Finance Systems Business Analyst

Position
The Finance Systems Business Analyst will liaise between MIO’s IT and Finance teams and report directly to a Controller and the Director of Trade Operations. The new hire will work to determine requirements for finance-related systems as well as leverage the IT team to develop and implement these systems. They will collaborate extensively with business end-users to understand their requirements and issues and train them on the tools/capabilities available to them.

Primary responsibilities

• Act as a thought partner to the Finance business groups and IT teams on systems-related solutions:
  • Work across functions to understand the current state of finance-related IT systems
  • Identify and recommend opportunities for operational and system improvements to improve back-office business processes such as Financial Reporting, Partnership Accounting, Portfolio Accounting, Cash Management, Collateral Management, and Trade Order and Execution Management
  • Be a hands-on technical person with knowledge of data analysis tools like SQL servers, Excel VBA modelling, etc.
  • Support Data warehouse strategic planning, requirement gathering, and implementation
• Be a member of the IT Implementation team:
  • Participate in the Agile development process as a product owner
  • Communicate detailed requirements for finance systems (verbally and written) to the IT team
  • Provide feedback on development efforts
  • Write test cases and perform/coordinate acceptance testing, conduct QA reviews
  • Support product migrations and analysis through multiple environments (development, staging, and production)
• Provide training and operational support for the Finance team on various systems they leverage

Primary responsibilities estimated percentage allocation:

• 50% Engage in automation projects business analysis and implementation with IT
• 50% Engage in the implementation of a new data warehouse with IT

Specific projects

• Key participant in the implementation of a reconciliation system
• Liaise with IT and Finance on the integration between different systems for straight-through processing
• Liaise with IT and Finance on the implementation of new data warehouse and all associated systems

Desired background

• Finance systems knowledge/quantitative skills
  • Experience working with financial systems, including portfolio and partnership accounting systems, performance measurement systems, portfolio management systems, and general knowledge management systems
  • Strong understanding of financial instruments, including fixed income, equities, and currency derivatives; experience with alternative investments is preferred
  • Ability to understand complex financial analytics, strong quantitative analysis skills
  • Working knowledge of business intelligence systems and their use in the investment industry
  • Knowledge of various accounting systems and experience doing product comparisons/selecting accounting systems
• Communication skills
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are essential to interact with all levels of management, business partners, internal clients, and application developers
  • Proven technical writing skills and the ability to summarize and clearly articulate complex issues/technical documents
  • Experience developing presentations utilizing Excel, Access, Word, and PowerPoint
• IT knowledge/experience
  • Demonstrated experience working with IT team to implement projects
  • Strong understanding of data modeling, both relational and dimensional (data warehousing); experience with business intelligence systems
  • Working knowledge of RDBMS Concepts, MS SQL server, ETL Tool (e.g., Talend), and data management tools
  • Hands-on experience with Microsoft Office suite, especially Excel (including VBA programming); experience with Microsoft Visio
  • Experience with SharePoint is optional but preferred
  • Ability to analyze trade-offs (cost vs. benefit) of technology implementation
• Business analysis
  • Ability to understand core business processes, analyze business problems, and translate business needs into detailed technical requirements
  • Demonstrated ability to partner with internal clients (business groups) to gather detailed requirements to plan, develop, install, test, and maintain high-quality, effective technology applications
  • Experience in Quality Assurance (QA) process and creating test artifacts (e.g., test plans, test scenarios, test cases), and performing/coordinating testing activities
  • Experience supporting and training business user groups
• Leadership
  • Strong leadership skills
  • Able to foster strong relationships and commitment from end-user and IT team members to accomplish goals and objectives in fast-paced environments
  • Experience influencing user groups with respect to processes and systems
• Decision-making and problem-solving
  • Strong problem-solver who demonstrates clear, analytical thinking and sound judgment
  • Ability and desire to make timely decisions based on analysis

What Success in This Role Will Look Like
Milestones reached after six months
During the first six months, the Business Analyst will have learned about MIO, its business processes, and current IT systems. In addition, the Business Analyst will have worked on development projects and accomplished:

• Developed a vocabulary that demonstrates a strong understanding of the products and services MIO offers, allowing for strong communication with end-users/stakeholders from the Finance team
• Demonstrated a high-level understanding of Finance processes at MIO
• Received exposure to the technical architecture and tools that MIO is using to create its systems. This will include an understanding of:
  • MIO IT architecture, including hardware and software configuration
  • A thorough understanding of source data, the relational data model, and the flow of data between existing systems including accounting platform, reporting systems, etc.
  • MIO’s Business Intelligence Platform (Data Warehouse, SSRS, SSAS, SharePoint)
• Participated as a systems analyst for the Finance Reporting project by interacting with the end-users and documenting requirements/test cases/training materials and participated in Agile team meetings
• Familiarized himself/herself with the Agile process and Change Management process that the MIO team has adopted

Milestones reached after twelve months
A successful Business Analyst will have accomplished the following (or similar substitutions, pending project plan changes) after twelve months:

• Functioned as a key player in the implementation of the Finance Reporting Dashboard project including:
  • Gathered requirements from the Finance team
  • Worked with Agile team on the development
  • Coordinated User Acceptance Testing for these projects
  • Created training materials and led user training
• Liaised with Finance teams to understand and provide recommendations for improved use of SharePoint workflows

Certain US states require MIO Partners, Inc. to include a reasonable estimate of the salary range for this role. A reasonable estimate of the range for new joiners for this role in the United States $130,000-$130,000. Actual salaries may vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors, including, but not limited to an individual’s assigned office location, experience, and expertise. Certain roles are also eligible for bonuses, subject to MIO’s discretion and based on factors such as individual and/or organizational performance. Additionally, MIO offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental and vision coverage, telemedicine services, life, accident and disability insurance, parental leave and family planning benefits, caregiving resources, a generous retirement program, financial guidance, and paid time off.