Senior Business Analyst

Procurement at Thames Water plays a key role in delivering significant cost savings while driving wider commercial value across the business. Operating within a dynamic matrix environment, the role offers exposure to a broad range of high-value projects, stakeholders, suppliers, and business functions. The team manages approximately £1.5 billion in annual spend, overseeing contracts ranging from £100,000 to several hundred million pounds.

The purpose of this role is to provide analytical and commercial support to the wider Commercial team across multiple concurrent projects. The successful candidate will help assess procurement opportunities with stakeholders and support the end-to-end delivery of sourcing activities, ensuring recommendations deliver best value and align with business objectives.

What you’ll be doing as a Senior Business Analyst

As a Senior Business Analyst, your time will predominantly be split between data analytics, market analysis, stakeholder engagement. This will involve:

• Obtaining, cleansing and analysing large and complex data files to provide insight on our historical spend as well as identifying opportunities in cost and operational efficiency using historic and forecast information
• Leading and supporting stakeholder (project) meetings and presenting findings in front of stakeholder group, which may involve senior level commercial and operational managers to drive decision making
• Demonstrating a thirst for knowledge to understand the macro and micro trends in the wider supply chain and applying these to commercial strategy
• Taking ownership for our commercial data including proactively cleansing our historic and forecast data to ensure it is as accurate as possible and available to the wider team through our commercial tools
• Regularly engaging with stakeholders to elicit information and define scope of analysis and providing support to internal and external (supplier) meetings to explain data analysis as requested
• Meeting time, cost and quality milestones at all times with proactive risk escalation to prevent any potential issues
• Meeting time, cost and quality milestones at all times with proactive risk escalation to prevent any potential issues
• Proactively identify further opportunities for the analyst team to support the commercial process and embrace these new opportunities

Base location – Hybrid – Clear Water Court Reading

Working pattern – Monday to Friday 36 hours

Necessary requirements for the role – A Degree in a numerical field

What you should bring to the role

To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need is:

• Degree-qualified in a numerically focused discipline such as Engineering, Accounting, Mathematics, Finance, Economics, or a related field.
• Proven experience in a similar analytical or commercial role within a fast-paced organisation.
• Confident and proven experience in presenting business cases, insights, and recommendations to senior stakeholders and influencing decision-making
• A proactive self-starter with a strong analytical mindset and the ability to perform effectively under pressure and across multiple priorities.
• Advanced technical skills in Excel, VBA, Power BI, Power Query and PowerPoint, with the ability to turn complex data into clear and actionable insights.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work independently, prioritise competing demands, and deliver high-quality outputs efficiently.
• Strong problem-solving capability, including the ability to identify key issues, analyse information from multiple sources, and draw clear, commercially sound conclusions.
• Good understanding of commercial business operations, with practical experience using business analysis methodologies and data modelling tools

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary of up to £60,000 per annum depending on experience
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.