BUSINESS ANALYST/SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT

ARAG Legal Solutions Inc., part of the ARAG Group, is a global leader in legal expense insurance operating in 20 countries offering an innovative and comprehensive range of legal expense products and services for brokers, underwriting agents and insurers across Canada.
This is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned Business Analyst/Solutions Architect to work in a dynamic and collaborative environment, focusing on defining and maintaining the company’s solution architecture blueprint for interdepartmental efficiency. Reporting into the Chief Financial Officer & Chief Product Owner, with a dotted line into the Chief Executive Officer, the incumbent will build accurate and detailed functional and technical specifications, and assist in the planning of project timeframes and milestones, while considering wider implications on the business. In this role, the incumbent will work closely with department heads to identify opportunities for improvement, whether this is automation, efficiency, quality or controls.

Requirements Gathering and Documentation and System Analysis

• Analyse business requirements elicited from stakeholders at a detailed technical level to understand fully how software solutions enhance business activities, and how to handle edge cases and exception scenarios
• Identify process improvements, including opportunities for automation, efficiency and quality improvements, enhancements to the user experience, as well as process/data controls.
• Use the refinement process to agree and understand the implementation of solutions, while being cognisant of how the implementation may impact on other systems and stakeholders.
• Organise workshops with developers and stakeholders, ensuring all participants have a common understanding of definitions, processes, behaviours and goals, and documenting clear actions and outcomes.
• Work with developers and architects within ARAG UK scrum teams to design and develop appropriate technical solutions, by defining accurate system requirements.
• Work with the rest of digital services to build knowledge about business processes and data.
• Identify risks and issues with existing legacy data; Develop solutions and implementations that strike the right balance between problem mitigation, scenario coverage and costs

Requirements Gathering and Documentation and System Analysis

• Analyse business requirements elicited from stakeholders at a detailed technical level to understand fully how software solutions enhance business activities, and how to handle edge cases and exception scenarios
• Identify process improvements, including opportunities for automation, efficiency and quality improvements, enhancements to the user experience, as well as process/data controls.
• Use the refinement process to agree and understand the implementation of solutions, while being cognisant of how the implementation may impact on other systems and stakeholders.
• Organise workshops with developers and stakeholders, ensuring all participants have a common understanding of definitions, processes, behaviours and goals, and documenting clear actions and outcomes.
• Work with developers and architects within ARAG UK scrum teams to design and develop appropriate technical solutions, by defining accurate system requirements.
• Work with the rest of digital services to build knowledge about business processes and data.
• Identify risks and issues with existing legacy data; Develop solutions and implementations that strike the right balance between problem mitigation, scenario coverage and costs.

Solution Delivery

• Work with ARAG UK Software Development Teams in an agile working environment; Actively taking part in all scrum ceremonies (e.g. Refinement, Stand-up, Planning, Retrospectives).
• Organise demos and presentations, and author and distribute release notes, maintaining documentation to reflect the latest changes.
• Understand the fundamentals of software deployments/releases, types/methods of system configuration, feature switching, non-breaking changes.
• Identify KPIs as part of the processes under review to ensure the costs and benefits of changes can be clearly measured before and after changes are implemented.
• Develop solutions adhering to accessibility requirements, ISO Security standards, GDPR, cyber-security, regulatory requirements and integration with third parties.

Customer Service and Product Backlog Management

• Manage the product backlog, ensuring the scrum team have 2-3 sprints’ worth of refined work at all times; Regularly meeting with stakeholders to re-prioritise work and managing their expectations.
• Regularly report development progress and raising risks/issues with the other Digital Services Business Analysts and Delivery Managers, to ensure a joined up and coherent service across ARAG UK Digital Services.
• Capture all Epics and Features in MS Azure DevOps; Document incremental changes as User Stories, such that the business receives tangible benefits iteratively.
• Bridging the gap between Product Backlog Management and Project Planning; e.g. working to Delivery Deadlines, identifying resourcing constraints, and co-ordinating with third parties.
• Engage with Stakeholders to have appropriate and realistic expectations, keeping them up to date on developments.

Learning and Development

• Take responsibility for self learning needs and objectives.
• Actively pursue ongoing learning in updated software applications and other focus areas as identified by stakeholders.
• Work closely with colleagues and direct manager to progress the wider departmental knowledge and skills base.