Lead Business Analyst

BAE Systems.; Preston; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading defence contractor in Preston is seeking a Lead Business Analyst to lead analysis on a major programme. You'll be responsible for understanding business needs, managing stakeholders, and directing a team of Business Analysts. This role offers a competitive salary of approximately £45,000, plus a range of employee benefits including flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Employee share plans

Flexible health and wellbeing benefits

Green car scheme

Qualifications

• Experience of eliciting, documenting and prioritising requirements for technical projects.
• Previous experience of stakeholder management across multiple functions.

Responsibilities

• Understand business needs and define project scope.
• Lead the Business Analyst function on a major programme.
• Support and direct a team of Business Analysts.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Requirements elicitation

Business process analysis

Education

Recognised Business Analysis qualifications (e.g., BCS BA Diploma)

IT qualification (e.g., ITIL certification)

Job description

Overview

Job Title: Lead Business Analyst

Location: Preston. We offer a range of hybrid and flexible working arrangements - please speak to your recruiter about the options for this particular role

Salary: Circa £45,000 dependent on experience

Responsibilities

• Leading on understanding the business need when demand enters the programme, define initial project scope and be able to articulate the supporting business justification
• Leading BA function on a major programme of work
• Creating programme level approaches Business Analysis
• Keeping holistic view across the programme and ensure best practice is followed
• Supporting and directing a team of Business Analysts on their daily project expectations and help unblock their issues
• Attending programme level stakeholder meetings to be the voice of Business Analysis
• Reporting into the Senior BA/Capability Lead making sure issues are escalated and seek their support and oversight where needed
• Prioritising BA deliverables and communicate these to the project BA's

Qualifications

Essential:

• Experience of eliciting, documenting and prioritising requirements for technical projects, including leading workshops for requirements and business process capture
• Previous experience of stakeholder management including influencing different levels of stakeholder multiple business functions and areas

Desirable:

• Demonstrable experience of working within a structured and well governed IT Project environment
• Recognised Business Analysis qualifications such as BCS BA Diploma, IIBA, Agile BA
• IT qualification such as ITIL certification
• Experience of working at a programme level or delivering across multiple simultaneous projects
• Evidence of analysing and documenting complex business processes
• Experience leading a small team

Benefits

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts - you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The Business Analyst team

We are a team of experienced Business Analyst professionals who deliver an end-to-end capability by engaging early on in the process to establish the needs of our customers, elicit their requirements, understand the impact of the change, and deliver tangible benefits. We provide a wide range of Service Offerings underpinned by industry recognised tools and techniques.

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you\'ll be able to make a real difference. You\'ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you\'ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 14th October 2025

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.