6-MONTH CONTRACT WITH POSSIBILITY OF EXTENSIONS | DEADLINE: ASAP

JOB DESCRIPTION: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dji2lh89vka91t/JD%20Lead%20Business%20Analyst.docx?dl=0

CANDIDATES MUST COMPLETE AND RETURN SKILLS MATRIX. PLEASE INCLUDE AS THE LAST PAGE OF THE RESUME: https://www.dropbox.com/s/407myposspxnhc4/Skills%20Matrix%20Lead%20Business%20Analyst.docx?dl=0

LEAD BUSINESS ANALYST

CHICAGO, IL

6-MONTH CONTRACT WITH POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS

We value people who have a passion for creative problem solving, relish tackling complex issues, are able to communicate ideas effectively, and are self-starters eager to learn and apply new knowledge in a fast-paced, client-driven environment. We expect our analysts to be hands-on at every stage of the process. They must be able to conduct discovery work in order to understand our users and the challenges at hand, and then translate those audience needs into business objectives and priorities for both a short- and long-term user experience vision. Finally, through thorough testing and other techniques, our analysts must be able to set the course for a sound implementation and documentation delivery.

POSITION OVERVIEW

We are seeking Lead Business Analysts to work in project team settings handling a variety of roles and responsibilities. Candidates must be intelligent, analytical problem solvers with strong written and verbal communication skills. Lead Business Analysts must be self-starters, able to quickly learn and apply new knowledge in a fast-paced, client-driven environment.

LEAD BUSINESS ANALYSTS MUST HAVE:

• Experience leading one or several junior resources and liaising with leads within other disciplines
• The ability to analyze complex situations and adapt to changing projects and responsibilities
• Insightful recommendations based on creative analysis and solutions options
• Expert understanding of requirements gathering processes, tools, and templates
• The ability to create—and direct others to create—business deliverables, including functional specifications, use cases, requirement traceability matrices, user stories, and acceptance criteria, and ensure deliverables are client-ready
• A comprehensive understanding of functional, regression, quality assurance, and user acceptance testing, and the ability to lead both internal and client team members in the effort
• Experience using bug-tracking software such as JIRA
• Experience in facilitating and driving client requirements workshops
• An understanding of project delivery methodologies, including waterfall and the agile Scrum framework
• Fundamental knowledge of user experience principles
• Thorough knowledge of cross-discipline project activities, deliverables, and impacts

Lead Business Analysts work closely with Project Managers to drive requirement definitions, prioritization, and project scope. They must be comfortable working with a variety of teams and individuals, including user experience, visual design, technical, program management, and executive leadership, and must have direct client-facing experience. In addition, as often the sole Business Analyst on a project, Lead Business Analysts must be independent, driven, and able to represent the business discipline on projects and internal initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Establish project standards and apply the best approach and methodology that suits the task requirements and client environment
• Apply client methodologies and tools to project delivery
• Serve as the functional/domain expert on the project team
• Manage a significant component of a work thread within an engagement, possibly managing a small internal or client team
• Prepare high-quality, client-ready functional deliverables
• Adept at identifying, quantifying, and managing project delivery risks
• Mentor and lead junior team members

COMMUNICATION:

• Facilitate client working sessions
• Have outstanding written and verbal communication skills, and be able to present written and oral communications in an organized, structured manner with an ability to level the communications appropriately for the target audience (from internal team communications to client presentations)
• Able to communicate complex ideas and make the complex simple
• Lead team status meetings and inform manager of issues, risks, decisions, etc., while identifying solutions and methods to mitigate risk
• Review final deliverables with client stakeholders

TECHNICAL UNDERSTANDING:

• Understand leading-edge mobile and web application technologies, including but not limited to mobile web and iOS/Android applications, CMS, CRM, and other Internet applications in a variety of industries
• Experience in one of more of the following solution sets: corporate sites, consumer sites, B2B sites, B2C sites, commerce platforms, employee portals, or marketing platforms
• Understand the elements of user experience and visual design and the application and benefits of a user-centered design process in the delivery of solutions
• Maintain a leading-edge understanding of new and emerging technologies and their potential client applications

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

• Assist in proposal efforts, including project approach, solution design, and scoping
• Convey the client brand and capabilities in both written and verbal business development conversations

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE/SKILLS:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 5+ years professional experience in consulting, with at least 4 years of experience as a Business Analyst
• Consulting experience delivering web and/or mobile channel solutions at an enterprise scale
• Experience serving as the business/product subject matter expert on projects based on previous experience and/or the ability to quickly learn and become the resident expert

NICE TO HAVE SKILLS:

• MBA or master’s degree in Information Technologies
• CAPM certification
• Experience in large-scale eCommerce implementations
• Experience as Scrum master or CSM/CSPO certification