Senior Business Analyst - Business Relationship Management

Job Description

Senior Business Analyst – Business Relationship Management

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is looking for a Senior Business Analyst to join the IT team supporting the Content Mastering & Delivery Group. This position requires a combination of strong technical background and business acumen to effectively manage relationships between the Business and IT, as well as support the day-to-day operations and delivery of IT services. The Senior BA role serves as the conduit to the business users with the primary goal of understanding the business processes, workflows, and information requirements of the users. The role is also expected to interact with stakeholders from various business units, including CMDG, Finance, Information Security and Procurement in support of current and future efforts.

The Senior Business Analyst will perform requirements analysis, create functional design specifications, document workflows, and ensure that releases are tested successfully. The candidate will also manage support requests, incident resolutions, and application outages to avoid interruptions of day-to-day business operations and processes.

The Senior Business Analyst should have experience specifically working with cross-functional teams using the Agile project management methodology. The candidate must be hands on and detailed-oriented. Strong communication and listening skills are essential as well as the ability to interact with all levels of business users globally. Candidates must be self-starters with the ability to prioritize effectively. The ideal candidate should have several years of experience performing a similar role. Some technical development skills would also be beneficial but not required.

The Senior Business Analyst should have the ability to assist in driving projects and be hands-on in all aspects of the system development lifecycle including project planning/scoping, requirements gathering, system design and system testing. The ideal candidate must also have a proven track record of supporting multiple business units utilizing one application for various and disparate business processes.

Job Requirements:
• Act as the first point of contact for all user requests and issues received by the team and triage them accordingly.
• Collect, review, analyze, prioritize, and manage system and user requirements from key stakeholders across disparate locations and time-zones.
• Ensure that all demand enters the IT pipeline appropriately.
• Maintain the team's Jira board, log all issues, document requests with sufficient detail to implement, route tickets to appropriate team members, and track all requests to completion.
• Work with Operations, Finance and Procurement to confirm that requested application configurations are implemented correctly with 100% accuracy.
• Manage team metrics and work with the Jira administration team to define any customizations needed in support of those metrics.
• Create detailed proposals, business requirements, reports, process flows, user stories, use cases, and test scenarios.
• Obtain functional design specification approvals.
• Work with the business and technical teams to clarify functional requirements.
• Serve as a liaison to other teams in planning, coordination, development and deployment of multi-team enhancements or projects. Leverage SPE's IT organization, infrastructure and technology capabilities to help deliver maximum business value.
• Ensure that deliveries meet the requirements agreed upon by key stakeholders. Create test scripts to test new enhancements and functionality as needed.
• Define training needs for new and existing functionality. Create user guides, release notes and training documentation as appropriate. Conduct training sessions, including virtual sessions for offices located in New York, Europe, and Asia.
• Manage the UAT process by performing smoke testing, test case validation, and obtaining business approvals on UAT for scheduled deployments. Demonstrate functionality and coordinate UAT sessions with subject matter experts when appropriate.
• Maintain documentation for all supported applications, including backfilling missing information.
• Ensure that Sony's Global Information Security Policies and other company controls are observed and applied to all applications in the portfolio.
• Respond quickly to vulnerability tests and internal and external audits.
• Manage incidents on a daily basis and follow up on critical issues.
• Establish and maintain clear escalation procedures so that problems and issues encountered are addressed in a timely manner. Facilitate the resolution of any issues which might arise.
• Provide VIP support in conjunction with and on behalf of the Global Service (Help) Desk.
• Seek opportunities to drive efficiencies within the team including optimizing internal procedures, workflows, and/or streamlining communication/hand offs between team members.
• Operate with trust, integrity, and compassion for others.
• Have the courage to ask difficult questions and provide/receive constructive feedback in spirit of continuous improvement.
• Attend night calls with off-shore development team as needed (Sunday – Thursday).

Experience Required:
• Minimum 5 years of experience in IT or related technical professions

Preferred Skills:
• Familiarity of the Agile methodology
• Ability to facilitate business requirements and design review sessions with customers
• Succinct & precise communication skills: verbal, written, listening and presentation
• Strong organizational and workload prioritization skills
• Strong program or project management experience
• Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and relationship management skills
• Strong critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong process flow and diagramming skills (Visio application)
• Knowledge of Jira with ServiceNow experience helpful
• Knowledge of reporting tools with Business Objects and Tableau experience helpful
• Ability to build basic database queries/reports to support business requirements gathering
• Knowledge of post-production workflows and film/television/streaming industry helpful

Education
• Bachelor's degree or related professional experience required
• Computer Science or related Information Technology degree preferred

* Sony Pictures - CA - Culver City Area & Studios

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d2xbkm-18-191-189-140-42 in your application.