Digital Business Analyst

We have an exciting opportunity for a Digital Business Analyst within our Costa Coffee IT Team based in Dunstable. You will pro-actively apply a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of the business to provide solutions to business problems within Whitbread PLC.

About Whitbread:

We're the UK's biggest hospitality company, proud to own Costa Coffee, Premier Inn and some of the UK's most well-known restaurants. We employ around 50,000 people, serving around 27 million UK customers every month across our 3,000+ hotels, coffee shops and restaurants.

Behind the brands is a technology function that helps to create our leading customer experience. We've invested GBP150m in technology over the last 3 years, to provide the foundations for capabilities to help us win in our markets both in the UK and internationally.

Trend-bucking growth. An increasingly global profile. The huge popularity of our brands. Make no mistake, our business is thriving, and with further expansion planned, the future promises to be even more exciting. As we continue to develop and grow, this is your chance to be part of our story.

Whitbread is an inclusive employer, strongly believing that everyone is unique and there should be no limits to ambition. We welcome your application whatever your background or situation. We are open to flexible working and, where possible, will try to support this.

About the Digital Business Analyst role:

This is an exciting time to join Costa due to significant IT investment and major programmes of work being delivered. There is a vacancy within the newly formed Business Analysis team which requires the individual to have a flexible approach to the role and a variety of skills across the lifecycle of a project.

The Business Analyst will work across the full business change project lifecycle on a range of business and IT projects. They must be able to work closely with senior management, end-users, technical staff and product owners to identify solutions through undertaking structured reviews of current business processes.

Business Analysts will support project initiatives including identifying and analysing preliminary business needs, benefits, time and resource estimates, defining the project scope and objectives to meet strategic organisational goals. As such this role also supports the definition of business cases and benefits tracking.

The Business Analyst is expected to have a view across multiple projects within a family of projects or a programme in order to spot synergies and overlapping projects or requirements.

What you'll be doing:

• Establishes relationships with customers by being proactive, displaying in depth knowledge of their business processes and managing the development and implementation of business solutions
• Lead requirements elicitation sessions, stakeholder interviews, group sessions, user observations and/or use other techniques to identify business need or requirement with stakeholders of all levels
• Interfaces regularly with business unit managers to define project direction, system change priorities and business objectives
• Interpret and replay the requirements to all stakeholders at both a strategic and operational level
• Business case development
• Work with key stakeholders to define benefits associated with specific change initiatives and ensure these are measurable
• Ensure projects deliver functionality, efficiency savings and cost reductions in line with stakeholder expectations
• Translate user requirements into functional specifications according to standard templates, using natural language
• Work closely with technical and development teams to ensure specifications are "fit for purpose" and solutions meet users requirements and satisfaction
• Management of the change process within each business unit as processes and systems are developed
• Support of test plan creation and delivery of testing within agreed timescales and the provision of sign-off of the release of developments put into use
• Good quality deliverables (well presented, complete, accurate, concise)
• Requirements
• Processes
• Business cases
• Functional specifications
• Use stories
• Test Cases

What we'd like you to have:

• Experience of projects in one or more of; Finance systems, retail systems (especially tills), marketing / loyalty platforms, digital systems (mobile applications)
• Possesses a broad knowledge of technical and business resources and uses them to effectively co-ordinate own work
• Knowledge of Agile and Waterfall project methodology and managing full lifecycle of programmes from definition to final delivery
• Proficient knowledge of requirements elicitation, processes and analysis
• Commercial acumen
• Comprehensive knowledge of the application of Use Cases, Process Maps, Data Flows and Diagrams
• Experience of managing relationships between external partners and internal stakeholders to deliver project objectives
• Business case development
• Good stakeholder management
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to successfully facilitate groups of business leads and external parties - some of whom maybe more senior

What we're offering:

• Competitive Salary
• Flexible Working
• 35 hour weeks
• Up to a 30% bonus
• 10% Matched Pension
• Private Medical Insurance (Family Cover)
• 25days holiday + bank holidays
• Privilege Card (50% off Premier Inn's, 25% off Costa Coffees).