Business Analyst - Research Operations

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Job description

This position will focus on analyzing the way that our research team works and communicates both intra- and inter-departmentally across NEPC. This includes understanding the organization, responsibilities and the focus of Research, as well as the interaction and relationship between Research and the Consulting teams. Our research team provides investment strategies and ideas, asset allocation recommendations, manager research and portfolio construction to our clients. This information is shared with across the firm, as well as externally with clients and the marketplace. This role will include understanding existing gaps and challenges and prioritizing solutions that will have the biggest cost benefit to the organization. This individual will be part of a dynamic, purpose-driven team helping to evolve and transform the way NEPC Research works, including a focus on the research team members experience with technology resources. This individual, working closely with the Director of Research Operations and various departments and individuals across NEPC, will help to identify both gaps and overlap in various roles, technology platforms/workflows and client service delivery approaches. The BA will recommend and help implement improvements and provide process and technology recommendations and project management leadership/support throughout the change management process.

The Business Analyst's role is focused on eliciting, analyzing, specifying, and validating the business needs of our various clients by working closely with our Research and Consulting team members to understand how they currently service our clients today and how they can better and more efficiently serve them in the future. This includes interviewing stakeholders and gathering and compiling information on current workflow and client and consultant deliverables as well as the various nuances associated with NEPC research teams and client teams. Working closely with the technology and data teams, the BA will develop a strong understanding of user requirements, data needs and the technology solutions needed to enhance the delivery of research services and information. The BA will also apply proven communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help the Director of Research Operations and other key business leaders make decisions on workflow process, organizational structure and technology decisions that will drive greater efficiency and allow research to deliver the highest value service to consultants and our clients. The BA will also collaborate and be proactive about working with Platform Managers to look for new technologies to optimize business processes; and play a pivotal role in ensuring IT's understanding of business requirements.

Responsibilities:

Strategy & Planning

• Working with the Director of Research Operations on key initiatives including ongoing vendor replacement searches and system implementations.


• Identify and help prioritize projects that will have the biggest impact on the research function and other key areas of NEPC based on business value add, efficiency gains and overall cost/benefit to the business.


• Help analyze and assess the different job functions across the various departments at NEPC to determine gaps, overlaps, or accountability challenges and make recommendations as it relates to process, technology and organizational structure to eliminate gaps and create efficiencies.


• Play an active role in evaluating and overseeing changes to NEPC's RMS and CRM platform requirements and related work flows.


• Collaborate with project sponsors to determine project scope and vision.


• Work closely with the IT team on research related projects and make sure they are prioritized appropriately within the broader IT portfolio.


• Conduct interviews to gather requirements via workshops, questionnaires, surveys, site visits, workflow storyboards, use cases, scenarios, and other methods.


• Identify and establish scope and parameters of requirements analysis on a project-by-project basis to define project impact, outcome criteria, and metrics.


• Research, review, and analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of existing requirements-gathering processes and develop strategies for enhancing or further leveraging these processes.


• Assist in conducting research on technology and data products to meet agreed upon requirements and to support business goals.

Operational Management/Partnership with IT

• For technical projects and deliverables, work with IT to analyze and verify requirements for completeness, consistency, comprehensibility, feasibility, and conformity to standards.


• Develop and utilize standard templates to accurately and concisely write requirements specifications or to deliver process and structure solutions to the business.


• Translate conceptual user requirements into functional requirements in a clear manner that facilitates technical design and system development.


• Where applicable, develop prototypes of interfaces and attributes based on the user requirements.


• Work closely with developers to create process models, specifications, diagrams, and charts to provide direction to developers and/or the project team.


• Assist with the interpretation of user requirements into feasible and acceptable options and communicate back to the business stakeholders.


• Partner with IT to manage and track the status of requirements throughout the project lifecycle; enforce and redefine as necessary.


• Work closely with the Director of Research Operations to ensure that changes, enhancements, and modifications of business requirements are clearly communicated to project managers, sponsors, and other stakeholders so that issues and solutions are understood.


• Partner with IT to define and execute test scenarios; oversee acceptance testing.


• Develop or assist with developing training materials.


• Serve as expert to provide coaching, mentoring, and support to ensure solutions are quickly adopted and correctly used.

Formal Education & Certification

• College diploma or university degree in the field of business administration, computer science, finance, or information systems.


• Five plus years related work experience.

Knowledge & Experience

• Demonstrated knowledge of the investment industry, business processes, and operations. An understanding of and prior experience in the investment consulting industry is helpful.


• Experience with the organization's core software applications, including MSCRM, M-Files, RMS Code Red, Jira, Confluence, as well as Research related applications including Proval, R programming, Factset, Pertrac, and Spotfire.


• Ability to work closely with business leaders to understand their jobs, job content, efficiency challenges and vision for future success and then to translate that vision into practical, solution-oriented actions within a formal project management structure.


• Proven experience with analyzing and documenting workflows and process improvements in the financial services industry.


• Proven experience with business and functional requirements analysis, elicitation, modeling, verification, and methodology development.


• Experience working with IT experts on the design, development, and implementation of technology and data solutions, systems, or products.


• Ability to create systematic and consistent requirements specifications in both technical and user-friendly language.


• Exceptional analytical and statistical skills with the ability to apply them to systems issues and products as required.


• Demonstrated project management skills and project management software skills, including planning, organizing, and managing resources.


• Understanding of application development and software development life cycle concepts (Kanban and Agile a plus).


• Working technical knowledge of SQL.


• Excellent understanding of the organization's goals and objectives.


• UX design experience a plus.

Personal Attributes

• Able to exercise independent judgment and take action on it.


• Excellent analytical, mathematical, and creative problem-solving skills.


• Excellent listening, interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.


• Logical and efficient, with keen attention to detail.


• Highly self-motivated and directed.

NEPC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer