Business Analyst CV Example (UK)

A Business Analyst CV in the UK is read by a head of change or a delivery lead who wants to know three things in the first half page: the sector you have worked in, the kind of analysis you do (requirements, process, data) and whether the change you worked on actually went live. Name the programme, the system and the people you sat between, then say what was different once the work shipped.

The Sample CV below is for a Business Analyst with six years in a building society and a water company, holding the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis. Every bullet names the process or system, the method used and a result a sponsor would recognise: a mortgage application that takes fewer days, a complaints backlog cleared, a release with fewer defects.

Tailor it to each vacancy. Financial services wants regulation and Consumer Duty; the public sector wants GDS phases and a competency-based application; a product team wants user stories and a working relationship with developers. The US counterpart of this page is the business analyst resume example, written for American employers on Letter paper. If your work has drifted towards dashboards and SQL, run a draft through the keyword checker against the advert before you choose a title.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in the UK; the page for applicants in the US is the business analyst resume example.

Business Analyst sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper a UK CV is printed on.

Gemma Ashworth

Business Analyst, BCS International Diploma, Financial Services and Utilities

Manchester, M20gemma.ashworth@example.com07700 900218

Summary

Business Analyst with six years across a building society and a regulated water company, working between operations teams, compliance and in-house developers. Led the analysis for a mortgage application redesign that cut the time from application to offer from twelve working days to seven. Writes requirements developers can build from and testers can check, and runs workshops that end with a decision rather than another meeting.

Experience

Business Analyst, Pennine Mutual Building Society

– Present

Manchester

  • Mapped the mortgage application journey across underwriting, valuations and conveyancing, then redesigned it with the heads of each team; time from application to offer fell from twelve working days to seven.
  • Wrote 160 user stories with acceptance criteria for the new broker portal and led user acceptance testing with fourteen underwriters, with nine defects found before go-live and none in the first month after it.
  • Produced the gap analysis and requirements for Consumer Duty reporting, working with the compliance team so the first annual board report was built from existing data rather than a new system.
  • Ran requirements workshops for a replacement complaints system, reconciling conflicting asks from customer services and the Financial Ombudsman liaison team into one agreed scope.
Business Analyst, Mersey Basin Water Services

–

Warrington

  • Documented the as-is and to-be process for metered billing queries, removing three hand-offs between the contact centre and the metering team.
  • Built the weekly backlog and productivity reports for a 70-person billing operation in Power BI, replacing a spreadsheet that took a team leader a day to update.
  • Supported the rollout of a new field scheduling system by writing test scripts, running training for 40 team leaders and logging defects with the supplier.

Education

BSc (Hons) Business Information Systems, 2:1

University of South Lancashire, Preston

Placement year in the change team of a regional housing association.

Skills

  • Requirements elicitation
  • User stories and acceptance criteria
  • Process mapping (BPMN, Visio)
  • User acceptance testing
  • Gap analysis
  • SQL and Power BI
  • Jira and Confluence
  • Stakeholder workshops
  • Consumer Duty and FCA reporting
  • Agile and waterfall delivery

Certifications

  • BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT,
  • PRINCE2 Agile Foundation, PeopleCert,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this example

How a UK CV differs

A UK Business Analyst CV differs from its American cousin in the qualification it leads with, the way employers hire and the words it uses. The BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis is the credential UK recruiters look for, not the IIBA certifications on their own; many Business Analyst posts are contract day-rate roles with IR35 status stated in the advert; and public sector and NHS vacancies shortlist from a competency-based application rather than the CV alone. The page runs to two sides of A4, with sector, programme names and the regulator in the first third.

For a business analyst in the UK

  1. BCS Diploma first, IIBA second

    List the BCS International Diploma, or the Foundation and Practitioner certificates on the way to it, with the year. A CBAP or CCBA is worth including, but on its own it reads as written for the US market.

  2. Contract or permanent, and IR35

    Many Business Analyst roles are six-month contracts. If you have contracted, say so in the role title (Business Analyst, contract) and give the day-rate status the client set, inside or outside IR35, so an agency can place you quickly.

  3. Competency-based applications in the public sector

    Civil Service, NHS and local authority posts ask for examples against Success Profiles or a person specification. Keep your bullets as whole sentences with a situation and a result so they paste straight into the form.

  4. Sector and regulator in the headline

    Financial services, utilities, local government and health each have their own regulator and vocabulary. A headline that says Financial Services and Consumer Duty tells a recruiter which shortlist you belong on before they read a bullet.

  5. Security clearance and right to work

    Defence and central government roles need SC or BPSS. If you hold a current clearance, state it on the contact line; if you need a visa, say so once near the end rather than leaving the recruiter to guess.

Every CV in the UK

A4 paper
Set the page to A4, 210 by 297 millimetres. A Letter-sized PDF prints with odd margins on A4 and reads as imported from the US.
Two pages is normal
Most UK CVs run to two pages. One page suits a first job; three is rare and only for senior roles with a lot to show.
No photo, no date of birth
UK employers do not expect a photo, a date of birth, marital status or nationality on a CV, and most prefer not to see them.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day first where a full date appears, and month and year for each role: "Mar 2022 – Present". Never the US month-first order.
British English
Organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise. A CV in American spelling reads as written for somewhere else.
Town and postcode area, not a street address
A line such as "Manchester, M4" is enough. A full postal address, and the US-style "City, ST 12345" line, are not expected.

More on applying in the UK, with every CV example for it, on the UK page.

Templates for the business analyst CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same business analyst CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

Graduate Business Analyst with a business information systems degree and a placement year in a housing association's change team. Holds the BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis and is working towards the Diploma.

  • Interviewed twelve staff across repairs and tenancy teams to document how repair requests were logged before a new system went in.
  • Wrote requirements and test cases for a self-service repairs form on the tenant portal.
  • Drew the process maps the team used to train new starters on the housing management system.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Business Analyst with four years in general insurance, owning requirements for the claims platform and the processes around it.

  • Own requirements for the motor claims platform across three product lines and two outsourced handlers.
  • Redesigned the first notification of loss process, reducing the number of claims that needed a call back.
  • Lead user acceptance testing for every quarterly release of the claims platform.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Lead Business Analyst with eleven years of experience leading analysis on enterprise programmes and running a practice of eight analysts in a FTSE 250 retailer.

  • Lead analysis for an ERP replacement across finance, HR and supply chain with a budget of £14 million.
  • Set the business analysis standards, templates and review process for a practice of eight analysts.
  • Advise the programme board on the process changes that come with each major system decision.

Skills to put on the business analyst CV

Hard skills

Requirements elicitation and documentation
It is the core deliverable, and UK hiring managers often ask for a sample requirements document or user story set at second interview.
Process mapping
An as-is and to-be map is the clearest proof of analysis you can show, and public sector vacancies ask for it by name.
User acceptance testing
Owning UAT shows you follow a change through to go-live rather than handing a document over.
SQL and a reporting tool
An analyst who can check the data behind a request makes a stronger recommendation and is not waiting on a data team.
Agile delivery and user stories
Most UK delivery teams run sprints, and stories with clear acceptance criteria are how your analysis reaches developers.
Sector knowledge and its regulator
Consumer Duty, Ofwat, GDS or NHS Digital standards each come with vocabulary, and a CV that uses it correctly is shortlisted faster.
Jira, Confluence and Visio
Vacancies name their tools, and the shortlisting screen matches them word for word.

Soft skills

Facilitation
A workshop that ends with an agreed scope is the most valuable hour a Business Analyst gives a programme.
Asking the next question
The first request is rarely the real need, and finding it early keeps a team from building the wrong thing.
Translating between business and technical teams
Operations managers and developers describe the same problem differently, and the analyst is the person who makes both versions match.

Mistakes that cost business analyst interviews

  1. Describing documents instead of what changed

    Produced a requirements catalogue tells the reader what you typed. Add what the catalogue led to: a release that went live on the planned date, a journey with fewer steps, a backlog that was cleared.

  2. No sector

    Mortgages, metered billing, patient records and council tax each have their own rules and language. Name the sector and the regulator so an employer in the same field trusts you from the first line.

  3. A skills section that lists every notation

    Forty tools and five modelling notations dilute the ones the vacancy asks for. Keep the methods and tools your bullets demonstrate and put the advert's own words first.

  4. Hiding contract history

    A run of six-month roles is normal for a UK Business Analyst. Label them as contracts with the client and the programme, rather than leaving a recruiter to read them as a string of short permanent jobs.

  5. No numbers at all

    Analysis work is measurable: days taken out of a process, hand-offs removed, defects found before go-live, people trained. Give one figure per role so the reader can picture the scale.

Questions about the business analyst CV

Is the BCS Diploma worth putting on a Business Analyst CV?

Yes. It is the qualification UK employers and agencies search for, and many vacancies list it as desirable. Give the full title and the year, and list the Foundation or Practitioner certificates if you are still working towards the Diploma.

How long should a Business Analyst CV be?

Two sides of A4 for most analysts. Keep your current and previous roles detailed, and reduce anything older than eight years to a title, an employer and dates.

How do I show contract roles on a CV?

Write the title as Business Analyst (contract), give the end client and the programme, and keep the dates. Group very short extensions under one entry so the page does not read as job hopping.

How do I move into business analysis from an operations role?

Show the analysis you already do: documenting a process, gathering requests for a system change, testing a new tool, improving a report. Write those as requirements and process work, add the BCS Foundation Certificate, and apply for junior or associate Business Analyst posts.

Should a Business Analyst CV include technical skills?

Yes, where you use them: SQL, a reporting tool, a data model or a platform such as Salesforce or Dynamics. IT-facing roles weigh them more heavily than process-facing ones, so move them up or down depending on the advert.

How do I tailor a Business Analyst CV to a vacancy quickly?

Paste the advert into Resume Master and it rewrites the summary and reorders the bullets against the role in about two minutes, keeping the sector words and the tools the employer named. Read the result once before you send it.

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