Business Analyst Consultant

At Equitable, we realize that your work life is not just about performing a job; it's about being part of a workplace that helps you grow and reach your full potential. Within our friendly and collaborative work environment, we recognize that the key to our growth and success is a dedicated, motivated and client-responsive staff. Join Equitable today.
**Job Title**: Business Analyst Consultant
**Reports To**: Director, Individual Portfolio Management
**Department**: Individual Portfolio Management
**Term**: Permanent Full-Time
**Work Arrangements**: This is a hybrid role. You will work in our office in Waterloo, ON a minimum of two (2) assigned, consecutive days every other week, plus a fifth (5th) assigned day per month. You are welcome to work from the office more than the minimum requirement and there may be some roles that are required to work in our office more than the minimum requirement.
**The Opportunity**: The BA Consultant will be a primary liaison between key business and delivery stakeholders on key divisional strategic initiatives. Extensive experience with project delivery and exceptional analysis skills; including process, data and business needs analysis are required to assess current and future state, and determination of the suitability of proposed solutions to solve business problems. The BA Consultant will also leverage their experience with Business Architecture to ensure that proposed solutions align with the organization’s strategic objectives and deliver exceptional client experiences and services. The BA Consultant is proficient at eliciting and documenting the actual needs of the Business. This position will focus on projects with a high complexity and/or large breadth of impact to the Business.
**What you will be doing**:

- Lead and drive requirements analysis and review, identifying the most optimal requirements to meet business needs
- Develop current and future state process models, identifying gaps and developing requirements to support ideal state client experiences and client service models
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop business architecture models that align with business strategy, driving operational efficiencies and client-centric solutions
- Advocate for client needs during project discussions to align solutions to strategic outcomes
- Document business architecture models and requirements; facilitate requirements review sessions with Business sponsors, project stakeholders, IT partners and vendors where applicable
- Participate in technical analysis meetings/daily stand-ups with IT partners and support Systems Analysts during the development of functional specifications
- Closely work with solution delivery partners to advocate for the business, to ensure user satisfaction
- Works in partnership with Quality Assurance teams to ensure test strategy mitigates business risk
- Development of User Acceptance test strategies and regression test frameworks to augment QA testing while address business process and client specific risks
- Supports and coordinates User Acceptance Testing by supporting planning, development of test cases, execution of tests and consideration of automated testing techniques
- Creates or assists others in the writing of user documentation, instructions, and procedures
- Supports post-implementation testing, ensuring coverage of user testing to ensure no production issues
- Identify and escalate project risks and issues
- Provide coaching, leadership and mentorship for Business Analysts/User Acceptance Testers, at all levels (junior through senior) by assessing gaps and providing training

**What you will bring**:

- Post secondary degree or equivalent combination of education and work experience
- 5 years as a Lead Business Analyst or Business Analyst Consultant on large/complex projects, in the financial services or insurance industry
- Strong knowledge of all project delivery methodologies and methods to articulate business needs
- Proven experience in business architecture, including capability mapping, value stream mapping and business process modeling.
- Experience in collaborating with stakeholders to support the design of end-to-end business solutions, ensuring that technical, business, and user experience requirements are met
- Expert level knowledge of Business or System Analysis, including process, tools and techniques. Certification highly desired.
- You’re logical, a big-picture thinker and able to confidently challenge the status quo
- Strong critical thinking and analytical capability, with the ability to define and resolve complex issues
- Excellent documentation & presentation skills (written and verbal) with attention to detail
- Strong conceptual skills and ability to exercise flexibility and judgement in a changing environment
- Required Technical Skills:

- MS Office
- MS Visio
- Power BI
- Azure Dev Ops
- Experience with Miro beneficial

**What’s in it for you**:

- A healthy work-life balance with employ