Data Business Analyst

Futures are looking to appoint a highly analytical and commercially minded Data Business Analyst to join our growing manufacturing business. This is an exciting opportunity for a data professional who enjoys turning complex data into actionable business insights that improve operational performance, reduce costs, and support strategic decision-making.

Working closely with stakeholders across Operations, Production, Supply Chain, Finance, Sales, and IT, you will identify opportunities for improvement, develop insightful reporting, and help drive a data-led culture throughout the organisation.

As our Data Business Analyst, you will:

• Partner with business stakeholders to understand operational challenges and translate them into data-driven solutions.
• Gather, document, and analyse business requirements for reporting, analytics, and process improvement initiatives.
• Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, and KPIs that provide meaningful insight into manufacturing performance.
• Analyse production, inventory, quality, procurement, logistics, and financial data to identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Work with ERP, MES, CRM, and other business systems to ensure data integrity and consistency.
• Identify process inefficiencies and recommend improvements supported by data analysis.
• Produce forecasting and predictive analysis to support operational planning and business growth.
• Collaborate with IT and engineering teams to improve data architecture and reporting capabilities.
• Present findings and recommendations to senior leadership in a clear and commercially focused manner.
• Support continuous improvement projects using data to measure performance and outcomes.
• Ensure data governance, quality standards, and reporting accuracy are maintained.

The Ideal Candidate

• Bachelor's degree in Business Analytics, Data Analytics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Finance, or a related discipline.
• Proven experience as a Data Business Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst, or similar analytical role.
• Experience working within a manufacturing, engineering, logistics, or supply chain environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex datasets.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
• Experience using SQL to extract and manipulate data.
• Experience creating dashboards using Power BI, Tableau, or similar visualisation tools.
• Strong understanding of KPIs, business reporting, and performance measurement.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to translate technical findings into practical business recommendations.

Desirable Skills

• Experience working with ERP systems such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, Infor, or Epicor.
• Knowledge of manufacturing KPIs including OEE, scrap rates, downtime, production efficiency, inventory turnover, and yield.
• Experience with Python or R for data analysis.
• Understanding of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or Continuous Improvement methodologies.
• Experience with data warehousing and ETL processes.
• Knowledge of cloud data platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Familiarity with predictive analytics or machine learning would be advantageous.