Retirement & Wealth - Appian Business Analyst (Remote)

The Business Analyst will report to the Sr. Product Manager in the Product Management department. 

This role will support the design and implementation of workflow solutions that automate and optimize operational processes across the organization. Experience with workflow platforms such as Appian or others is highly desirable, as the Business Analyst will work closely with stakeholders to document processes, identify improvement opportunities, and translate business needs into scalable workflow solutions. This individual will collaborate closely with product, operations, legal, compliance, and technology teams to evaluate current processes, document business rules, identify opportunities for improvement, and support the delivery of scalable, operationally sound solutions that optimize business performance and reduce risk.

Key duties include producing high-quality requirements, improving documentation and shared understanding across teams, maintaining decision and process artifacts, and supporting delivery efforts throughout the product lifecycle. This role contributes across discovery, design, validation, testing, and implementation activities with a strong focus on requirements quality, operational workflow understanding, and business rule clarity.

Key Responsibilities:

• Translates business, operational, and compliance needs into clear, testable requirements.

• Leads detailed requirement elaboration, including business rules, validations, data requirements, exception paths, and edge cases.

• Provides dependency/impact assessment (systems, vendors, ops, compliance)

• Runs structured requirement intake with stakeholders

• Ensures stakeholders agree on rule interpretations and exception handling

• Coordinates rule clarity across pods when workflows intersect

• Flags upstream/downstream impacts of proposed changes

• Supports OKRs by defining measurable operational indicators 

• Establishes data needs, sources and ongoing measurement

• Participates in discovery sessions to capture business rules, exceptions, operational workflow reality

• Contributes to current-state process maps and pain-point identification

• Highlights 'must-do' items driven by regulatory or operational risk

• Maintains decision/Q&A logs

• Ensures artifacts live in the source-of-truth location

• Ensures operational workflow impacts are captured before release

• Partners with PM on post-launch readouts

• Surfaces compliance-relevant requirements, disclosures, and audit needs

• Flags PII/data handling implications to appropriate owners

• Maintains living 'how it works' pages, workflows, and decision/Q&A logs

• Creates/updates process maps and rule catalogs

• Improves discoverability: naming conventions, link hygiene, cross-references

• Shares learnings and templates; helps onboard newer teammates

• Promotes standard glossary/definitions for key concepts

• Be the go-to for complex rule/exception flows and teach others

• Improves team standards 

• Leads cross-team clarification sessions for shared workflows

• Engages directly with stakeholders demonstrating a high degree of professionalism and clarity in communication to gather requirements, manage expectations, provide software demos and ensure successful outcomes

• Develops and deliver training materials and sessions to ensure stakeholders and operational teams are equipped to adopt new processes and product capabilities

• Fosters a culture of clarity, accountability, and continuous learning

• Advocates for operational excellence and trust-building across teams

• Other duties as assigned

Typical schedule for this position is 8 a.m. CT to 5 p.m. CT. Occasional travel for onsite department meetings and collaboration events.

Education and Experience:

• 5+ years of experience in business analysis, product operations, or related roles (fintech or highly regulated industry preferred)

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Finance, Technology, or related field required

• Agile and Product Management certifications are a plus

Skills and Abilities:

• Thrives in ambiguous, evolving environments and is comfortable forming opinions, challenging existing process constraints, and helping define new ways of working. Brings the judgment, initiative, and ownership needed to move work forward without relying on others to make every decision.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex rule sets and operational processes

• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence and align stakeholders

• Proactive, engaged contributor who actively participates in discussions, drives clarity in the moment, and takes ownership to move work forward—operating with a high degree of independence and initiative

• Advanced capability in authoring high-quality user stories and scenario-based acceptance criteria that ensure clarity, completeness, and testability across complex workflows

• Ability to cut through ambiguity by structuring unclear problem spaces into defined rules, scenarios, and measurable outcomes—enabling teams to move forward with clarity and confidence.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and workstreams in a fast-paced environment, effectively prioritizing and delivering high-quality outcomes within established timelines

• Deep understanding of product development lifecycle and Agile methodologies

• Expertise in requirements definition, scenario design, and operational readiness planning

• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive decision clarity

• Experience with data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., Excel, SQL, Tableau)

• Proficiency with process modeling and documentation tools (e.g., Visio, Miro)

• Highly detail-oriented with a focus on quality, consistency, and scalability

Other Requirements:

• Travel up to (10%)

• Ability to work occasional overtime

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer

• Occasionally lifts up to 25 pounds