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Global Head of Business Analysis

Delivering and Developing the Business Analysis capability for SN Digital

We're looking for someone to join us to lead and manage our business analysis discipline of approximately 30 people distributed across 8 locations in North America, India, and Europe. You'll be working closely with department leadership, our business analysts, our product teams, and our stakeholders to support and grow an effective business analysis capability.

About Us

SN Digital (SND) is a department of SN Technology which is the technology division of Springer Nature. Our work touches upon all areas of the business; this role is a cross-domain role which will be involved with all of our business partners.

There are about 340 of us in London, Berlin, Lisbon, Pune, New York, Madrid, Dordrecht and Heidelberg. We work in collaborative, multi-disciplinary delivery teams, developing digital products and services that answer user problems and support business goals.

The work is interesting and meaningful.

Our culture is collaborative and friendly.

We encourage and support growth, both personal and professional.

This is a terrific opportunity for anyone who is keen to lead a diverse team of creative people, who love to learn, who will embrace and develop our culture, who want to understand and help our customers, and help make SND a place where people and ideas can thrive.

We are intentionally looking to create teams that are diverse and inclusive. Diversity is the mix of culture, background, experience and personality that we all bring; inclusion is getting the mix to work better together. We want every member of our teams to contribute to our common goals while respecting each other's skills, knowledge and needs, and we want you to help shape an environment that supports and promotes this.

Visit sndigital.springernature.com to learn more about who we are and what we do.

About the role

You'll work with us to champion and support business analysis within our product development process, and build a coherent discipline with a shared approach to the discipline. In collaboration with other leaders, you'll lead the creation and evolution of shared ways of working and standards, and help our business analysts grow themselves and their skill sets to support both the business and their own development, as well as support effective delivery by our product teams. While you won't be working as a business analyst within a team, an understanding and appreciation of the craft are essential to this role.

You'll be collaborating with a wide range of colleagues across multiple locations and with different nationalities, backgrounds, and experience levels to deliver sustainable and innovative solutions to satisfy the needs of business and our customers. As a leader of a geographically distributed discipline some travel will be required.

You will report to the VP Engineering (SN Digital).

About You

• You have experience in business analysis.

• You have experience in managing both other managers as well as individual contributors.

• You work collaboratively and optimise for team over individual success.

• You are proactive and keen to drive collaborative work to identify, investigate, and solve problems.

• You are a champion for our customers and work to develop a customer-centric culture within the business analysis discipline.

• You can demonstrate how you have successfully mentored and supported others in order to grow a business analysis community.

• You are an experienced facilitator who can bring disparate people together to create agreement and alignment.

• You collaborate with key stakeholders to understand business, product, and delivery objectives and drive alignment between their strategies and analysis activities.

• You are an advocate for giving people freedom within a framework and see enablement as a key outcome of leadership.

• You view failure as a chance to share and learn.

• You encourage data-driven decision making, experimentation, and fast feedback cycles.

• You are an advocate for agile approaches and extreme programming methods, including iterative delivery, trunk-based development, and Continuous Integration and Delivery.

• You have experience working with stakeholders and other disciplines to come up with creative solutions to their problems.

• You are comfortable working with remote working practices, and engaging with remote colleagues and teams.

• You have a good command of English; collaboration is important in our day-to-day work, so being able to communicate your ideas and understand others is key.

What you will be doing

3 months

You'll work in collaboration with SN Digital (SND) & business analysis leadership, and our key business stakeholders to gain an understanding of the current landscape and the existing business priorities and strategy.

You will:

• Understand the key organisational structure of SN Technology and its component departments, and where SN Digital sits within this.

• Understand our key business stakeholders and their product and business direction.

• Understand our core customer segments and how their experiences relate to our business priorities and challenges.

• Work with the existing delivery leads and business analysts to start building a high-level knowledge of the various business domains and products.

• Work with our line managers to understand the current state of our structure and management approaches.

• Work with other disciplines and leaders within user experience to understand the user experience and the relationship to the product teams.

• Identify and gain an understanding of the most critical areas in which to focus your attention.

• Work with SN Digital leadership to understand our strategic and tactical context.

• Start building relations with our business analysis leaders, the other discipline leads, the delivery leads, and human resources.

3–6 months

You'll be leveraging your understanding of the current context to begin to work on the most critical gaps and topics, and start building strong relationships with our teams, partners, and stakeholders.

You will:

• Proactively engage to address the most critical issues in the organisational structure of the discipline.

• Support the growth and development of our people management capabilities via our line managers.

• Work with human resources in our locations to support our people management capabilities.

• Deepen working relationships with the other discipline and capability leads, our product team leaders, and our business analysis leaders.

• Support our delivery leads and business stakeholders with resourcing and capability development within the discipline.

• Start influencing and providing leadership in regards to the business analysis capability within SN Digital.

• Work with department and delivery leadership to develop, promote, and support a capability strategy to drive the evolution of business analysis.

• Ensure that a documentation culture is established and maintained for the discipline.

6–12 months

You'll be the recognised leader for the business analysis capability within SN Digital, be looking towards a vision for the future, and building a path to get there.

You will:

• Become a trusted partner with our delivery leads, product groups, and stakeholders.

• Establish a roadmap for building the business analysis practice within SN Digital, including developing the capabilities needed for the future.

• Have high-level knowledge and regular contact with all of our business domains in SN Digital.

• Be an active participant in SND discipline leadership.

Day-to-day Responsibilities

You will need to be autonomous and proactive: you’ll lead work to support and develop both our business analysis capability and our management of business analysts.

You will:

• Create community and shared ways of working within the discipline, both in delivery and in management.

• Foster a safe and collaborative business analysis community in SN Digital, growing specialist knowledge and cultivating knowledge sharing in and across teams and disciplines.

• Seek opportunities for improvement of business analysis in our product development & software delivery methods and ways of working.

• Foster a safe and collaborative management community in SN Digital, growing line management skills and sharing tools and techniques.

• Support and champion diversity, equity, and inclusion within both the department and the wider company.

• Work with and support our line managers to support and grow our people.

• Structure and support career development within the discipline and alignment with other business analysis groups across the business.

• Support and improve our recruitment processes.

• Collaborate with our business analysis leaders in the discipline to create consensus and alignment.

• Work with our other discipline leads to align our approaches and support SN Digital as a whole.

• Prioritise tasks to meet immediate needs, while remaining aligned with the strategic vision.

• Use your analysis and facilitation skills to support the department in aligning on strategic priorities.

• Work with teams and stakeholders to communicate and enforce business analysis standards and ways of working.

• Work with our delivery leaders to support the resourcing and structures necessary for effective delivery.

• Ensure our standards and ways of working are accurately documented and maintained.

• Be an active participant in group ceremonies.

• Mentor and help grow both leaders and managers within the discipline.

• Seek continuous improvement in our product building capabilities by encouraging closer collaboration between the disciplines, other product teams, and stakeholders.

• Ensure SN Digital leadership have an overview of the business analysis capability.

Employment package

For all roles in all locations, we offer a competitive, industry-benchmarked salary. 

To find out more about the package provided at each location, please visit sndigital.springernature.com.

To apply please upload a copy of your CV and cover letter, also stating your salary expectations.

About SpringerNature

Springer Nature employs more than 10,000 people in over 50 markets, and is home to some of the best-known names in research, educational and professional publishing. 

Working at the heart of a changing industry, we are always looking for great people who care about delivering quality to our customers and the communities we work alongside. In return, we provide opportunities to learn from some of the best in the business, with a culture that encourages curiosity and empowers people to find solutions and act on their instincts.

We value the diversity of our teams and work to build an inclusive culture, where people are treated fairly and can bring their differences to work and thrive. We empower our colleagues and value their diverse perspectives as we strive to attract, nurture and develop the very best talent.

Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here. If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact our recruitment team so we can make all necessary accommodation. #LI-CO1

Springer Nature is a Disability Confident Committed Employer and we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities. If you consider yourself to have a disability or learning difficulty and wish to submit your application in an alternative format or would like to discuss reasonable adjustments during the application and interview process, please get in touch either by phone on +44 (0)207 014 4020 or by email SpringerNatureUKCareers@springernature.com so we can make any necessary arrangements.

 

If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact us so we can make all necessary accommodation.

 

At Springer Nature we value the diversity of our teams. We recognize the many benefits of a diverse workforce with equitable opportunities for everyone. We strive for an inclusive workplace that empowers all our colleagues to thrive. Our search for the best talent fully encompasses and embraces these values and principles. Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here https://group.springernature.com/gp/group/taking-responsibility/diversity-equity-inclusion

For more information about career opportunities in Springer Nature please visit https://careers.springernature.com/

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