Job Description

Introduction

Who we are

The Economist Group is a leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs. We deliver our information through a range of formats, from newspapers and magazines to intelligence platforms, conferences, films and digital editions. What ties us together is the objectivity of our opinion, the originality of our insight and our advocacy of economic and political freedom around the world.

As the research and analysis division of the Economist Group, (EIU) helps leaders prepare for opportunity, empowering them to act with confidence when making strategic decisions. The EIU is the global standard in providing quality, actionable intelligence to the public and private sector, assessing issues that impact the marketplace for over two hundred countries. The business has a large subscription client base, receiving economic, political and industry analysis through our intelligence platform Viewpoint.

Headquartered in London, The Economist Group has offices and people across the globe, and is valued by its customers for its world-class insights and rigorous analysis. We value individuals who think differently and can challenge the status quo.

What were looking for

We are looking for a Senior Business Analyst to join The Economist Groups Business Analysis and Change team.

This role will be focused on a transformation programme to replace our legacy content creation tools, which will allow our content and data to be showcased in more engaging ways and create a platform for the development of new products and services for clients.

The project is split into three key phases. Design: to define our \'to be\' templates, metadata schema and workflow requirements. Build: with an internal team and the vendor, implement their SaaS platform with customisations to support EIU specific scheduling and workflow integrations. Migration: Content migrated and old systems decommissioned.

This role will be working from the beginning to understand the current landscape of business and editorial processes and systems that produce our content. Working with a Product manager and the involved teams to identify current challenges and problems and providing analysis around dependencies, inefficiencies that will feed the future states definition. A level of system analysis will be required in this role so the successful candidate will be used to working with and assessing asset structures, data flows and system capabilities to determine how they can be best used to support the future state.

Activities will range from discovery analysis to framing backlogs and supporting delivery phases. It will include feasibility & scope assessments to ensure business and editorial outcomes are being met during times of complexity across dual platforms. The successful candidate will be partnering with a Product manager and a Change Lead, with a focus to deliver effective value and change.

Accountabilities

Accountabilities

How you will contribute:

• Collaborate with Editorial to understand their future aspirations and how they need to adapt, helping to determine the role of technology and tools in this change.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to deliver technology and products that delight our users through simplicity and clear value.
• Plan and proactively deliver an analysis approach to support investigation into the value and purpose of potential changes.
• Produce high quality analysis and artefacts at the appropriate level of detail that generates a consistent understanding or prompts constructive discussion across Editorial, Data, Product and Engineering teams.
• Propose solutions or options that align with Architectural, Technology, Product or Editorial strategy or be able justify tactical solutions or deviations.
• Drive optimisation, through visualisation of current and target states, informed by quantitative or qualitative metrics that demonstrate progress
• Support and collaborate with the Engineering and QA team through the delivery phase with detailed and well structured requirements and clear acceptance criteria with measures of success
• Support backlog management with appropriate analysis at most appropriate focus and at the level required to solve the problem faced or answer the question at hand
• Facilitate productive and engaging workshops at any and all stages of the process with clear aims and outcomes.
• Collaborate with the Change Lead on this programme to drive a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities
• Drive for improvements to ways of working within the PMO, Delivery team or programme that increases the delivery of value and improvements in team culture.
• Help establish the role of the Business analyst and the value they can bring to this area.

Experience, skills and professional attributes

Experience, skills and professional attributes

To succeed in this role it would be an advantage if you possess:

• Experience of working across end to end Publishing architectures from CMS to Digital product distribution and with an understanding of the challenges faced.
• Knowledge and understanding of successfully implementing Editorial and Media publishing best practice, through people and process change to meet a vision
• Proven methodologies and techniques for transforming analysis and investigation into recommendations across processes, systems, data and products.
• Experience of working as a BA in an agile delivery environment, with an ability to break down larger initiatives into smaller capabilities that deliver incremental value towards the strategic mission.
• Ability to recognise when analysis and investigations should go wider than initially expected and the experience to focus and prioritise their approach.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills and the ability to constructively challenge and play devil's advocate that results in trusted relationships.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills with suitable information at the best level for the audience.
• A highly collaborative work style and the ability to successfully work in a team environment driving collaborative behaviours and psychological safety.
• Understanding and experience with APIs and data migration processes

The Economist Group values diversity. We are committed to equal opportunities and creating an inclusive environment for all our employees. We welcome applicants regardless of ethnic origin, national origin, gender, gender identity, race, colour, religious beliefs, disability, sexual orientation , age or marital status. See more on .

The Economist Group