IT Business Analyst (Contractor)- Securities / Post-Trade / CSD
Contract: Long-term Contract
Sector: Financial Services / Financial Market Infrastructure
Location: London / Hybrid
Specialism: Securities, Post-Trade, Settlement & CSD
The Opportunity
We are looking for an experienced IT Business Analyst to join a major financial services organisation working within a highly regulated and business-critical securities environment.
You will join a collaborative, Agile delivery team responsible for technology solutions supporting securities, settlement and post-trade services.
This is a hands-on Business Analysis position requiring someone who can operate effectively between Business and Technology. You will work with stakeholders to understand complex requirements, identify appropriate solutions and support change throughout the full delivery lifecycle - from initial analysis and requirements through to testing, UAT and implementation.
The successful candidate will ideally bring strong knowledge of Central Securities Depositories (CSDs), securities settlement, post-trade processes and financial market infrastructure, alongside experience with securities messaging standards such as ISO 15022 and ISO 20022.
Key Responsibilities
- Act as a key interface between business stakeholders, technology teams and other delivery functions.
- Understand the business drivers behind operational, functional, tactical and strategic change initiatives and translate these into clear technology and business requirements.
- Work closely with stakeholders to understand complex business problems, processes and needs.
- Challenge requirements constructively and propose viable business and technology solutions.
- Lead and facilitate requirements gathering workshops with stakeholders across Business and IT.
- Analyse existing business processes, systems and data flows and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Produce high-quality business, stakeholder, functional and non-functional requirements.
- Develop user stories, acceptance criteria, use cases and other appropriate Agile delivery artefacts.
- Produce process and system models using techniques such as BPMN, UML, story mapping and data modelling.
- Work closely with developers, architects, testers, Product Owners and other technology stakeholders throughout the delivery lifecycle.
- Support the implementation and deployment of system changes, providing stakeholders with guidance throughout the change process.
- Produce and validate scenarios required to test new systems and functionality.
- Participate in and, where required, execute different phases of testing.
- Support User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and client/business acceptance activities.
- Ensure requirements remain traceable throughout design, development, testing and implementation.
- Identify risks, issues and dependencies associated with proposed changes.
- Promote Business Analysis best practice and contribute to continuous improvement across the wider BA community.
Essential Experience
Candidates should have a strong combination of Business Analysis expertise and securities/post-trade domain knowledge.
You should have:
- Minimum 5 years' experience as an IT Business Analyst, ideally within financial services or financial market infrastructure.
- Strong experience within securities, settlement, post-trade and/or custody.
- Good understanding of Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) and their role within the financial markets ecosystem.
- Understanding of the securities lifecycle, including areas such as trade processing, settlement, positions, custody and/or corporate actions.
- Knowledge of CSD Regulation (CSDR) and the wider regulatory environment affecting securities settlement would be highly desirable.
- Strong understanding of securities market messaging standards, particularly ISO 15022 and/or ISO 20022.
- Knowledge of securities market practices and standards developed through organisations such as SMPG would be advantageous.
- Proven experience eliciting, analysing, documenting and managing complex requirements.
- Strong experience producing functional and non-functional requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Experience with Business Analysis modelling techniques including process modelling, use cases, story mapping, BPMN and/or UML.
- Experience supporting testing activities including test scenarios, system testing and UAT.
- Experience delivering complex technology change using methodologies such as Agile/Scrum, SAFe, Waterfall and/or V-Model.
Highly Desirable
Experience in one or more of the following would be particularly valuable:
- CREST or comparable securities settlement platforms
- Central Securities Depositories
- Securities settlement
- Custody / asset servicing
- Corporate actions
- Post-trade processing
- Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI)
- CSDR
- ISO 15022
- ISO 20022
- SWIFT securities messaging
- SMPG market practices
- Securities migrations or transformation programmes
Candidates coming from a CSD, custodian, investment bank, securities services organisation, exchange, clearing house or other financial market infrastructure environment are particularly encouraged to apply.
*Rates depend on experience and client requirements