Senior Business Analyst

Senior Business Analyst – Finance, Payroll & Data

Contract | Outside IR35 | 6 Months | Remote

Day rate: Competitive, dependent on experience

The Role

We're recruiting a Senior Business Analyst for a 6-month contract, engaged on an Outside IR35 basis, working primarily remotely. This role sits within the Finance space, supporting a Finance & Data-focused programme, and requires a candidate who can hit the ground running with strong domain knowledge of Finance and Payroll business processes.

This is a proactive, hands-on role — the successful candidate will need to confidently command and lead workshops with stakeholders across Finance, Payroll, Data, and Technology teams, driving requirements gathering and analysis without heavy oversight.

Key Responsibilities

* Lead and facilitate workshops with senior Finance, Payroll, and Data stakeholders to elicit, challenge, and document business requirements

* Analyse and document current-state (as-is) and future-state (to-be) Finance and Payroll business processes

* Translate complex Finance and Data requirements into clear functional and non-functional specifications

* Work closely with Data teams to ensure Finance/Payroll data flows, definitions, and structures are accurately captured and aligned to business needs

* Identify process gaps, inefficiencies, and risks within existing Finance & Payroll operations, recommending improvements

* Produce high-quality BA deliverables: process maps, requirements documentation, user stories, and data mapping artefacts

* Act as the key liaison between Finance business stakeholders and technical/data delivery teams

* Support UAT planning and execution, ensuring solutions meet documented Finance and Payroll requirements

* Proactively manage ambiguity, taking ownership of analysis workstreams with minimal direction

Essential Experience

* Proven track record as a Senior Business Analyst, ideally within Finance transformation or Finance & Data programmes

* Direct experience working on Finance & Data projects — this is a core requirement, not a nice-to-have

* Strong working knowledge of Finance and Payroll business processes (e.g. general ledger, reconciliation, payroll processing, financial reporting, month-end close)

* Confident, experienced workshop facilitator — able to lead sessions with senior stakeholders and drive outcomes

* Highly proactive, self-directed working style, comfortable operating with autonomy

* Strong requirements-gathering, process mapping, and documentation skills

* Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills across business and technical audiences

* Experience working within Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery environments

Desirable

* Experience with Finance/ERP systems (e.g. SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Financials, Workday)

* Data-specific BA experience (data mapping, data governance, data migration)

* Formal BA certification (e.g. BCS, CBAP, IIBA)

* Experience within regulated or complex organisational environments
Only candidates based in UK and eligible to work in UK are allowed