Business Analyst CV Example & Template
A complete two-page CV for a business analyst with six years across UK financial services and retail, followed by what delivery heads and recruiters check first. Copy the structure, then swap in your own projects, stakeholders and measurable outcomes, and describe the certifications exactly as the awarding body names them.
Last reviewed October 2026
Example Business Analyst CV
Hannah Clarke
Business Analyst, requirements, process improvement and data, CCBA
Edinburgh, UK
Profile
Business analyst with six years of experience in banking and retail, working on CRM, payments and online ordering changes. I run workshops, write clear requirements and user stories, map processes and support testing through to go-live. I work with SQL and Power BI to back up recommendations with data. Looking for a senior business analyst role on a change programme.
Experience
Business Analyst
Apr 2022 – Present
Forthbridge Bank · Edinburgh
- Lead analysis for a payments change programme with a £2.4m budget, working with 14 stakeholders across operations, risk and technology.
- Documented 120 requirements and 85 user stories in Jira and Confluence, with acceptance criteria agreed by product owners before each sprint.
- Mapped the current and future process for card disputes in BPMN, identifying six manual steps; automating four cut average handling time from 11 days to 6.
- Ran user acceptance testing with 25 operations staff and 210 test cases, with 96% passing first time and no critical defects at go-live.
- Built a Power BI dashboard from SQL queries that tracks dispute volumes and ageing, now used in the weekly operations meeting.
Business Analyst
Sep 2019 – Mar 2022
Highland & Co (retail, 80 stores) · Glasgow
- Analysed the click-and-collect process across 80 stores and recommended changes that reduced order pick time from 42 minutes to 25.
- Gathered requirements for a new stock and ordering system, interviewing 30 store and warehouse staff and writing the business case approved by the finance director.
- Supported the rollout to 80 stores in four waves, writing training guides and a hypercare log that closed 140 issues in the first month.
- Used SQL and Excel to find £310,000 of annual savings in supplier ordering, based on 18 months of order data.
Junior Business Analyst
Jul 2018 – Aug 2019
Tayside Insurance Services · Dundee
- Wrote functional specifications and test scripts for changes to the policy administration system under a senior analyst.
- Produced weekly management information in Excel with pivot tables and macros, saving the team around six hours a week.
- Facilitated requirements workshops for two small projects and kept the RAID log up to date.
Education
BSc (Hons) Information Systems, 2:1
2014 – 2018
University of Strathclyde
Skills
Requirements elicitation and workshops · User stories and acceptance criteria · Process mapping (BPMN) · SQL · Power BI · Jira and Confluence · User acceptance testing · Business case writing · Stakeholder management · Agile and waterfall delivery · Excel and pivot tables
Certifications
- Certification of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA), IIBA
Why this Business Analyst CV works: what shortlisters check first
Projects with a budget and a size
Hiring managers want to know the scale of the change you worked on. Give the programme budget or the number of users affected, the number of stakeholders and your own part in the analysis. 'Worked on a CRM project' says little, whereas 'led analysis for a £2.4m payments change with 14 stakeholders' tells them where you fit.
Evidence of the full analysis cycle
Show that you can elicit requirements, write them clearly, map processes, support testing and follow a change into live use. Name the artefacts you produce, such as user stories, BPMN diagrams, process maps and business cases. Delivery heads often check that you have seen a project end to end, not only the early stages.
Outcomes the business can count
Time saved, cost removed, defects avoided, volumes handled or satisfaction scores turn analysis into value. If you recommended a change, say what happened afterwards. Where a result is outside your control, describe your part honestly, for example 'recommended and specified' rather than claiming the entire saving.
Data skills at the right level
Most UK business analyst adverts now ask for SQL, Excel and a reporting tool like Power BI or Tableau. Say what you have done with them, such as queries for root-cause analysis or dashboards for managers. You do not need to be a data analyst, but you must be able to find and check the numbers behind a business case.
Certifications named correctly
The IIBA offers ECBA, CCBA and CBAP, with experience requirements that rise from none at ECBA to more than five years of practical work at CBAP. Quote the full name and level you hold, and do not claim a level you have not passed. Agile or product owner training can be listed as well, with the awarding body.
Key skills recruiters look for
How to write each section of a Business Analyst CV
Profile
Give your years, your sector, the type of change you support and your main methods or tools. Add one headline result. Business analyst roles vary a lot between data-led and process-led, so say which side you lean to.
Experience
Open each role with the project or domain, budget and team context. Then give three to five bullets with an action and an outcome. Show a mix of requirements, process and testing work, and name the documents you wrote.
Skills
Split methods from tools if the list is long: elicitation, BPMN and user stories on one side, SQL, Jira and Power BI on the other. Match the wording in the advert. Leave out skills you have only read about.
Certifications
Put IIBA and similar awards in a separate line, with the full name and the year you passed. If you are studying for the next level, say so and give the planned date. Do not let an ECBA or foundation certificate stand in for experience.
Cover letter
Pick one project that resembles the programme you are applying to and describe the problem, what you did and the outcome in three sentences. Mention the stakeholders you worked with, since the role depends on relationships.
More example bullet points
Strong Business Analyst CVs lead with measurable impact. Here are examples of the kind of bullets that make recruiters stop scrolling:
Elicited and documented requirements for CRM migration affecting 500+ users, delivered on time with zero critical defects
Identified $800K annual savings through process analysis of procurement workflow across 3 business units
Led UAT for ERP implementation with 200+ test cases, achieving 98% first-pass acceptance rate
Common Business Analyst CV mistakes
- Writing a list of tasks, such as 'gathered requirements and wrote documents', with no project size or outcome.
- Stating 'strong communication skills' without showing the workshops, stakeholders or sign-offs that prove it.
- Claiming a savings figure that your analysis only contributed to, without saying what you personally did.
- Listing SQL, Power BI and Python when you have only used one of them in a real project.
- Leaving out the sector, which shapes how a hiring manager reads the rest of your experience.
Full guide
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How to tailor your Business Analyst CV for each application
Every Business Analyst job posting is different. The skills they prioritize, the seniority they expect, the setting — all of it shapes what your CV should emphasize. A CV that gets an interview at one employer can miss at another, even for the same job title.
The fastest way to tailor your CV is to paste the job description into NextCV. The AI reads the posting, maps it to your experience, and rewrites your bullets to match what the employer is scanning for. 1 free preview, no signup required — you only pay when you want a clean PDF download. Sign up free for 3 more.
Business Analyst CV FAQ
What should a business analyst CV include?
A short profile, then experience that shows the projects, stakeholders and results of your analysis work. Add the artefacts you produce, such as user stories and process maps, your tools like SQL and Jira, and any IIBA or BCS qualifications. Two pages is enough for most.
Do I need an IIBA certification to be a business analyst?
No. Many UK employers hire on experience and look for a degree plus project evidence. IIBA offers ECBA, CCBA and CBAP, and these help in larger firms and consultancies. List the exact level you hold and the year, not just 'IIBA certified'.
How do I get into business analysis with no experience?
Look at your current job for analysis work: improving a process, writing requirements, testing a system or building reports. Describe it in analyst language, add the ECBA if you can, and aim for junior or graduate roles. Internal moves into a change team are common.
Which technical skills matter most for business analysts?
SQL, Excel and a reporting tool such as Power BI or Tableau come up most often, with Jira and Confluence for delivery. Process modelling in BPMN and writing user stories are core. Name only what you have used on real work.
How do I show impact if I only supported a project?
Describe your exact contribution and the result it supported, such as 'specified 40 requirements for the ordering module, which went live on time'. Use words like specified, mapped or tested. Do not claim the programme's whole benefit, as managers will ask.