Senior Business Analyst

**Job Title: Senior Business Analyst**



**Department/Division/Faculty: Student Systems, AAD**



**Grade 8 £45,585-£54,395 per annum (with an Oxford University Weighting of
£1,500 (pro rata) per annum to be applied from 1 August 2024)**





The University of Oxford is a stimulating work environment, which enjoys an
international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence. Our research
plays a key role in tackling many global challenges, from reducing our carbon
emissions to developing vaccines during a pandemic.





**Department**



In Student Systems, we are pivotal to shaping the direction of technology use
and the developments of Digital Education services within the University
Administration. Our aim is to enhance the student, administrative, and
academic experience through the development and implementation of the central
Student administration system and its supporting functions.





As a key member of our team of business analysts, you will collaborate closely
with both business and technical staff. Your role will be crucial in
identifying and communicating the requirements for our new and updated
systems, ensuring they meet the needs of our users and drive continuous
improvement.





The role is advertised as Grade 8, with the corresponding Job Description, but
we would be happy to receive applications from anyone who does not yet meet
those criteria fully and could take on the role as a Business Analyst at Grade
7 (£36,024-£44,263 per annum) with an appropriate reduction in
responsibilities.





**What We Offer**



As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ wellbeing and this is
reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:





• An excellent contributory pension scheme



• 38 days annual leave



• A comprehensive range of childcare services



• Family leave schemes



• Cycle loan scheme



• Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans



• Membership to a variety of social and sports clubs





This role also offers the opportunity for hybrid working.





**About the Role**





Student Systems has a vacancy on a permanent contract for a Business Analyst
to contribute to the development of the University’s administrative systems
used by staff and students. The successful candidates will work closely with
both Student Systems staff and with the Education IT Portfolio team, as well
as with business stakeholders across the University administration.





Over the past year, the University has re-engineered its approach to
technology developments, and the Education Portfolio is at the forefront of
these exciting changes. Student Systems is expanding and developing its
Analyst and Test teams to support new developments in many areas; we have
implemented new methodologies to enable continuous improvements to our
existing systems, which enable our business analysts to work in an agile and
flexible way, using Scrum methodology and teams to deliver rapid developments
to our users.





As a business analyst, you will be working with many of the departments and
functions across the University Administrative Services division, representing
their user needs, and formulating initiaves a at the heart of a range of user-
centric improvements across the many functions in the University.



Your work will offer you the opportunity to both work independently on shaping
the initatives and collaboratively with a fast-moving and compact group,
helping the developers deliver these changes in the most efficient and timely
way.





You will find yourself working on many different aspects of the Education
Portfolio – all providing systems to help with the journey of our world-class
students through their higher education – examples are our Admissions
departments, Examinations, Disability Services, Student Registry and Degree
Ceremonies. The Business Analyst is in the enviable position of being able to
engage with a broad range of these aspects of Student and University life, and
become a trusted ally in helping stakeholders get the best from the systems
they use.





Upcoming and current projects include reimagining our Student Fees and Funding
systems, the development and expansion of our new Student app, MyOxford, which
acts as a central point of communication for college and departmental
information to the mobiles of our students, a new Undergraduate Admissions
Testing initiative to assist us in identifying the best applicants, along with
many systems improvements to enable our students, and the staff who help them,
to interact efficiently with University services.





**About You**



As a business analyst, you will be based in the Student Systems Department,
and work co-operatively as part of a cross-functional project team alongside
colleagues from IT Services, the Academic Administration Division, Academic
Divisions and Departments, and Colleges.





For this role, you will be able to show your ability to apply communication,
negotiation and analytical skills to collect, collate and document processes
and propose alternative approaches to proposed developments.





The successful candidate will be expected to use their written and verbal
communication skills to identify and communicate the requirements of new
systems, and possess an ability to evaluate alternative approaches and
solutions, and work effectively with business and technical staff to support
developers and the project team in delivering new solutions in an efficient
and timely manner.





Knowledge of technology project lifecycles and processes would be helpful, as
would experience of reviewing, assessing, and improving business processes, in
the Higher Education sector or elsewhere. Experience of some university
administration systems, which would allow you to recognise user requirements,
would be helpful.





However, the Department is willing to help suitable candidates further develop
their sector-specific knowledge and business analysis skills where required.





An ability to complete project documentation and knowledge of common desktop
tools would be helpful – especially Microsoft Excel. Knowledge of development
in Tribal SITS or Microsoft Dynamics would be helpful and provide an insight
into the development implications of decisions, but is not essential. Both
Waterfall and Scrum methodologies are used for managing development.





**Application Process**



For an informal discussions about the position, please contact Jeremy Welch,
Head of Technology Developments via Jeremy.welch@admin.ox.ac.uk.





You will be required to upload a covering letter/supporting statement, CV and
the details of two referees as part of your online application.





The closing date for applications is 12noon on 10 September 2024.





Interviews are planned to take place during week commencing 23 September 2024
and will be held in person in central Oxford.