Business Analyst

ABOUT USAfrica has an untapped talent pool that is increasing exponentially, with a projected workforce that will exceed India and China by 2035. Fuelled by this, our mission is to create work opportunities for millions of Africa’s youth and solve the world’s shortage of technology talent. Our company SAND has 450+ staff members from 48+ countries with plans to acquire several companies around the world to become a multi-billion dollar global technology services provider that employs over 100K employees across the globe.We have 2 brands represented in our ecosystem:With ALX, we're cultivating the fastest-growing pool of technology talent globally, training aspiring professionals in software engineering, cloud computing, data science, and Salesforce across over 60 countries. ALX fosters a vibrant community for top tech talent, igniting transformative careers by connecting top technology talent with extraordinary opportunities for impact.Through Sand Technologies we support enterprises and scale-ups around the world to develop world-class technology products, build great technology teams, generate more revenue, and deliver outstanding customer experience. Our clients include one of the largest cloud computing providers in the world as well as Bestseller A/S (Denmark), Create Prime (New Zealand), Stanbic Bank (Kenya), and Tamara (Dubai). With varying levels of expertise in software development, data, cloud, machine learning, artificial intelligence, UX design, web development, etc, we provide unparalleled opportunities to technology talent worldwide while reshaping industries, disrupting traditional business models, and creating new opportunities for innovation and growth.We do hard things!ABOUT THE ROLEOur BAs typically occupy 1 of 3 types of roles at any given time depending on the team they join namely:Member in a Discovery team: a 2-6 week strategic project typically at a new clientor in a new domain to help understand the problem landscape and create a potentialdigital solution (using user feedback)Provide business strategy support supporting strategic client work and beinginvolved in business development (answering RFPs etc.)Member of an ongoing Agile development squad joining one of our cross-functional development squads deployed at a client (see below for more detail)Despite the varied roles, we typically see our BAs solving these types of problems (esp. In Discovery teams or as part of an ongoing Agile squad):Supporting the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of developmentAct as a thought partner to Product Owners during prioritisation discussionsWrite user stories, and user acceptance criteria, perform user story mapping and validate existing user stories/featuresSupport the management of the backlog, sprint planning and the ‘Continuous Discovery’ process – incl. being familiar with DevOps toolsOwn the details behind all the user storiesSupport the Dev Team with specific requirements and market research (especially the Product Owners and Tech Leads) Supporting user engagementUser and stakeholder mapping (including persona development)Build stakeholder engagement planning and write-up meetings/actionsBuild relationships with change managers and support activities - e.g. reach and relevance for products or trainingCollect feedback from users (support business change) - e.g. running employee satisfaction surveys and tracking uptakeFacilitating the feedback loop from users to the rest of the squad (supporting the PO) - i.e. raising potential product changes, raising pain points, collecting bugs, offering UI/UX guidanceSupporting value determinationSupport the Product Owner to update the value framework for the squad/domainApply the framework to the squad and track value where possible - i.e. measure KPIs etc.Support the preparation for value reviews - i.e. business case reviewsTestingPerform/facilitate ongoing user acceptance testing (working with users to test correctness where domain knowledge is needed and in line with the user acceptance criteria)Perform ad-hoc testingPerforming supplementary technical analysisUnderstanding (and building if required) As-Is and To-Be processesSupporting data source mapping and/or technical architecture discussionsPerforming analysis related to the domain – i.e. mapping of calculation steps or metrics etc.We are seeking a Business Analyst with 2 – 3 years of experience in the digital project environment. The ideal candidate will have a strong background working within projects delivering Master Data Management solutions. This initial aim is to create an MDM capability to allow our client to clean and synchronise data across multiple enterprise systems. Subsequent project phases will extend this capability to other key data entities. Experience in the UK water utilities industry will be advantageous but not mandatory.The role requires the Business Analyst to be based at the client site in Reading, UK.--Would you like to join us as we work hard, have fun and make history?