Business Analyst

Details Reference number 428846 Salary £45,894 - £54,952 A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP Job grade Senior Executive Officer B3 Contract type Fixed term Length of employment 12 months Type of role Other Working pattern Full-time Number of jobs available 1 Contents Location About the job Benefits Things you need to know Apply and further information Location Edinburgh, Scotland, EH11 3XD About the job Job summary Are you ready to play a key role in transforming how student support is delivered across Scotland? This fixed-term role (12 months) sits within the Finance Team at the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) and supports the successful transfer of Further Education Student Support (FESS) functions from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to SAAS, as part of the Post-School Education and Skills Reform Programme. The Finance Team plays a vital role in ensuring that public funds are managed effectively to deliver support to Scotland’s learners. As a Business Analyst, you will work at the heart of this transfer project, collaborating with colleagues across SAAS, including Policy, HR, and Communications, as well as with Scottish Government Reform teams and the Scottish Funding Council. Your main focus will be to design, develop, and embed the processes needed to administer FESS within SAAS. This is a high-impact role offering the chance to shape how support is delivered to students across Scotland. You will be responsible for line managing a Finance Officer who will support transactional data work. A key objective of the role is to assess and adapt existing processes from the Scottish Funding Council, and to develop new management information systems to support ongoing decision-making. With no current system holding historic data on this expenditure, your work will be instrumental in building a strong data foundation for the future. Job description Responsibilities Be responsible for process modelling, using a range of tools and techniques to map business processes (e.g. ‘As-Is’ and ‘To-Be’, gap analysis), that meet the required audit and governance standards for correct stewardship of these funds. Identify risks, issues, dependencies and assumptions and escalate/manage these in line with project processes. Undertake impact analysis of the potential consequences of proposed changes and new ways of working and estimate the scope of change to accomplish relevant objectives within the project design identifying relevant potential stakeholders. Engage stakeholders at all levels by facilitating workshops and presenting on requirements gathering and solution development. Lead on the FESS and Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) budget and approval process. Shadow current FESS and EMA processes operating within SFC for a end of academic year returns and in year redistribution currently operated within SFC and audit returns and guidance. Create and maintain management information on the current and historic FESS and EMA to inform future year allocations and reporting. Design payment processes in Oracle Fusion for FESS and EMA to ensure that payments are made in a timely manner in line with SG purchase to pay best practices. Person specification Success profile Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on. Technical / Professional Skills: Requirement management (the process of capturing stakeholder needs, assessing, defining and justifying those needs to arrive at an agreed schedule of requirements) - Practitioner Level • Solutions development (the ability to identify, document and analyse the various delivery options and select the optimal solution) - Practitioner Level • . Practitioner Level - The position holder knows what needs to be done to deliver programmes/projects and has experience of doing it successfully. They can be expected to work with experts in the field and policy teams to implement and maintain PPM processes, artefacts and able to report and present on the programme/project delivery. Experience Demonstrable experience of gathering and analysing user and business needs in a project delivery environment to support the achievement of outcomes in a business analysis role. Experience of facilitation and stakeholder engagement to collaborate towards the design, build/development and delivery of the project’s user needs. Behaviours: Seeing the big picture – Level 4. Working together - Level 4. You can find out more about here Benefits Alongside your salary of £45,894, Scottish Government contributes £13,295 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. Learning and development tailored to your role An environment with flexible working options A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% Things you need to know Selection process details How to apply Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1000 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment. If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and analysis exercise. Assessments are scheduled for w/c ? 2025 however this may be subject to change. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. Security Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks. Nationality requirements This job is broadly open to the following groups: UK nationals nationals of the Republic of Ireland nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020 Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service Further information on nationality requirements Working for the Civil Service The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles . The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. Diversity and Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy . Apply and further information This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name : Simon Norbury Email : simon.norbury@gov.scot Recruitment team Email : scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot Further information https://fa-evxn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/2196/?utm_medium=jobboard&utm\_source=CivilServiceJobs