IT Lead Business Analyst

Yorkshire Water; West Yorkshire; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary up to £70,000

Annual incentive bonus up to £1,000

Pension contribution up to 12%

Wellbeing and development

Health and life cover options

Hybrid working (1-2 days in office)

Staff benefits including cycle to work

Job summary

Yorkshire Water is seeking an IT Lead Business Analyst to join the Project team and shape delivery of complex transformation programmes. You will lead business analysis, requirements management and user-centred design, helping turn ambitious strategies into practical, customer-focused solutions.

You will work with senior leaders, ensuring change delivers measurable benefits for customers, colleagues and communities, while driving standardisation and continuous improvement across programmes.

Qualifications

• Experience defining and embedding BA standards across teams.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders on complex requirements.
• Experience leading BA activities in large-scale transformation programmes.
• Strong skills in elicitation, prioritisation, governance, and lifecycle management.
• Experience applying user-centred design: research, service design, testing and evaluation.
• Excellent stakeholder management and consultancy to senior leaders.
• Leadership experience: building capability and coaching teams.
• Ability to translate needs into actionable outcomes amid ambiguity.
• Strong communication and relationship-building with all levels.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex BA activities to shape strategic change and deliver value.
• Analyse business situations to identify opportunities, risks and impacts.
• Define and improve organisation-wide BA standards, methods, tools, and practices.
• Scope, elicit, analyse, prioritise, validate, and manage requirements for large programmes.
• Ensure requirements align with customer needs, regulatory obligations, and objectives.
• Embed user-centred design across initiatives with research, accessibility and usability.
• Build senior stakeholder relationships as a trusted advisor.
• Foster collaboration across business, tech, ops, and delivery teams.
• Provide leadership and assurance for BA activities across programmes.
• Drive continuous improvement in processes, capability, and ways of working.
• Identify opportunities to improve customer experience and efficiency.
• Ensure solutions address genuine business needs and deliver measurable benefits.
• Monitor trends and regulatory developments to inform BA approaches.
• Contribute to developing BA capability through mentoring and knowledge sharing.
• Ensure sustainable, compliant, high-quality outcomes aligned with commitments.

Skills

Business analysis standards

Stakeholder influence

Transformation programmes

Requirements elicitation

User-centred design

Stakeholder management

Leadership and coaching

Complexity navigation

Communication and relationships

Customer-focused change

Job description

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. Let us tell you about all the great reasons to join us here at Yorkshire Water:

• We offer a competitive salary, depending on experience (Up to £70,000)
• Annual incentive related bonus (£1000 maximum bonus opportunity for the performance year)
• Attractive pension scheme (up to 12% company contribution)
• Development opportunities in line with the IT Lead Business Analyst progression plan
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays – plus 2 extra wellness days!
• Life assurance cover of 4 times pensionable salary
• A great benefits package – choose from health cash plan scheme, critical illness insurance, dental insurance, life assurance flex and partner cover.
• Retail savings scheme
• Online GP service, cycle to work scheme, gym membership discounts and many more!

Location: This role will initially be based in Bradford but we’re moving our office to Leeds Valley Park in summer 2026, so you’ll be based there in the future - Hybrid Working (1-2 days in office a week – Bradford/Leeds)

Work type: Permanent. 37 hours per week, Monday – Friday.

We have a number of exciting opportunities for an IT Lead Business Analyst to join the Project team at Yorkshire Water and be a part of helping Yorkshire Water to provide the best service to our customers. Could this be you?

What we do:

Everyone has an idea of what a water company does. Here in Yorkshire, we make sure that over 5.4 million people living in the region and the millions of people who visit our region each year, can rely on our services, and have clean and safe drinking water on tap and that their wastewater is taken away. But for us, it’s so much more than this.

We look after communities, protect the environment, and plan to look after Yorkshire’s water, today, tomorrow 24/7, 365 days a year. We provide essential water and wastewater services to every corner of the Yorkshire region, and play a key role in the region’s health, wellbeing, and prosperity. New environmental legislation, unprecedented levels of investment and changing expectations from customers means that this is an exciting time to discover opportunities within the water industry. The Project team are a key part of how we plan to meet the changing expectations of customers and regulators.

We're looking for a Lead Business Analyst to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering some of Yorkshire Water's most complex, high-value transformation programmes. This is an opportunity to influence organisational direction, work with senior leaders, and ensure that change delivers meaningful outcomes for our customers, colleagues, and communities. As our Lead Business Analyst, you'll provide expert leadership across business analysis, requirements management, and user-centred design, helping to turn ambitious strategies into practical, customer-focused solutions.

Where you fit in:

As our IT Lead Business Analyst, you will:

• Lead complex business analysis activities to shape strategic change, inform executive decision-making, and deliver organisational value.
• Conduct holistic business situation analysis to identify opportunities, risks, dependencies, and impacts within complex and high-impact environments.
• Define, establish, and continuously improve organisation-wide standards, frameworks, methods, tools, and best practices for business analysis and requirements management.
• Lead the scoping, elicitation, analysis, prioritisation, validation, and lifecycle management of requirements for large-scale strategic programmes and initiatives.
• Ensure business requirements and solutions are aligned to customer needs, regulatory obligations, operational objectives, and long-term business outcomes.
• Champion and embed user-centred design principles across change initiatives, ensuring user research, experience design, accessibility, usability, and evaluation activities shape solution development.
• Build, influence, and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders, acting as a trusted advisor to secure alignment, engagement, and consensus on strategic decisions.
• Facilitate collaboration across business, technology, operational, and delivery teams to ensure shared understanding and successful change outcomes.
• Provide leadership and assurance for business analysis activities across programmes and projects, ensuring quality, consistency, and adherence to organisational standards.
• Drive continuous improvement in business processes, organisational capability, and ways of working, leveraging technology, automation, innovation, and best practice.
• Identify and promote opportunities to improve customer experience, service performance, and operational efficiency through effective analysis and change delivery.
• Support the successful delivery of strategic programmes by ensuring solutions address genuine business needs and provide measurable business benefits.
• Monitor emerging trends, industry best practice, and regulatory developments, incorporating insights into business analysis approaches and organisational change initiatives.
• Contribute to the development of business analysis capability across the organisation through coaching, mentoring, knowledge sharing, and professional leadership.
• Ensure change initiatives deliver sustainable, compliant, and high-quality outcomes that support Yorkshire Water's strategic and regulatory commitments.

What skills & qualifications you will need:

• Extensive experience defining and embedding business analysis and requirements management standards across multiple teams or functions.
• A proven track record of influencing senior stakeholders and securing agreement on complex business and technology requirements.
• Significant experience leading business analysis activities within large-scale strategic transformation programmes.
• Strong expertise in requirements elicitation, prioritisation, governance, and lifecycle management.
• Experience implementing user-centred design practices, including user research, service design, testing, and evaluation.
• Excellent stakeholder management and consultancy skills, with the ability to act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and executives.
• Strong leadership and people management experience, including developing capability, coaching teams, setting performance expectations, and driving continuous improvement.
• The ability to navigate complexity and ambiguity, translating business needs into clear, actionable outcomes.
• Exceptional communication, influencing, and relationship-building skills with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• A passion for delivering customer-focused, value-driven change that improves business performance and service outcomes.

Although we operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it’s important to us that we support flexible working patterns and job share options (when we can), to help you make the best of both your work and home life. We know that juggling childcare responsibilities or getting that ideal work/life balance isn’t always easy!

Do we sound like your cup of tea?

Advert closing date : 23rd of July 2026

If successful for the role, you will be required to undergo pre-employment checks that will include a Basic Disclosure Check, carried out through a Third-Party Company, prior to commencing employment. Depending on the role, you may also be required to go through the security vetting process for either a Counter Terrorist Check or Security Check clearance. All our roles are subject to a medical questionnaire, and further medicals when required.

We are committed to removing barriers and ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition that requires changes to the recruitment process, please include this information in your application. We will then discuss any reasonable adjustments required.

Kelda Group reserve the right to close this position before the published closing date, should the need occur. We therefore advise that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible.