Lead Business Analyst – Change Management

Lead Business Analyst – Change Management Role Summary We are seeking a Lead Business Analyst with deep organisational change management expertise to partner with clients delivering complex business, technology, and transformation programs. The successful candidate will act as the change lead on engagements — assessing change impact, shaping change strategies, engaging stakeholders, and driving adoption of new ways of working across the client's people, processes, and platforms. This is a client-facing consultative role at the intersection of business analysis and change management. The individual must be equally comfortable running impact assessments and requirements workshops as they are coaching executive sponsors, designing communications, and standing up change networks. They will typically be embedded within a program leadership team and expected to shape the change agenda from strategy through to sustainment. Key Responsibilities Change Strategy & Planning • Define the overall change approach for the engagement, tailored to the client's culture, change maturity, program scope, and risk profile. • Develop the change management plan covering stakeholder engagement, communications, training, business readiness, adoption, and sustainment. • Align the change plan with the program delivery plan, milestones, and dependencies. Change Impact Assessment • Conduct detailed change impact assessments across affected roles, teams, processes, systems, policies, and locations. • Quantify the size, complexity, and severity of change ("from / to" analysis) and use this to shape intervention intensity. • Maintain a living change impact register and surface risks to program leadership. Stakeholder Analysis & Engagement • Identify, map, and segment stakeholder groups by influence, interest, impact, and disposition. • Design and execute tailored engagement approaches for each group — from executive sponsors to frontline end users. • Build and maintain trusted relationships across the client organisation, including with resistant or sceptical stakeholders. Sponsor & Leader Enablement • Coach executive sponsors on their role as visible, active, and vocal change leaders. • Prepare leaders and people managers with talking points, FAQs, cascade packs, and coaching guides. • Establish sponsor coalitions and align leadership messaging. Communications • Develop and execute the communications strategy and plan — messaging architecture, channels, cadence, audiences, and measurement. • Author or oversee production of communications collateral: emails, town halls, videos, intranet content, leader talking points, and FAQs. • Ensure two-way channels are in place to capture feedback and sentiment. Training & Enablement • Partner with training leads and SMEs to define the training needs analysis, learning approach, and curriculum. • Shape blended learning solutions (instructor-led, e-learning, quick reference guides, floor-walking, super-users). • Oversee training logistics, completion tracking, and effectiveness measurement. Business Readiness • Design and manage the business readiness framework — criteria, checkpoints, dashboards, and go/no-go inputs. • Coordinate with impacted business units to validate readiness ahead of key milestones (pilot, cutover, go-live, waves). • Escalate readiness risks and shape mitigation plans. Change Network & Champions • Design, mobilise, and support change champion / change agent networks across the client organisation. • Establish cadence, tools, and communities to sustain the network through delivery and into hypercare. Resistance Management • Proactively identify sources of resistance through stakeholder analysis, sentiment tracking, and feedback loops. • Design targeted interventions to address resistance and reinforce desired behaviours. • Partner with HR, ER, and people leaders on sensitive change scenarios (restructures, role changes, workforce transitions). Adoption, Sustainment & Benefits Realisation • Define adoption KPIs and reinforcement mechanisms — how success is measured and how new behaviours are sustained beyond go-live. • Design hypercare and transition-to-BAU approaches. • Link change activities to benefits realisation and program value metrics. Business Analysis Deliverables • Own end-to-end BA deliverables where change is the primary lens: current-state process maps, future-state process designs, role / operating model impact analyses, requirements for change tooling, and business case inputs. • Produce executive briefings, steering committee reports, and change status dashboards. • Mentor junior BAs and change analysts on the engagement where applicable. Required Skills & Experience Must Have • 8+ years of Business Analysis experience, with at least 4–5 years leading change management on medium-to-large transformation programs. • Demonstrable client-facing consulting experience — able to shape approach, run workshops, manage senior stakeholders, and deliver under ambiguity. • Deep working knowledge of a recognised change methodology (Prosci ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step, LaMarsh Managed Change, or equivalent). • Proven experience delivering change on at least one of: ERP / CRM / HCM implementations (SAP, Oracle, Workday, Salesforce, Dynamics), cloud migrations, operating model redesigns, M&A integrations, digital / AI transformations, or regulatory-driven change programs. • Strong stakeholder management skills across executive, middle management, and frontline audiences. • Excellent written and verbal communication — able to author executive-grade materials and facilitate large workshops with confidence. • Experience defining and measuring adoption KPIs and change effectiveness metrics. • Solid grounding in core BA techniques — process modelling, requirements elicitation, gap analysis, target operating model design. Highly Desirable • Experience delivering change in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, energy, government, telco). • Exposure to agile and product-oriented delivery models, and continuous change environments. • Experience with change management tooling (e.g. Prosci Proxima, ChangeScout, WalkMe, Whatfix) and collaboration platforms (Miro, Mural, Confluence). • Experience coaching or line-managing change analysts / junior BAs. • Prior experience in a Big 4 or tier-1 consulting environment. Certifications (any of the following are valued) • Prosci Certified Change Practitioner (or Prosci Advanced) • CCMP (Certified Change Management Professional, ACMP) • APMG Change Management Practitioner • CBAP / CCBA (IIBA) • Agile / SAFe certifications where relevant Deliverables Expected From the Role • Change management strategy and plan • Change impact assessment and register • Stakeholder analysis, engagement plan, and RACI • Communications strategy, plan, and collateral • Training needs analysis and learning plan • Business readiness framework and dashboards • Change champion network design and operating rhythm • Adoption and sustainment plan with KPIs • Executive briefings, steering committee packs, and status reports • Hypercare and transition-to-BAU plan Engagement Style & Attributes • Empathetic — understands change through the eyes of those experiencing it. • Structured — brings frameworks and rigour to inherently human, ambiguous work. • Pragmatic — tailors approach to the client's culture and appetite rather than applying methodology dogmatically. • Credible — holds the room with executives, delivery leads, and frontline staff alike. • Resilient — navigates resistance, politics, and shifting scope without losing momentum. • Independent — shapes scope, drives progress, and unblocks without hand-holding.