Must be local to VA || Lead Business Analyst

Work Arrangement: Onsite

*Candidate must reside in Richmond, VA

Description:

The Lead Business Analyst is a strategic and people-focused role responsible for elevating the quality, consistency, and impact of the Business Analyst team. This position blends mentorship, analytical leadership, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure high-quality requirements, streamlined processes, and effective communication between business and technical stakeholders.

You will guide a talented team of 8-10 Business Analysts, shape BA standards and best practices, and help deliver enterprise-wide solutions that support organizational goals and improve operational efficiency.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Business Analysis Standards & Requirements:

Establish, promote, and maintain consistent BA practices, templates, and documentation standards.

Ensure high-quality business requirement artifacts (BRDs, RTMs, user stories, acceptance criteria, process flows, data requirements).

Oversee requirement validation to ensure both business and technical needs are fully addressed.

Review and provide constructive feedback on BA deliverables to reduce rework and strengthen solution quality.

Ensure timely and complete delivery of BA artifacts to support project timelines and milestones.

Promote testing approaches that address functional, non-functional, and data requirements.

2. Collaboration, Facilitation & Stakeholder Alignment:

Foster strong collaboration across business units, IT teams, vendors, and stakeholders.

Act as a liaison between business and technical teams to ensure clarity, alignment, and shared understanding of business needs.

Facilitate workshops, requirement sessions, and cross-team discussions to drive decision-making.

Support change management efforts through consistent and proactive stakeholder communication.

Work with product owners, project managers, and leadership to prioritize requirements, mitigate risks, and maintain project momentum.

3. Communication & Presentation:

Demonstrate exceptional written and verbal communication skills.

Translate complex business needs into clear, concise, and actionable requirements and documentation.

Tailor communication for executives, technical teams, and end users to ensure shared understanding.

Present findings, recommendations, and project updates to senior leadership with clarity and confidence.

Produce high-quality documentation that is accurate, structured, and easy to understand.

4. Team Leadership, Coaching & Continuous Improvement:

Mentor, guide, and support Business Analysts, promoting skill development, confidence, and analytical excellence.

Identify improvement opportunities through process analysis, team feedback, and project outcomes.

Recommend and help implement improvements to BA practices to increase efficiency and consistency.

Ensure alignment with leadership and team members before introducing new methodologies or practice changes.

Remove roadblocks, provide direction, and proactively address risks that impact BA effectiveness.

Lead by example, demonstrating accountability, professionalism, transparency, and a commitment to quality.

Qualifications:

Required:

Bachelor’s degree in business, Information Technology, or a related field

7 years of experience as a Business Analyst, including 3 years mentoring or leading analysts

Outstanding written and verbal communication skills

Strong understanding of requirement elicitation, documentation, and process modeling

Proven experience with Agile methodologies (Scrum and/or Kanban)

Excellent facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills

Experience working with enterprise-level applications or multi-module systems

Proficiency with BA and ALM tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar

Preferred:

Experience guiding BA practice standards or supporting BA Centers of Excellence

Experience with data governance, data integration, or data quality initiatives

Familiarity with testing methodologies and ALM or automated testing tools

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to use data to drive insights

Skills & Competencies:

Leadership and mentoring abilities

Exceptional communication and presentation skills

Strong analytical and process improvement mindset

Excellent stakeholder engagement and facilitation capabilities

High attention to detail and commitment to quality

Ability to manage multiple priorities and support projects concurrently

Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and process modeling tools

Skill Required / Desired Amount of Experience

Business Analysis - Expert level knowledge in business analysis functions (requirements, stakeholder management, testing, etc)-Required 10 Years

Leadership - Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with experience leading and guiding experienced teams-Required 7 Years

Communication - Effectively conveying ideas to both technical and non-technical teams at various levels of an organization-Required 7 Years

Stakeholder Management - Ability to build and maintain working relationships with key stakeholders within the organization-Required 7 Years

Support - Guide and help experienced professionals in achieving their goals and support in removing obstacles-Required 7 Years