Business Systems Data Analyst

Role summary/purpose of job

There are three key towers within the IT organisation: Technology, Data and Product.

The Data Tower is responsible for maximising the value of the firm's data assets, enabling consistent, trusted and strategically governed data products across the firm.

The Data Office Delivery team works closely with business stakeholders to understand business challenges, define data and reporting requirements, and deliver data products that drive operational efficiency, informed decision-making and business value. 

The Business Systems Analyst acts as a key interface between the Data Office and the business. Working as one of the primary business-facing analysts within the team, the role is responsible for engaging stakeholders, understanding business processes, gathering and documenting business and data requirements, and supporting the successful delivery of data products, reporting solutions and process improvements. 

Working closely with business stakeholders, Data Product Owners, Data Engineers, architects and delivery teams, the role supports the full delivery lifecycle from work intake and discovery through to implementation and business adoption. The Business Systems Analyst combines business process analysis, data analysis and stakeholder engagement skills to ensure business needs are translated into clear, actionable and deliverable requirements. 

For larger initiatives, the role supports discovery, process mapping, impact assessment and requirements definition activities, helping to ensure solutions are aligned to business objectives, user needs and the firm's data strategy.

Key responsibilities and deliverables
Business Process Analysis

• Develop an understanding of business processes, systems, data domains and enterprise data flows to support analysis and solution delivery.
• Analyse and document current-state and future-state business processes, data flows and information requirements.
• Produce process maps, data flow diagrams, system context diagrams, data mapping artefacts and other analysis deliverables to support business and technical stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, enhance data quality, increase automation and reduce manual effort.
• Assess the impact of proposed changes on business processes, systems, enterprise data and reporting outcomes.
• Support the definition and documentation of business rules, data definitions and critical data elements.
• Ensure alignment between business requirements, enterprise data standards and intended business outcomes.

Requirements Gathering & Definition

• Elicit, validate and document business, enterprise data and reporting requirements through workshops, interviews and stakeholder engagement activities.
• Translate business needs into clear, delivery-ready requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, reporting logic and governed business rules.
• Document data requirements, including source systems, business definitions, data quality expectations, calculations and consumption requirements.
• Assess the impact of change requests and support prioritisation of competing demands.
• Maintain requirements traceability throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Work with business stakeholders and delivery teams to ensure requirements remain aligned to business objectives and enterprise data standards.

Collaboration & Delivery Support

• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and Data Office delivery teams.
• Work closely with Data Product Owners, Data Engineers, architects, developers and business stakeholders to clarify business, process and enterprise data requirements.
• Translate business, process and data requirements into delivery-ready specifications and supporting artefacts.
• Support backlog refinement, prioritisation and requirements clarification activities throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Collaborate with delivery teams to define acceptance criteria and support testing and validation activities.
• Support the successful handover of requirements and analysis artefacts into delivery and implementation teams.
• Promote alignment between business objectives, enterprise data standards and delivered solutions.
• Support delivery teams in understanding business context, intended outcomes and enterprise data requirements to ensure successful implementation.

Change Enablement & Adoption

• Support the implementation of new data products, reporting solutions and business capabilities.
• Assess business impacts and support adoption activities where required.
• Develop user journeys, process documentation and supporting materials.
• Support stakeholders in understanding new ways of working, business processes and enterprise data.
• Assist with the definition and communication of business changes resulting from new data products and capabilities.
• Support business readiness activities to ensure solutions can be successfully adopted and embedded into operational processes.
• Ensure delivered solutions align with business needs, user expectations and operational requirements.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as one of the primary points of engagement between the Data Office and business stakeholders.
• Build strong working relationships across business, technology and data teams to support the successful delivery of Data Office initiatives.
• Facilitate workshops, discovery sessions, requirements gathering activities and stakeholder reviews.
• Communicate business, process, system and enterprise data concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Elicit information from stakeholders to understand business challenges, opportunities, processes and data requirements.
• Manage stakeholder expectations and support informed decision-making throughout the data product lifecycle.
• Work collaboratively with business stakeholders to identify opportunities to improve business processes, data quality, reporting and data consumption.
• Collaborate with the wider Business Analysis, Data Office and Technology communities to promote best practice and consistent delivery approaches.

New Work Intake & Prioritisation

• Manage the end-to-end intake process for new requests entering the Data Office delivery pipeline.
• Act as an initial point of contact for business stakeholders seeking support from the Data Office.
• Facilitate discovery sessions to understand business challenges, opportunities, enterprise data requirements and desired outcomes.
• Gather, document and refine business, enterprise data and reporting requirements to support prioritisation and delivery planning.
• Produce discovery outputs, high-level requirements, problem statements and supporting documentation.
• Assess business value, feasibility, risks, dependencies and alignment with Data Office priorities and strategy.
• Work with business stakeholders, Data Product Owners and delivery teams to shape requests into delivery-ready initiatives.
• Coordinate the handover of approved requirements, data definitions and supporting artefacts to delivery teams for data ingestion, engineering and implementation.
• Support prioritisation and backlog management activities to ensure demand is aligned with business value and delivery capacity.
• Maintain visibility of requests through the intake and delivery process, ensuring stakeholders are informed of progress, decisions and next steps.

Key requirements (Communication/skills/experience)

Technical Proficiency

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to understand business processes, enterprise data and reporting requirements.
• Demonstrate an understanding of enterprise data concepts, including data quality, data lineage, master data, reference data and business rules.
• Use SQL to interrogate, analyse and validate data in support of business analysis, requirements gathering and issue investigation.
• Analyse datasets to identify trends, anomalies, data quality issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Support the definition and validation of reporting logic, calculations, KPIs and business metrics.
• Demonstrate proficiency in Microsoft Office products, particularly Excel, Visio and PowerPoint.
• Use delivery and collaboration platforms such as Azure DevOps, Jira, Confluence and related tooling.
• Understand data product delivery concepts and the relationship between business requirements, enterprise data and technical implementation.

Core Experience

• Degree qualified in Business, Data Analytics, Information Systems, Technology, Mathematics, Economics or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to understand business challenges and identify practical solutions.
• Experience engaging with stakeholders to understand business needs and document requirements.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical and data concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Experience working collaboratively within cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively in a fast-paced delivery environment.
• Familiarity with Agile delivery methodologies and ways of working.
• Experience using data and evidence to support analysis, decision-making and recommendation development.

Additional Desirable Experience

• Experience working within a Data Office, Data & Analytics, Reporting, Information Management or Business Intelligence function.
• Exposure to enterprise data management principles, including data governance, data quality, data stewardship and metadata management.
• Experience working with business intelligence and data visualisation tools such as Power BI, Tableau or similar platforms.
• Exposure to SQL, cloud data platforms, data warehouses or analytics environments such as Databricks, Azure Data Services or similar technologies.
• Experience working in a global legal, professional services or other regulated environment.
• Exposure to data product delivery, product operating models or Agile delivery frameworks.
• Business Analysis, Agile or Scrum certification, or a willingness to work towards professional accreditation.

Inclusion

Freshfields is an equal opportunities employer and all applications received by the firm will be considered by the firm on the basis of their merit alone and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals regardless of background. All offers of employment will be conditional on the candidate having/securing the right to work in the UK and providing the firm with evidence of that right (as required by the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006) prior to employment commencing.

Freshfields is a Ban the Box employer. We ask applicants to disclose criminal convictions only when a conditional job offer is made. A conviction does not automatically lead to withdrawal of the offer: we make decisions on a case by case basis and take a number of factors into account (eg the role you are applying for and the circumstances of the offence). You would have the opportunity to discuss the matter with us before we make a decision.