The Investment Platform team is a central team within Investment Transformation and Technology, reporting to the Investment COO with a global remit. The team works with teams across M&G to support the global Investment Platform and implement change on the platform.
This is a Sr. Business Analyst position and will be perfect for somebody with experience in the Front Office (ideally across a number of asset classes), who is passionate about utilising technology to transform how the Front Office operates, and is keen to get further exposure to a number of asset classes and technology capabilities.

The role holder will work with senior Change Managers across Public or Private Assets to support on various activities, including but not limited to:

- Understanding business requirements, and designing technical solutions - in conjunction with our architecture team and engineering squads

- Have basic working knowledge on Aladdin and co-ordination with BRS for enhancement.

- Business analysis, ranging from business process through to data integration analysis

- Attending daily stand-up meetings with the engineering and change management teams

- Articulating business requirements in a way that the engineering teams can understand, and working closely to ensure that they deliver solutions that meet the business needs

- Participating in quarterly and sprint planning, wherever applicable, to ensure that key business outcomes are achieved - including managing backlogs via Jira

- Work closely with the Front Office business stakeholders along with Lead Business Analyst, providing regular updates on progress.

Job Description:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES AND RESPONSABILITIES:

- Deliver Stories: Support timely delivery of user stories and other project deliverables within agreed timelines.

- Business Case Development: Assist in the creation of business cases and associated operating models for projects, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.

- Benefits Realisation: Assist Lead Business Analyst and include the Project/Programme Manager in defining benefits and managing their realisation throughout the project lifecycle.

- Requirements Gathering: Assist in producing detailed requirements (including epics and user stories) through interviews, analysis, workshops, prototyping, data analysis, and workflow analysis.

- Information Evaluation: Support the critical evaluation of information gathered from multiple sources to ensure accuracy and relevance.

- Stakeholder Communication: Participate proactive communication and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to understand information needs, functional requirements, existing capabilities, and feasibility.

- Independent Work: Act as a self-starter, working under the direction of the Project/Programme/Change Manager and with users to define concepts.

- Project Team Collaboration: Assist in challenging project team members on their assumptions and plans to support successful execution.

- Analytical Skills: Leverage analytical skills to support interpreting customer business needs and translating them into operational requirements..

- Problem Solving: Demonstrate problem-solving skills when assisting with presenting design/solution options.

- Business As Usual: Have awareness of the business outcome and support the implementation and landing successfully in BAU, ensuring existing working functionalities are not impacted.

- Technical Vision: Collaborate with implementation teams and subject matter experts to help establish the technical vision and support the analysis trade-offs between usability and performance needs..

- Specification Compliance: Help ensure technology builds or business processes meet specifications and assist in test preparation and execution. .

- External Documentation: Assist in contributing to key external-facing documents such as Service Level Agreements and manage third-party analysis deliverables, ensuring quality and relevance.

- Operational Readiness: Work with business teams to support operational readiness and ensure smooth transitions.

- Solution Validation: Help ensure the overall solution meets agreed objectives and expectations set by the project and programme.

- Test Planning Alignment: Assist in aligning test planning with the Test Manager and Project Manager to ensure comprehensive test coverage..

- Training Documentation: Assist in preparing training documentation and conducting training sessions as needed. .

Operations Technology Specific Responsibilities:

- Reconciliation Oversight - regularly reconcile internal records with external sources such as custodians and counterparties to confirm the accuracy of financial and investment records.

Trade Lifecycle Management: manage the lifecycle of a trade, including confirmations, settlement, trade matching/discrepancies, and adherence to counterparty agreements.

Knowledge and Skills (Key):

- Stakeholder Engagement: Ability to effectively engage both business and technology stakeholders, ensuring clear communication and alignment.

- Requirements Definition: Proven ability to drive the business and technical requirements definition across large, complex projects.

- Facilitation Skills: Good facilitation skills to elicit information from key stakeholders internally and externally through workshops, interviews, and meetings.

- Having high attention to details

Industry Experience:

- Minimum of 2 years of experience within the Front Office of an Asset Management organization.

- Portfolio Management Processes: Familiarity with portfolio management processes within an Asset Management organization, regardless of asset class.

- Technology Exposure: Exposure to Aladdin or similar portfolio management systems is beneficial but not mandatory.

- Interest in Technology: A keen interest in technology and its application within the financial services industry.

- Interpersonal Skills: Good interpersonal and organizational skills, with the ability to build strong relationships across the organization.

- Agile Methodologies: Experience with Agile methodologies, Jira, and working with technology teams is beneficial but not mandatory.

- Data Presentation: Ability to tailor and present complex data to different stakeholders, ensuring clarity and understanding.

- Communication Skills: Confident and effective communicator (both written and verbal) across all levels of the organization.

- Business Feasibility: Well-developed understanding of business feasibility and option assessments.

- Business Analysis Tools: Good understanding of business analysis tools, techniques, and standards to drive high-quality user documentation, impact assessments, and cost-benefit analysis.

- Critical Evaluation: Ability to critically evaluate information and question the status quo to drive improvements.

- Analytical Thinking: Proven and demonstrable analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to think laterally and generate creative solutions.

- Benefits Realisation: Ability to support benefits realization throughout the project lifecycle.

- MS Office Proficiency: Excellent MS Office skills, particularly with MS Excel and Visio.

- Delivery Methodologies: Knowledge of Agile and/or Waterfall delivery methodologies.

- Organizational Skills: Excellent organizational and prioritization skills with a keen attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple deliverables.

- Test Strategy Support: Ability to support the test strategy to ensure alignment with project and programme outcomes.

- Training and Change Management: Support the system training and change management strategy to ensure successful adoption.

- Risk Management: Strong risk mindset to support the project manager in risk identification and mitigation proposals.

Knowledge and Skills (Desirable):

- Asset Management Experience: Experience working in Asset Management companies.

- Tool Proficiency: Experience working with tools such as Jira and Confluence.

Education and Qualifications Necessary:

- Educational Background: Graduate in any discipline.

Experience:

- Total Experience: 6+ years of total experience with 2+ years of experience as a Business Analyst in Asset Management.

- Cross-Functional Teams: Experience working in cross-functional teams.

- Continuous Improvement: Experience contributing to, and achieving, continuous improvement goals.

- Being able to work alone or with a team

- Having excellent IT skills

- Being logical and objective

- Having good understanding of business environment

- Having math skills

- Being able to work under pressure

- Having interpersonal skills

- Being self-motivated and proactive

- Having leadership skills

- Having high attention to details