Senior Data Business Analyst / Product Owner (Contractor)

Accountabilities:: Discovery and Design: Lead discovery and scoping activities for projects or individual domains within Data Transformation engagements. Define objectives, preliminary requirements, scope boundaries, and end-to-end data product concepts, including consumers, data contracts, and ownership. Business value and solution definition: Facilitate discussions with product managers and senior business stakeholders to frame business problems, explore potential solutions, define expected value, and translate client needs into delivery-ready Epics. Scope and governance: Establish clear scope baselines that support programme planning, change control, and identification of opportunities beyond the agreed scope. Where no dedicated Programme Manager is assigned, act as the primary governance contact in coordination with the Account Manager. Stakeholder engagement: Serve as the link between client stakeholders and delivery teams, facilitate alignment and sign-offs, communicate delivery health, and negotiate scope, timeline, and resource trade-offs. Requirements management: Own data product requirements from discovery through delivery, breaking Epics into user stories and acceptance criteria for integration and reporting use cases. Ensure requirements are accurate, complete, technically feasible, and traceable to the Statement of Work and Discovery outputs. Data analysis and quality: Create and review target-to-source field mappings, define reconciliation and data quality rules, and work with technical leads, developers, testers, and client subject-matter experts to validate completed work and obtain sign-off. Product and backlog ownership: Own data product backlogs and roadmaps, prioritise work according to business value, lead refinement sessions, establish the definition of ready, manage dependencies, and identify delivery risks or blockers. Agile delivery and reporting: Facilitate daily stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives, backlog refinement, and show-and-tell sessions. Track progress and team health through Jira or similar tools, and prepare sprint reports covering completed work, carried-over items, and upcoming priorities. Account growth support: Collaborate with account and delivery leadership to identify opportunities, shape proposals, and contribute to Statements of Work by documenting assumptions, risks, and exclusions before signature. Requirements: 10+ years of experience in Agile delivery environments, including Scrum or Kanban, with significant senior-level experience in technology consulting or Data Transformation programmes. Proven experience leading Discovery and Scoping activities, including pre-sales or pre-contract work for data and analytics projects. Strong ability to define business objectives, scope boundaries, and preliminary requirements while reducing delivery risks. Confidence facilitating discussions with senior business stakeholders, framing complex problems, and communicating business value. Excellent SQL skills and experience working with data and analytics projects. Strong understanding of data lineage, data transformation, data quality, and data protection requirements, including GDPR. Knowledge of medallion data architecture and modern data platforms such as Databricks or Snowflake, including migration sequencing from source environments to target platforms. Experience defining metrics for a semantic layer. Familiarity with BI and reporting solutions, data warehouse integrations, and related use cases. Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, and Agile reporting tools. Strong stakeholder management, communication, facilitation, negotiation, and prioritisation skills. Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and collaborate effectively with technical and business teams. Willingness to travel when required by client engagements. Benefits: Competitive contractor daily rate of up to £420. Six-month contract, with an anticipated start in January 2027. Remote opportunity within the eligible EMEA locations listed above. Monday-to-Friday working schedule, with an 8-hour daily commitment.