Business Consultancy & Analysis Lead

First Central Services; Manchester, Haywards Heath; Hybrid; GBP 73,000 - 93,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance company is seeking a Business Consultancy & Analysis Lead to define and deliver business analysis services. You'll manage a team, ensuring quality solutions that align with business objectives while embracing flexible working arrangements. The ideal candidate possesses strong consultancy skills and a background in business architecture, making a direct impact on strategy and operations.

Benefits

Flexible Bank Holidays

Paid day off annually to volunteer

Electric Car Scheme

Your Time in Need: five days’ leave

Simply Health Cash plan

Flexible working arrangements

Qualifications

• Significant experience in Business Consultancy and/or Business Architecture.
• Experience in facilitating change within a business.
• Knowledge of EA tools to develop business architecture deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Manage and lead a team of Value Stream aligned Business Analysts.
• Ensure delivery of high-quality business solutions.
• Engage with senior stakeholders to drive business strategy.

Skills

Analytical skills

Problem-solving skills

Leadership skills

Interpersonal skills

Negotiation skills

Education

Business Analysis and/or Business Architecture certification

Formal training/certification in Agile frameworks

Job description

Location: Guernsey, Haywards Heath, Home Office (Remote) or Manchester Salary: £73,652 - £92,065 - depending on experience Department: Technology and Data

We’re 1st Central, a market-leading insurance company utilising smart data and technology at pace. Rapid growth has been based on giving our 1.4 million customers exactly what they want: great value insurance with an excellent service. And that’s the same for our colleagues too; we won Insurance Employer of the Year at the British Insurance Awards 2024 and our Glassdoor score is pretty mega too!

We’re looking for a Business Consultancy & Analysis Lead who’ll be responsible for the definition and delivery of Business Analysis and Business Consultancy services . These services, in collaboration with Enterprise and Solution Architecture, support business strategy and plan development to enable the definition and delivery of high-quality business solutions aligned to those plans.

In addition to strong Business Consultancy/Architecture skills y ou’ll possess strong leadership skills as this role comes with line management responsibilities for our Business Consultants and Value Stream Business Analysts a s well as the leadership of the Business Consultancy & Analysis Community of Practice.

We value flexible working arrangements, so you can choose to work remotely or maybe you live within a commutable distance from one of our offices in Salford Quays, Manchester, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, or Guernsey , and want to work in the office occasionally.

Core skills were looking for to succeed in the role:

Significant experience in Business Consultancy and/or Business Architecture

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Strong leaderships skills

Strong workshop and meeting facilitation skills

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Strong analytical and conceptual skills; ability to create original concepts and theories for a variety of projects

Strong anticipatory, statistical and information analysis skills

Strong problem resolution, negotiation and influencing skills

Ability to quickly understand the objectives , structures, operations and policies of a business area

What’s involved:

You’ll manage and lead a team of Value Stream aligned Business Analysts, and cross-enterprise Business Consultants including

Resource assignment and capacity forecasting through horizon scanning, managing any issues

Performance management and objective setting

You’ll identify training requirements and ensure completion of mandatory training

Leadership of the Business Consultancy & Analysis Community of Practice (BCA CoP) .

Definition of Business Consultancy & Analysis standards, practices and policies as part of the Agile Change Delivery Framework.

You’ll monitor effectiveness, i dentifying and implementing changes through a process of Continuous Improvement

You’ll define and develop Business Consultancy & Analysis services

You’ll ensure the delivery of high-quality business solutions that align with organisational goals.

You’ll lead consultative services that support business strategy development, including internal and external analysis, opportunity identification, technology and business cases, and business portfolio development

You’ll collaborate with Enterprise Architects in the definition of target operating models

You’ll engage with senior stakeholders to identify business and technology innovation opportunities that enable and drive business strategy and value

You’ll work closely with Enterprise Architects to construct deliverables that help business leaders identify and make business and technology investment decisions. Deliverables include, but are not limited to, business outcome statements, strategy on a page, scenario plans, business capability models, value-streams maps, business process models, ecosystems models, customer and user profiles, journey maps, human-centric design and investment roadmaps.

You’ll help business stakeholders build effective communication and targeted messaging to support transformation objectives . Builds out the story building blocks by asking and answering key business and operating model questions.

You’ll review current and target business-states, applying business modelling and analytical techniques ( e.g. process mapping, SWOT analysis, options analysis, statistical and database analysis) in order to identify and prioritise gaps

You’ll collaborate with delivery teams to ensure continuous delivery of business value, as well as to leverage shared technologies, tools, and processes that impact speed to value and time to market.

You’ll maintain up-to-date knowledge of industry trends and best practices in business consultancy and analysis.

You’ll instigate, prepare, facilitate and lead meetings, workshops and presentations for a wide range of audiences, demonstrating consistently high qualities of communication and strong powers of influence

You’ll develop close working relationships with Subject Matter Experts, Sponsors and Senior Stakeholders to support and drive change decisions

You’ll comply with the requirements, and act in accordance with , the Group Code of Conduct and Fitness and Propriety policies at all times

You’ll ensure compliance with Company Policies, Values and guidelines and other relevant standards/ regulations at all times ,

Experience & knowledge

Significant experience of roles with a direct responsibility for strategy formulation and translation, business consultancy/analysis and business architecture, ideally within an agile change framework

Experience developing and monitoring delivery of efficient and effective solutions to diverse and complex business problems.

Knowledge of EA tools to develop business architecture deliverables.

Proven leadership and management of Business Consultants and Analysts within an Agile delivery framework

Experience in the application of business architecture techniques including business models, capability mapping, value streams, information mapping and operating model definition

Experience in facilitating change within a business, to include defining/re-engineering existing and new processes as well as the development of new services and products

Experience in financial analysis and business case development

Able to communicate, influence and persuade — both business and technology leaders, as well as peers. Uses the language of business leaders.

Ideally an insurance or f inancial Services background, although other backgrounds will be considered

Knowledge of FCA requirements (including Consumer Duty)

Experienced at building relationships with and managing internal and external stakeholders

Skills

Significant experience in Business Consultancy and/or Business Architecture

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Strong workshop and meeting facilitation skills

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Strong analytical and conceptual skills; ability to create original concepts and theories for a variety of projects

Strong anticipatory, statistical and information analysis skills

Strong problem resolution, negotiation and influencing skills

Ability to quickly understand the objectives , structures, operations and policies of a business area

Qualifications

Business Analysis and/or Business Architecture certification/formal qualification

Formal training/certification in one or more Agile frameworks is preferred

Behaviors

Understands, advocates and augments the business and technology strategies — and, more specifically, EA development and service delivery. Is prepared to “sell” the EA process (overall, not just for enterprise technology architecture), its outcome and ongoing results, and to lead the communication or marketing activities needed to ensure enterprise success and use.

Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and technology leaders, and maintain a high level of customer trust and confidence Commercially focussed and results driven taking a pragmatic approach to delivering value

Highly collaborative and supportive of business and of its ideals and strategies

Organisationally savvy — comfortable, experienced and accomplished at working with business executives, and able to push back in a professional and diplomatic manner

Self-motivated and enthusiastic with an organised and pro-active approach

Highly innovative with aptitude for foresight, and design and systems thinking

Emphasis on attention to detail and accuracy

Strives to drive business improvements to contribute to the success of the business

So, if you’re up for the challenge and would like to join our vibrant and busy team, we want to hear from you today.

What can we do for you?

People first. Always. We’re passionate about our colleagues and know the best people deserve an extraordinary working environment. We owe it to them so that’s what we offer. Our workplaces are energetic, inspirational, supportive. To get a taste of the advantages you’ll enjoy, take a look at all our perks in full here .

Intrigued? Our Talent team can tell you everything you need to know about what we want and what we’re offering, so feel free to get in touch.

86% of people would recommend a friend to work at First Central

Simply Health Cash plan. Reclaim the cost of your eye tests, dental appts, physiotherapy and more

Flexible Bank Holidays

Eight flexible bank holidays; you can choose which festivals you observe

We’re passionate about it. Everyone gets a paid day off annually to volunteer

Electric Car Scheme

Plug into our Electric Car Scheme for a deal with insurance, road tax and servicing

Flexible Working

We’re flexible; most roles let you mix office and home working. We work fluidly around core hours

Your Time in Need

Your Time in Need: five days’ leave so you can deal with life stuff. We’ll support you