Sr. Business Analyst

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range:

Position Summary

This role reports into the Portfolio Management Office Program Manager within Columbia University’s Information Technology group (CUIT).  CUIT seeks a seasoned Sr. Business Analyst with project management experience and a proven track record of working on technology initiatives. Assignments will support Portfolio, Program and specific Project Management activities. The ideal candidate should have advanced analytical skills and applicable knowledge of business analysis and project management tools, techniques, and best practices. They should be customer oriented, have a collaborative teamwork approach, be intensely focused on delivery and possess clear and concise verbal and written communication skills. The ideal candidate should have functional knowledge in advanced analytical skills and applicable knowledge of business analysis and project management tools, techniques, and best practices. 

The Senior Business Analyst will have a key role ensuring that solutions and outcomes effectively meet the needs of CUIT and its clients.  As required, they may be called upon to work independently or closely with technology project leads, managing multiple assignments across different initiatives. Typical assignments may include, but are not limited to, gathering and managing requirements, discovery and analysis, and testing and validation. Assignments necessitate engagement across CUIT operations and at different phases in the service or project management lifecycle.  

Responsibilities

Successful applicants will have experience working with internal and external clients, collecting and organizing data, can define collection methodology, templates, and tools, and be skilled at defining and prioritizing work in an efficient manner.  Examples of key areas of responsibilities:

• Requirements Management:
• Elicits, records and analyzes requirements to enable traceability to a desired customer outcome.
• Documents dependencies and interrelationships among requirements, as well as any assumptions and congregations.
• Uses advanced techniques to capture existing, new, and unknown requirements (e.g., brainstorming, process work-flow diagrams, qualitative and quantitative analysis, reverse engineering).
• Uses tools that promote better understanding of the desired end-product such as visual aids, prototyping, and simulation.

• Stakeholder Management and Client Engagement
• Directly engages functional owners and other stakeholders professionally, without supervision, and with appropriate messaging.
• Completes business case and impact analysis on implementing new changes.
• Documents and clearly articulates the ‘as is’, ‘to be’ and transitional states for impacted users and delivery teams.
• Validates with stakeholders to confirm accuracy and completeness.
• Liaises between business units, technology teams and support teams to ensure the solution delivered meets all business needs and to avoid rework.
• Provides client engagement support to customers on behalf of CUIT.

• Solution Delivery:
• Identifies needs and evaluates alternative business solutions.
• Contributes to the definition, design and delivery of solutions in accordance with specified scope, requirements, quality standards and target delivery dates.
• Performs comprehensive testing activities including developing test scripts, test plans and test scenarios and proactively managing defect resolution.
• Produce documentation to support delivery of process or system training
• Manages activities and perform tasks to ensure that deployment of applications, systems, or processes meet all operational requirements and that service teams are comfortable supporting from day one.
• Completes full range of required project activities related to maintaining artifacts and documentation.
• Engages and supports CUIT internal improvement initiatives as assigned.

• Weekend and off-hour work may be necessary on occasion.
• All other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and/or its equivalent required. Advanced degree desirable.
• Minimum 4-6 years’ related experience.
• Experience in the analysis of both business processes and the design of technology-based solutions.
• Ability to understand, explain and present complex technical ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences at all levels in a persuasive and convincing manner.
• Ability to conceptualize and think creatively.
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities while managing multiple activities, and objectives.
• Highly competent in MS Office Suite, MS Visio, MS Project, and Google Apps.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment.
• Demonstrated excellence in a variety of competencies including teamwork/collaboration, analytical thinking, communication and influencing skills, and technical expertise.
• Ability to work with changing priorities and with multiple projects.
• Ability to be precise and attentive to detail is essential.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work weekend and off-hour work on occasion.
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Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of industry standards and best practice frameworks including, BABoK; PMI; SDLC; ITIL; Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma; COBIT; ISO, GAAP.
• Experience with ServiceNow or comparable tool, Project Management scheduling tools

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.