Senior Business Analyst - 12 Month FTC

Who we are

We're Future, a global leader in specialist media. Our people bring our trusted brands to life, helping millions of people discover expert content that informs, inspires, and drives action. As a pioneering multiplatform media powerhouse, we provide expert content and technology that build valuable communities across all channels.

The Circulation IT team plays an integral part towards the success of Marketforce’s  goals and ability to deliver on the strategic direction for the business. The technology and an array of bespoke integrated systems support business processes, ensuring Marketforce remains the No 1 UK publisher newsstand distributor. Marketforce is part of a wider publishing family within Future PLC whilst also at the same time provisioning and servicing 3rd party publisher clients

The Circulation IT team supports the needs of the business, across its systems, delivering on the roadmap with large-scale projects whilst also being part of a wider central Technology team for Future PLC. 

What you'll do

We are seeking a highly autonomous and delivery-focused Senior Business Analyst to join our team on a fixed-term contract. In this role, you will operate as the sole BA on high-priority software development roadmap items. You will take complete end-to-end ownership of the analysis and requirements lifecycle for your assigned projects, working independently with minimal supervision.

Reporting directly to the Project Manager, you will be the driving force behind requirements engineering, solution validation, and feature delivery. Because you will be managing the BA domain entirely on your own, you must bring hands-on project management experience, a strong, practical understanding of software project planning, and the technical aptitude to interact directly with project data. Crucially, you will act as a central hub for the project, proactively managing and coordinating stakeholders across all phases of delivery.

Autonomous Business Analysis

• Sole Ownership of Software Projects: Act as the dedicated, standalone BA for assigned software development initiatives, managing the entire requirements lifecycle autonomously from discovery to deployment.
• Requirements Engineering: Elicit, analyse, and translate complex business rules and user needs into clear, actionable requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Functional & Feature Documentation: Create, own, and maintain comprehensive Functional Requirements Specifications  (FRSs), feature documentation, technical specifications, and process workflows.
• Workshop Facilitation: Independently plan and lead requirement-gathering and solution-design workshops with engineering teams, SMEs, and business stakeholders.
• Testing & Validation: Lead Unit Testing validation and manage the complete User Acceptance Testing (UAT) lifecycle, including test scenario creation, defect triaging, and securing final stakeholder sign-off.

Project Management, Governance & Stakeholder Coordination

• Stakeholder Management & Coordination: Actively lead stakeholder management across all phases of the project. You will independently lead project meetings, coordinate cross-functional stakeholders, and ensure continuous alignment from kickoff to go-live.
• PM Partnership & Communications: Partner closely with the Project Managers to ensure projects align with overarching delivery goals. Support the PM in senior-level communications by creating presentation slides and maintaining tracker sheets to monitor overall project timelines, milestones, and deliverables. Lead project steering group meetings when required. 
• Planning & Sequencing: Leverage your PM experience to actively contribute to sprint and project planning, roadmap sequencing, and backlog grooming.
• Project Governance: Maintain strict adherence to project governance standards. Manage and report on risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies (RAID) specific to your roadmap items. Lead the creation and management of the project timeline.

What you’ll bring

• Proven experience as a Business Analyst, specifically operating within Software Development lifecycles (SDLC).
• Demonstrated ability to work as the sole BA on complex software projects, driving initiatives forward independently as a self-starter.
• Highly developed stakeholder coordination skills. You must be adept at leading meetings, driving consensus across various phases of a project, commanding a room, and confidently managing expectations or pushing back when necessary.
• Expert proficiency in requirements elicitation, process modelling, user story mapping, and writing functional specifications.
• Hands-on experience transforming requirements into test scenarios, executing unit testing validation and independently driving complex UAT phases.
• Strong, practical experience with project management frameworks (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall). You must understand how to navigate PM governance, risk management, and structured project planning.
• Experience developing user manuals, training materials, or release notes, and supporting business readiness activities for software rollouts.

What we offer

• Uncapped leave
• Enhanced parental leave
• Discounted rates with Dental care and Private Medical care
• When we hit our targets, enjoy a share of our profits with a bonus
• Refer a friend scheme - with payment following the successful hire.
• Well-being support with access to our Colleague Assistant Programmes
• Opportunity to purchase shares in Future, with our Share Incentive Plan
• Salary sacrifice Pension scheme up to 5% match
• Free drinks and snacks in our offices
  

The expected range for this role is £75,000 - £85,000

This is a hybrid role, working two days per week from our London Paddington office on a Monday and Wednesday

Internal job family level Technology 5

Inclusion and Diversity at Future
At Future, we’re working to attract, retain and foster diverse talent, educating our colleagues in the importance of diversity, and review our internal processes so that they remain as free from bias as possible. We recognise that, in order to reach diverse communities through our content, we must first ensure ours is a culture in which diversity can thrive.

Find out more about Our Future, Our Responsibility on our website.

If you need any reasonable adjustments, please let us know and we'll be happy to support you.

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