Business Analyst

Who we are and what we do

At Hachette Learning (formerly Hodder Education), there’s one thing we’re certain about. No two students learn the same way. That’s why our approach to teaching begins by recognising the needs of individuals first. Our mission is to enable every learner to fulfil their unique potential by empowering those who teach them. From our expert teaching and learning resources to our digital educational tools that make learning easier and more accessible for all, we provide solutions designed to maximise the impact of learning for every teacher, parent and student.

Aligned with our parent company, Hachette Livre, founded in 1826, we’re proud to deliver high-quality learning solutions on a global scale. We make it easier for everyone to unlock a new world of learning.

Hachette Learning is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 11 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

What you'll be doing

As a Business Analyst, you will identify, define and document business processes and software requirements to be developed. You’ll liaison between business and IT teams by facilitating communication and determining objectives that align with stated and unstated business needs. Reporting directly to the Director of Technology, you will be responsible for shaping and delivering innovative digital products and services, designed to transform lives of teachers and students alike.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strong stakeholder management both internal and external.
• Obtain a deep understanding of relevant business area(s) to be able to recommend solutions and build high-quality requirements.
• Use a variety of techniques to understand business requirements, such as interviews, workshops, surveys, site visits, and storyboards.
• Shape business requirements by making recommendations and suggesting alternatives to proposed solutions.
• Understand technical options, limitations, costs, and risks. Communicate trade-offs to business partners and work with them to shape requirements accordingly.
• Translate conceptual user requirements into clear, detailed functional requirements.
• Work with business and delivery teams to prioritize requirements.
• Help resolve competing priorities between stakeholder groups by facilitating stakeholder discussions and escalate issues where appropriate.
• Manage requirements scoping throughout the delivery process.
• Create artifacts as appropriate, including business case documentation, scope documentation, process flows, project specification documents and ‘user stories’.
• Support delivery teams as they develop, test, and deploy solutions.
• Review delivery team output to ensure requirements are correctly interpreted; define and execute test cases.
• Document current processes and models to understand inefficiencies or gaps.
• Identify and assist in prioritizing opportunities to streamline business processes.
• Advocate and promote agile deliverables.
• Collaborating with subject-matter experts to ensure digital platforms meet standards including accessibility and inclusion.
• Plan relevant work cycles with the key internal stakeholders, digital team, and development stakeholders.

Who we are looking for

You are an inquisitive and driven Business Analyst with experience in scoping and delivering digital products and services from inception to release.

• You are proficient/or have a good understanding of Agile and Scrum methodologies.
• You are resilient and a problem solver at heart. You know how to turn any obstacle into an exciting opportunity.
• You are proactive and have an ability to report and raise issues proactively, proposing potential solutions where required.
• You are confident in leading interdisciplinary service delivery, while reporting into a range of key stakeholders.
• You are charismatic leader and self-motivated team player who is happy to create and develop interdisciplinary- working practices, to support business transformation with minimum hand holding.
• You are an eloquent communicator: able to report proactively internally as well as communicate briefs and requirements with clarity to the developers, with an ability to challenge their response.

Good to have:

• You strive for impact in the classroom, based on learner/teacher-centric design approaches and considerations.

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org