Senior Business Analyst

Who we are

We are looking for a skilled and passionate Senior Business Analyst to join our Portfolio & Governance department within Springer Nature Technology. We aim to enable value acceleration across the Springer Nature portfolios for our business and our customers while ensuring a healthy and future-proof technical ecosystem - all at maximum quality and minimum risk. 

You will be joining a distributed cross-functional team with different nationalities, backgrounds and experience levels. All team members collaborate to deliver optimal results for our customers, our business and our colleagues, and we are working to create a culture that encourages new ideas and innovation but within the boundaries of the company guidelines that best suit the vision and strategy that Springer Nature has defined. 

Job Overview

As a Senior Business Analyst in our Portfolio & Governance department within Springer Nature Technology, you will bridge the gap between IT and business, leveraging your expertise in business administration and information technology. You will develop parameters for successful value chains, IT processes, systems, and ecosystems throughout their lifecycle—from strategic planning and investment case development to delivery and operations—while balancing customer, business, and employee perspectives. Your role includes analysing data to predict necessary changes and improve IT products, services, and processes as the business evolves.

You will support the discovery process to explore problem spaces and collaborate closely with Customer Experience (CX) and Enterprise Architecture (EA) teams and other subject matter experts to guide solution design, prepare investment cases, and manage the entire lifecycle of investments and initiatives to achieve Springer Nature’s goals and those of our Technology function. Additionally, you will support our Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) team by conducting technical due diligence and collaborating with IT functions across the application landscape of target and acquired companies. You'll work through data flows, process maps, technical requirements, and other key areas to identify risks, define the business case from the technology perspective, and plan migration and integration work.

You will provide and escalate data to achieve an optimised mix of project investments, make the best use of resources, coordinate across teams and functions, and deliver maximum value and benefits from projects and programs within the portfolio.

What you will be doing in your role

Core Business Analysis

• Liaise between the IT department and the executive branch, acting as an information source and communicator.
• Analyse and solve complex business problems, ensuring technical solutions satisfy key stakeholders.
• Focus on high-quality customer experience and sustainable solutions.
• Assess IT systems and processes, suggesting improvements to meet business needs.
• Understand technical options, limitations, costs, and risks, and communicate tradeoffs to business partners.
• Understand strategic business needs and plans for growth or transformation
• Utilise data and draft reports to develop business insights for decision-making.
• Document current processes and models to identify inefficiencies or gaps.
• Collaborate across business and technology functions to monitor dependencies and provide centralised visibility across initiatives

Portfolio and Demand Management 

• Facilitate ideation sessions, conduct thorough discovery processes, and design effective solutions aligned with business and technology strategies.
• Develop and present comprehensive investment cases, analysing and interpreting data to communicate ROI.
• Consult with technical subject matter experts to develop solutions and advice on options, risks, costs versus benefits, and impacts on other business processes.
• Work with IT teams, business owners, and procurement to assess and evaluate potential vendors during the feasibility phase.
• Support technology portfolio management by identifying opportunities for rationalisation, including legacy technology and application sunsetting.
• Collaborate with the Enterprise Architecture team to raise and address technology risks.
• Guide and support business owners through the full-lifecycle for business-led solutions, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and internal standards (e.g. Security, Data Protection, Code Quality Assurance, Accessibility and more).
• Ensure non-functional requirements are considered during the discovery phase, solution design, vendor assessment, and business case creation.
• Stay current with business and technology trends, championing change and innovation.
• Manage issues and risks within the portfolio, making key tradeoff decisions and facilitating stakeholder discussions to resolve competing priorities.

M&A Technical Due Diligence & post-acquisition integration management

• Oversee and manage all aspects of the tech due diligence process for mergers or acquisitions.
• Liaise with technical representatives of acquisition targets to analyse their processes and technical estate.
• Lead technical due diligence efforts to assess the financial and operational viability of potential targets regarding technology and risk.
• Coordinate and manage the technical integration of acquired businesses.
• Develop and implement strategies to realise maximum value from each acquisition from a technical perspective.
• Work with senior management to ensure all technology-related aspects of mergers or acquisitions are successfully completed.

What you bring to the table 

• Degree in business, finance or technology.
• Extensive experience as a Business Analyst.
• Excellent English language skills, both written and verbal.
• Exceptional collaboration, communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.
• Ability to work independently, take initiative, and be highly organised and detail-oriented.
• High degree of political sensitivity and astuteness.
• Solid business acumen and strong knowledge of ecosystems in IT operations, information security, business systems, and digital product development.
• Ability to quickly learn new business area objectives, structures, operations, and policies.
• Outstanding analytical ability to solve complex problems and communicate technical information concisely to various stakeholders.
• Ability to quickly gain context of your customer, business and stakeholders and how it all connects into the bigger picture of the portfolio landscape
• Experience creating documentation such as business cases and business requirements.
• Experience supporting and/or leading technical due diligence processes in mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, private equity, or a related field.
• Knowledge of the M&A process, including due diligence, valuation, and negotiation.
• Strong analytical and financial modelling skills.
• Flexibility as priorities change, adaptability to change, and ability to accept ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Superior facilitation and consensus-building skills.
• Experience delivering change and improvement via global initiatives.
• Strong conceptual and practical thinking and implementation skills.
• Experience in different project methodologies and multi-methodology contexts.
• Data analysis skills to inform decisions at all levels of the organisation.
• Collaborative team players comfortable taking the lead when necessary.
• Commitment to a high-quality and sustainable IT project, products, and services portfolio.
• Experience driving continuous improvement and innovation across teams.
• Ability to collaborate with multiple distributed teams across different locations, time zones, and cultures.

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