Functional Lead

EXL•Jersey City, NJ

2d•$140,000 - $180,000

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced Functional Lead to provide functional and business leadership across insurance transformation and technology initiatives. The role requires strong insurance domain knowledge and experience in business analysis and requirements management. The Functional Lead serves as an insurance subject matter expert, guiding business, technology, data, QA, and delivery teams throughout the project lifecycle. The position covers insurance processes including policy administration, underwriting, claims, billing, renewals, and distribution. It supports analysis of existing processes and opportunities for simplification, automation, and operational improvement. The role leads requirements gathering and analysis, translates business needs into functional documentation, and ensures traceability from requirements through delivery, testing, and business outcomes. It also coordinates business and technology stakeholders, supports UAT and business validation, and maintains governance over requirements, changes, decisions, and approvals. Base compensation range: $140,000–$180,000. The hiring range reflects base salary across the national hiring scale. Final offers depend on factors including skills and experience, internal pay equity, work location, market conditions, and role scope. Compensation may exceed the posted range in higher-cost zones such as California, New York, and New Jersey. Benefits information is available at https://www.exlservice.com/us-careers-and-benefits.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in business analysis, functional consulting, product/business consulting, or similar roles.
Strong experience working within the insurance domain.
Experience supporting large-scale business transformation, technology modernization, data, or digital initiatives.
Proven experience acting as a bridge between business and technology teams.
Experience leading requirements workshops and managing multiple business and functional workstreams.
Strong understanding of insurance business processes and workflows.
Knowledge of insurance functions including policy administration, underwriting, claims, billing, renewals, and distribution.
Expertise in business requirements gathering and functional requirements analysis.
Experience creating BRDs and FRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria, functional specifications, and process maps.
Experience with requirements traceability, gap and impact analysis, UAT, and business validation.
Ability to translate business needs into clear functional requirements for technology and data teams.
Experience with Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery models.
Working knowledge of Jira, Confluence, Rally, Visio, or similar requirements or process management tools.
Excellent communication, facilitation, documentation, and stakeholder management skills.
Ability to work effectively with senior business stakeholders and technical delivery teams.
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience as a Lead Business Analyst, Functional Lead, Business Consultant, or Insurance Functional SME.

Responsibilities

Lead functional activities across insurance business and technology transformation initiatives.
Serve as a functional subject matter expert and help teams understand insurance processes, requirements, workflows, and business rules.
Partner with business stakeholders to understand objectives, operational challenges, and transformation priorities.
Provide functional guidance to technology, data, QA, and delivery teams throughout the project lifecycle.
Ensure solutions and deliverables align with business objectives and insurance processes.
Apply knowledge of the insurance lifecycle, including policy administration, underwriting, claims, billing, renewals, and distribution.
Work with insurance business teams to understand processes, operating models, workflows, and downstream impacts.
Analyze existing processes and identify opportunities for simplification, automation, and operational improvement.
Ensure requirements reflect insurance-specific workflows, controls, and business rules.
Lead requirements-gathering sessions and workshops with business stakeholders and SMEs.
Translate business requirements into functional requirements, business requirements, user stories, use cases, process flows, and acceptance criteria.
Prepare and review artifacts such as BRDs, FRDs, process maps, workflows, functional specifications, and requirements traceability matrices.
Analyze requirements to identify dependencies, gaps, impacts, and functional risks.
Maintain end-to-end traceability between requirements, functional specifications, solution delivery, testing, and business outcomes.
Act as the primary functional liaison among business, operations, product, data, technology, and QA teams.
Translate complex business requirements into clear functional direction for delivery teams.
Help technical teams understand insurance terminology, business rules, workflows, and expected business outcomes.
Participate in solution discussions and ensure proposed solutions meet business and functional requirements.
Support resolution of requirement conflicts, functional gaps, and business process issues.
Partner with QA and business teams to ensure test scenarios cover functional and business requirements.
Support UAT planning, business validation, defect triage, and requirement clarification.
Review test scenarios and acceptance criteria from a functional and insurance business perspective.
Coordinate stakeholder business sign-off and readiness.
Build relationships with business leaders, SMEs, product owners, operations teams, and technology stakeholders.
Facilitate workshops, requirement discussions, walkthroughs, and business reviews.
Communicate functional progress, dependencies, risks, issues, and decisions to project and business leadership.
Maintain governance over requirements, changes, decisions, and business approvals.