Functional Lead

EXL•Jersey City, NJ

13h•$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 ideal candidate will bring strong insurance domain knowledge, coupled with experience in business analysis and requirements.

Requirements

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 working 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 across key insurance functions such as Policy Administration, Underwriting, Claims, Billing, Renewals, and Distribution.
Strong expertise in Business Requirements Gathering
Strong expertise in Functional Requirements Analysis
Strong expertise in BRD / FRD creation
Strong expertise in User Stories & Acceptance Criteria
Strong expertise in Business Process Mapping
Strong expertise in Functional Specifications
Strong expertise in Requirements Traceability
Strong expertise in Gap & Impact Analysis
Strong expertise in UAT & Business Validation
Strong expertise in Stakeholder Management
Ability to translate business needs into clear functional requirements for technology and data teams.
Strong experience with Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery models.
Working knowledge of tools such as Jira, Confluence, Rally, Visio, or similar requirement/process management tools.
Excellent communication, facilitation, documentation, and stakeholder management skills.
Ability to work effectively with both senior business stakeholders and technical delivery teams.

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

Lead functional activities across insurance business and technology transformation initiatives.
Serve as a functional subject matter expert (SME) and support teams in understanding insurance business processes, requirements, workflows, and business rules.
Partner with business stakeholders to understand business objectives, operational challenges, and transformation priorities.
Provide functional guidance to technology, data, QA, and delivery teams throughout the project lifecycle.
Ensure solutions and deliverables remain aligned with business objectives and insurance processes.
Provide strong functional understanding of the insurance lifecycle, including areas such as policy administration, underwriting, claims, billing, renewals, and distribution.
Work closely with insurance business teams to understand business processes, operating models, workflows, and downstream impacts.
Support analysis of existing processes and identify opportunities for process simplification, automation, and operational improvement.
Ensure business and functional requirements appropriately reflect insurance-specific workflows, controls, and business rules.
Lead requirement gathering sessions and workshops with business stakeholders and SMEs.
Translate business requirements into detailed functional requirements, business requirements, user stories, use cases, process flows, and acceptance criteria.
Support preparation and review of key artifacts such as BRDs, FRDs, process maps, workflows, functional specifications, and requirement traceability matrices.
Analyze business requirements and identify dependencies, gaps, impacts, and functional risks.
Ensure end-to-end traceability between business requirements, functional specifications, solution delivery, testing, and business outcomes.
Act as the primary functional liaison between business, operations, product, data, technology, and QA teams.
Translate complex business requirements into clear functional direction for delivery teams.
Support technical teams in understanding 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 adequately 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 with stakeholders for business sign-off and readiness.
Build strong 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 appropriate governance around requirements, changes, decisions, and business approvals.