst

Scottish Government; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A government agency in Scotland seeks an experienced Business Analyst to transform student support delivery. The role involves process management, stakeholder engagement, and data foundation building to enhance support mechanisms for students across Scotland. Candidates should have demonstrable experience in business analysis and stakeholder engagements.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Range of employee benefits

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in gathering and analysing user and business needs.
• Experience in facilitation and stakeholder engagement towards project delivery.

Responsibilities

• Be responsible for process modelling and mapping business processes.
• Identify risks, issues, and dependencies and manage these in line with project processes.
• Engage stakeholders at all levels by facilitating workshops and presenting on requirements.

Job description

Overview

Are you ready to play a key role in transforming how student support is delivered across Scotland? This fixed-term role (12 months) sits within the Finance Team at the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) and supports the transfer of Further Education Student Support (FESS) functions from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to SAAS, as part of the Post-School Education and Skills Reform Programme. The Finance Team ensures that public funds are managed effectively to deliver support to Scotland's learners. As a Business Analyst, you will work at the heart of this transfer project, collaborating with colleagues across SAAS (Policy, HR, Communications), as well as with Scottish Government Reform teams and the Scottish Funding Council. Your main focus will be to design, develop, and embed the processes needed to administer FESS within SAAS. This is a high-impact role offering the chance to shape how support is delivered to students across Scotland. You will be responsible for line managing a Finance Officer who will support transactional data work. A key objective of the role is to assess and adapt existing processes from the Scottish Funding Council, and to develop new management information systems to support ongoing decision-making. With no current system holding historic data on this expenditure, your work will be instrumental in building a strong data foundation for the future.

Responsibilities

• Be responsible for process modelling, using a range of tools and techniques to map business processes (e.g. As-Is and To-Be, gap analysis), that meet the required audit and governance standards for correct stewardship of these funds.
• Identify risks, issues, dependencies and assumptions and escalate/manage these in line with project processes.
• Undertake impact analysis of the potential consequences of proposed changes and new ways of working and estimate the scope of change to accomplish relevant objectives within the project design identifying relevant potential stakeholders.
• Engage stakeholders at all levels by facilitating workshops and presenting on requirements gathering and solution development.
• Lead on the FESS and Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) budget and approval process.
• Shadow current FESS and EMA processes operating within SFC for an end of academic year returns and in-year redistribution currently operated within SFC and audit returns and guidance.
• Create and maintain management information on the current and historic FESS and EMA to inform future year allocations and reporting.
• Design payment processes in Oracle Fusion for FESS and EMA to ensure that payments are made in a timely manner in line with SG purchase to pay best practices.

Qualifications

Success profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.

Technical / Professional Skills:

• Requirement management (the process of capturing stakeholder needs, assessing, defining and justifying those needs to arrive at an agreed schedule of requirements) - Practitioner Level*
• Solutions development (the ability to identify, document and analyse the various delivery options and select the optimal solution) - Practitioner Level*

*Practitioner Level - The position holder knows what needs to be done to deliver programmes/projects and has experience of doing it successfully. They can be expected to work with experts in the field and policy teams to implement and maintain PPM processes, artefacts and able to report and present on the programme/project delivery.

Experience

Demonstrable experience of gathering and analysing user and business needs in a project delivery environment to support the achievement of outcomes in a business analysis role.

Experience of facilitation and stakeholder engagement to collaborate towards the design, build/development and delivery of the project's user needs.

Behaviours

• Seeing the big picture - Level 4.
• Working together - Level 4.

How to apply

Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1000 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples 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, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and analysis exercise. Assessments are scheduled for w/c 2025 however this may be subject to change.

About us

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) is an Agency of the Scottish Government responsible for the assessment and payment of student financial support for Scottish Students studying within the UK.

SAAS administers budgets of around £1.4 billion each year, making payments to both higher education institutions and over 160,000 students a year. We are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce that is representative of the clients we serve. More information on SAAS can be found on our website https://www.saas.gov.uk

Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.

We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Working pattern

Our standard hours are 35 hours per week. We offer a range of flexible and hybrid working options depending on the needs of the role. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.

Please note, SAAS have separate public holiday arrangements and are fully closed between Christmas and New Year.

Security checks

Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks - Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions).

You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website, or read about the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide.

Equality statement

We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation.

Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.

Further information

Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website. Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes.

Apply before: 1 October 2025 (23:59)