Business Analyst Team Lead

New York Life Insurance Co•New York, NY

24d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a highly experienced, execution-minded Business Analysis Manager to lead the BA craft across a large portfolio of critical digital capabilities within New York Life’s Field Experience (FX) value stream. This role sits in the centralized, horizontal Cross FX Enablement function and heads the Business Analysis Center of Excellence, establishing standards, methods, and business-readiness governance that support multiple product teams to modernize and connect agent & advisor experiences driving more intuitive & seamless experiences through robust delivery and operational discipline. In this leadership role, you will coach and allocate a team of BAs, set quality guardrails to run discovery-to-solidification practices (process/data modeling, dependency mapping, NFR readiness). You will collaborate closely with Product Owners/Managers, Design/UX, Architecture, Technology/QA, UAT, and Production Support to ensure clear, testable specifications, risk-based business acceptance, and release readiness checkpoints. As a pivotal contributor to our multi-year roadmap, the BA Manager will help deliver high-impact, multi-million-dollar initiatives by reducing ambiguity, de-risking delivery, and accelerating time-to-value.

Requirements

10+ years in Business Analysis or Product/Process Leadership, 5+ years leading BA/requirements functions in complex, multi-platform environments.
Prior experience working in the Life Insurance Industry is a plus
Demonstrated ability to identify, define and understand a problem, have knowledge of root cause analysis, and research effective solutions for the customer
Strong analytical, written, verbal and communication skills with the demonstrated ability to work with all levels within the organization. Excellent presence
Agile experience and experience with agile development tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Miro, etc

Nice To Haves

Must be very organized and have excellent follow-up skills
Must be team oriented in interacting with a diverse group
A proactive self-starter with the ability to work independently with minimal supervision
Strong attention to accuracy and detail
Handles multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment

Responsibilities

Define the BA framework for discovery, options/assumptions, process & data modeling, traceability, and non-functional readiness.
Set quality guardrails, maintain checklists, examples, and readiness gates.
Run BA quality reviews & release checkpoints to verify intent clarity, dependency coverage, and business-readiness evidence before PI commit/release.
Establish business acceptance policy around testing, risk-based coverage, data needs, sign-off evidence, and triage flows.
Hire, onboard, and develop BAs; run craft clinics (process/data modeling, risk-based acceptance, connected-journey patterns).
Plan BA capacity with PM/PO (higher priority product focus areas and delivery risks) and allocate coverage across products.
Mentor BAs to independently drive discovery workshops, decision framing, and cross-platform solidification.
Partner with PM/PO to drive alignment of discovery scope, and sequencing feasibility, surface requirement quality risks and readiness gaps.
Fuse run-state insights (Production Support trends/VOC) back to PM/PO to influence backlog strategy and consult with PM/PO on release pivots where warranted.
Coordinate requirement dependencies for highly complex programs across Design, Data/AI, Architecture, Compliance, QA/UAT, and vendors.
Own “business readiness” criteria: what good looks like for acceptance (functional + NFRs + operational readiness/controls).
Guide UAT strategy with UAT/QA: coverage based on business impact & technical risk; ensure story ACs translate to testable scenarios.
Monitor coverage & leakage (defect themes, readiness gaps) and drive fixes to root cause, closing the loop into PM/PO roadmaps.
Operate BA metrics: time-to-clarity, story/AC quality pass rates (as evaluated by BA reviews), requirements-driven rework, and escaped defects.
Sponsor improvements that reduce friction and cycle time (standard decomposition patterns, acceptance policy, traceability automation).
Publish quarterly insights (value realized, risk avoided, decision throughput) to inform portfolio planning and funding decisions.