Job Board

The Senior Business Analyst, reporting to the Senior Manager Business & Process Analysis, is responsible for contributing to the strategic direction and scoping exercises within complex projects consisting of cross departmental and multiple application impacts. The Senior BA is accountable for developing and managing business analysis techniques and best practices, and providing direction and leadership to other Business Analysts.

Working directly with the client and project group, this position must assess the business needs of users in order to provide the most appropriate solution. They are the liaison between the business team and the technical team 

Employment Equity 

 Northwestel values diversity in the workplace and is committed to the goals of Employment Equity. We strive to achieve a skilled workforce that is representative of the population we serve, and as a Northern company, we are committed to the employment and career development of our Indigenous peoples. Please clearly indicate on your application if you are an Indigenous person, a woman, a person with a disability, or a visible minority if you wish to receive hiring preference.

General Accountability 

The Senior Business Analyst, reporting to the Senior Manager Business & Process Analysis, is responsible for contributing to the strategic direction and scoping exercises within complex projects consisting of cross departmental and multiple application impacts. The Senior BA is accountable for developing and managing business analysis techniques and best practices, and providing direction and leadership to other Business Analysts.

Working directly with the client and project group, this position must assess the business needs of users in order to provide the most appropriate solution. They are the liaison between the business team and the technical team

Supporting projects through developing and documenting business functional and non-functional requirements, high level specifications, developing the testing strategy & plan and coordinating the testing phase are all standard functions of this role. In addition, the role is responsible for developing solution options and evaluation criteria for RFP submissions and responses. This includes facilitation of the RFP evaluation process between Northwestel and potential external vendors. This role enables project teams to effectively deliver on the identified business outcomes through management of the product scope and collaborative facilitation.

The Senior Business Analyst will assess the impact of their project or program on organizational goals and other concurrent projects. They will also be aware and gain an understanding on how their project(s) may affect other initiatives or business areas. They continually evaluate ongoing projects against the strategic imperatives.

Specific Accountabilities 

• Lead cross functional teams, on more complex projects, through business requirements through analyzing and understanding existing or planned future processes and identifying supporting system improvement opportunities.
• Provide services for various project types including COTS (commercial off the shelf), new development, and enhancements/support.  
• Lead and mentor BA’s in the methodology and implementation of structured business analysis tools. This includes positively influencing all those around them to become more effective in the implementation of their respective deliverables.
• Manage multiple ongoing initiatives or projects in parallel.
• Build effective relationships with Sponsors, Business Primes and Stakeholders, and inspire engagement, creativity, collaboration and innovation within projects.
• Develop and put into practice a structured and disciplined approach to analyzing and identifying system improvement opportunities.
• Facilitate cross-functional project teams to achieve desired outcomes in a professional and comprehensive way including conflict resolution.
• Provide input into the project scope within complex programs or projects for internal or external solution providers.
• Participate in project planning to determine scheduling and resource requirements pertaining to business requirements, solution selection and testing activities.
• Develop modelling of current data flow, utilize current and future state processes as required to drive the user requirements gathering process. Elicit, analyze, model, and communicate requirements with stakeholders, business and outside vendors as required. Lead the project team to rate and outline requirements and document findings that will drive the product design. Manage iterative changes to requirements throughout the project lifecycle.  
• Contribute to the project risk register in order to assist users in mapping out acceptable and unacceptable risk for products. Contribute project and product assumptions, dependencies and constraints. Work with team to come up with a risk mitigation plan for the product. 
• Work with and enable the client group to understand the impact of proposed business changes. This position will be expected to identify potential solutions and maximize efficiencies for the client group (department or division) and the Company as a whole, and provide a specific recommendation to the Program and Project Managers as well as other stakeholders. 
• Develop product scope and requirements that represent a deep awareness of the business for the technical design team to develop solution options. Work with technical leads and business iteratively to satisfy new requirements needs throughout the technical design cycle. Identify and outline system constraints based on design and help the business understand the impacts within the project as well as across the organization.
• Analyse the solution options and provide decision support to the team by presenting more in depth of how the solution options weigh against the user requirements along with an official recommendation taking into account the impacts across multiple projects.
• Translating user requests for new systems/modifications/interfaces into functional and non-functional requirements; researching and evaluating solutions which meet the requirements (by contacting hardware and software vendors and obtaining quotations, referencing/evaluating vendor applications with other companies, etc.) and documenting the requirements.
• Work with the senior leadership team on planning for long term strategic direction. Provides adhoc consulting services to various functional groups or departments.
• Preparing and evaluating RFP submissions.
• Lead testing activities including test planning, clarification of requirements, creation of test cases, managing variances and attaining signoff.

Knowledge and Skills Required 

This position requires an expert in BA best practices with a degree in an IT related discipline and 5 years of business analysis or inter-related client-server applications supporting customer care and billing. A Diploma in IT related discipline with 7 years of the aforementioned experience would also be considered. A business analysis certification is an asset. In addition, the incumbent must have experience leading and/or mentoring peers, consulting cross departmental teams working with senior management on planning strategic direction. 

The incumbent must also bring in depth knowledge of conceptual/logical data, process modelling and analysis techniques. They must have demonstrated competency in analytical (e.g. cost/benefit analysis) research, problem solving, project management and strategic organizational/planning. Strong communication (oral, written, presentation, active listening), facilitation and conflict resolution skills are required. The successful incumbent must have proven ability to anticipate, quantify and resolve problems while managing the associated risks.

 What we offer you 

• Health & Wellness Benefits, Pension Plan, Discounts 
• Team Incentive Bonus
• Paid Vacation with a Vacation Travel Allowance
• Work-Life Balance
• Community Involvement

As part of the recruitment process for this position, candidates may be required to take pre-employment tests and/or complete work simulation exercise to assess job fit.

As a safety conscious COR™ Certified organization, we have an established and comprehensive safety program.  We expect all employees to participate in our organizational health and safety programs, adhering to all safe work procedures focused on continuous improvement.