Sr. Business Analyst, Production & Studio Technology Services

Senior Business Analyst

The Production & Studio Technology Services (PSTS) Team is seeking a Senior Business Analyst to join our IT Production Finance group. This position requires a combination of strong information technology background and a production services business acumen to effectively manage relationships between the business and IT, as well as support the day-to-day operations and delivery of IT products and services. The Senior BA role serves as the conduit for business users with the primary goal of understanding the business processes, workflows, and information requirements of the users and sharing them with the development teams. The role is also expected to interact with stakeholders from various business units, including Production Finance, Corporate Finance, Studio Operations, Information Security, and Procurement in support of current and future efforts.

The Senior Business Analyst will perform requirements analysis, create functional design specifications, develop mockups, build wireframes, 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. The Senior Business Analyst should be well versed and experienced utilizing the Agile development and project management methodologies. The candidate must be hands on, detailed-oriented, have strong communication and listening skills, and have the ability to effectively prioritize their work. 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 the system development lifecycle, including project planning / scoping, requirement gathering, system design and system testing. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who approaches work with enthusiasm, passion, and is committed to delivering value for our business customers while positively influencing those around them.

General BA Requirements :

Serve as a trusted partner to other teams in planning, coordination, development, and deployment of PSTS projects and products.

Apply analytical skills to effectively identify and solve problems.

Effectively collaborate and manage other resources (even if not direct reports) to resolve issues and complete tasks.

Distill and succinctly present complex issues in a concise manner to management to facilitate / influence decision making.

Lead client facing meetings without supervision.

Independently identify areas of opportunity and proactively collaborate across teams to improve application and process performance.

Assist in shaping the business analysis standards, optimal processes, and best practice templates for the department.

Proactively reach out to colleagues and stakeholders for opportunities to support their initiatives.

Ensure that Sony's Global Information Security Policies and other company controls are observed and applied to all applications in the portfolio.

Create status reports and other ad hoc reports to effectively communicate status / issues / attention needed.

Operate with high degrees of trust, integrity, and compassion for others.

Have the courage to ask difficult questions and provide / receive constructive feedback in spirit of continuous improvement.

Participate in compliance audits and uphold adherence to approved policies and procedures.

Requirements, Testing and Demand Management Job Requirements :

Work independently to manage the requirements, testing, and support roles across assigned products.

Collect, review, analyze, prioritize, and manage system and user requirements from key stakeholders.

Develop mockups to validate and enhance user requirements.

Ensure that all business and technology demand enters the IT pipeline appropriately.

Take ownership of tasks and initiatives to resolve effectively with little oversight.

Diagnose and resolve issues within and across Production Finance systems.

Learn and pivot quickly when facing new expectations, projects, and demands.

Analyze current Production Finance business and system processes to identify pain points and make recommendations for efficiency and productivity improvements.

Work with the business and technical teams to clarify, document, and articulate functional and technical requirements.

Obtain functional design specification approvals.

Work with Production Finance, Enterprise Architecture, and PSTS teams to confirm that requested application configurations or customizations are implemented correctly with near 100% accuracy.

Create and validate detailed business requirements, reports, process flows, user stories, use cases, and test scenarios.

Liaise with software vendors to configure, customize, and test changes necessary to support SPE's evolving needs.

Develop and manage requirements traceability matrix for testing.

Ensure that deliverables meet the requirements agreed upon by key stakeholders.

Create test scripts to test new enhancements and functionality as needed.

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.

System Support Job Requirements :

During testing and post go-live, serve as a first line of defense for incoming user requests and issues and triage / redirect them accordingly.

Provide VIP support in conjunction with and on behalf of the Global Service (Help) Desk.

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.

Seek opportunities to drive efficiencies within the team including optimizing internal procedures, workflows, and / or streamlining communication / hand offs between team members.

Maintain the team's Jira board, log all issues (epics, bugs, stories, tasks), document requests with sufficient detail to implement, route tickets to appropriate team members, and track all requests to completion.

Manage team metrics and work with the Jira administration team to define any customizations needed in support of those metrics.

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.

Maintain documentation for all project activities & supported applications, including backfilling missing information.

Respond quickly to vulnerability tests and internal and external audits.

Experience Required :

Minimum 5 years of experience in IT or related technical professions.

Experience with the media & entertainment production process, preferably Production Finance.

Familiarity of the Agile methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban.

Experience writing functional design specifications for application configurations and customizations.

Experience writing technical design specifications.

Experience executing data migration / data transformation projects.

Experience designing report templates and wireframes based on user requirements.

Working knowledge of Jira and ServiceNow.

Preferred Skills :

Independent, self-motivated with strong critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills.

Ability to help shape and influence outcomes with stakeholders.

Ability to facilitate business requirements and design review sessions with users and clients.

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 process flow and diagramming skills (Visio application).

Knowledge of reporting tools, such as PowerBI helpful.

Ability to build basic database queries / reports to support business requirements gathering.

Knowledge of production finance workflows and film / television / streaming industry helpful.

Education :

Bachelor's degree or related professional experience required.

Computer Science or related Information Technology degree preferred.

The anticipated base salary for this position is $82,000-$125,000. This role may also qualify for annual incentive and / or comprehensive benefits. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other protected characteristics. SPE will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with applicable law. To request an accommodation for purposes