Sr BA - RSP x 2 at Horizontal Talent in Golden Valley, Minnesota

Job Description:

Role Overview:
As a Business Analyst, you will serve as a vital bridge between business stakeholders and IT, facilitating the analysis and delivery of system enhancements, projects, and products. Your role will involve translating business needs into precise, actionable requirements while developing robust acceptance and validation criteria. You will focus on Fixed and Variable Annuities, ensuring the delivery of solutions that meet business objectives and provide business readiness for project deployment.

Job Description:
This role encompasses end-to-end business analysis, from eliciting and documenting business and technical requirements to leading User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and supporting business readiness. You will assess and document business risks, create cases, develop communication plans, and facilitate gap analysis and JAR sessions. A key part of your role will be writing and maintaining clear user stories with detailed acceptance criteria, ensuring traceability between business and technical requirements. You will also oversee the development and execution of UAT and ensure the successful transition of projects into production.

Key Responsibilities:
- Elicit, analyze, and document detailed business and technical requirements through user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Facilitate requirements gathering sessions, ensuring all stakeholder inputs are captured and translated into actionable business requirements.
- Perform gap analysis, create process flows (As Is/To Be), and ensure traceability from business requirements to technical solutions.
- Develop user acceptance and validation test plans, ensuring thorough testing of solutions against business needs.
- Lead the planning, coordination, and execution of UAT, tracking defects and validating resolutions.
- Serve as a liaison between business stakeholders and IT, facilitating the clear communication of business needs and project progress.
- Build strong relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring project scope and business impacts are well understood and communicated.
- Contribute to transition plans, ensuring the business is fully prepared for system changes, including training and SOP documentation.
- Proactively draft user stories ahead of refinement sessions and ensure readiness for sprints.

Qualifications:
- 6-7 years of experience as a Business Analyst.
- Strong analytical and project management skills.
- In-depth knowledge of the financial services industry, with specific long-term care experience preferred.
- Excellent process mapping and creation skills.
- Self-starter who can work independently.
- Excellent written, verbal, communication, and presentation skills.
- Ability to work across delivery teams to coordinate delivery and implementation.
- Experience working with external vendors.
- Preferred: 8-10 years of Business Analyst experience.
- Strong leadership ability, with experience coaching other analysts.
- Six Sigma or Business Analyst training or certification (CBAP, BABOK) is a plus.
- Experience with the Agile framework (SAFe, Scrum, Kanban).
- Knowledge of Jira or Polarion (features, user stories, tasks, subtasks).