Senior Business Analyst

Why work for us?

We're more than just tools and we offer more than just a job. We've been family run since day one so working at Draper Tools is about being a part of the extended Draper family - a family that is rich in history, heritage and continued success.

We know our people make our company what it is and our teams are passionate about new ideas, new ways of working and continuous improvement, so we work hard to make sure each person has the tools they need to thrive and succeed.

The Role

Our IT department sits at the heart of an ambitious digital transformation programme, driving system modernisation and operational improvements across the whole business so we are looking to grow our team to help us with this journey.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Business Analyst to join us and play a central role in shaping how Draper Tools operates in the future. This is a high-impact, autonomous position for someone who is comfortable moving between discovery, design and delivery in short cycles rather than waiting for everything to be perfect before progress is made. We don't follow a rigid methodology, but we do expect work to move at pace, adapt as understanding develops, and deliver value incrementally rather than all at once.

This role will work closely with our own in-house development team, but you will be trusted to take full ownership of significant pieces of work, and you will have direct visibility of the outcomes your work creates.

Due to the close working relationships you will need to form with stakeholders across the business, there will be a requirement to be based at our Head Office in Chandlers Ford full time, with some flexibility to work remotely on occasion.

Working as our Senior Business Analyst your role will include:

• Leading business analysis activities across multiple departments, ensuring you're building understanding progressively, rather than waiting for a complete picture before moving forward.
• Engaging stakeholders at all levels through interviews, workshops and informal conversations, and building trusted relationships across departments quickly.
• Identifying inefficiencies, manual workarounds and opportunities for improvement, bringing findings back to the team quickly so that decisions can be made and work can progress.
• Developing and refining process models collaboratively, revisiting and updating them as understanding evolves throughout delivery rather than treating them as fixed upfront artefacts.
• Producing documentation that is fit for purpose and proportionate to the task - clear and well-structured, but not over-engineered for its own sake.
• Maintain a living library of process and requirements documentation that is updated as work progresses and systems evolve, rather than left to go stale post-delivery.
• Define acceptance criteria in close collaboration with the development team, supporting testing and validation throughout the delivery cycle rather than only at the end.
• Keeping stakeholders informed and engaged throughout delivery and keep feedback continuous so there are no unexpected surprises.
• Effectively managing priorities, ensuring work continues to move forward and make good progress.
• Proactively identifying manual, repetitive or time-intensive processes across the business that are strong candidates for automation or AI-assisted improvement.
• Working with the development team and relevant vendors to define requirements for automation solutions, including workflow automation, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI-driven tooling.
• Ensuring that automation and AI initiatives are grounded in a clear understanding of the underlying business process, avoiding the risk of automating a broken process rather than fixing it first.

• Proven experience as a Senior Business Analyst or Business Analyst in a similarly complex, multi-department environment.
• Demonstrable track record of independently leading analysis and requirements work on technology-enabled change projects.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce documentation that is clear, structured and appropriate for the audience.
• Strong facilitation skills - comfortable leading workshops, stakeholder interviews and discovery sessions.
• Experience mapping business processes using standard notation (e.g. flowcharts, swimlane diagrams, BPMN or equivalent) and producing detailed functional documentation.
• Ability to work across a wide range of business functions including sales, supply chain, finance and customer services.
• Confident challenging stakeholders respectfully and finding consensus between competing viewpoints.
• High degree of self-sufficiency - able to manage your own workload, prioritise effectively and deliver to deadlines without close supervision.
• Experience working across a mixed technology landscape, including legacy systems and modern cloud-based platforms, with an understanding of how the two interact and the constraints each can present would be beneficial.
• Ability to assess the feasibility and business case for AI or automation initiatives, including an understanding of data quality requirements and change management implications would be beneficial.