Senior Associate - Illustrations Business Analyst

New York Life•Overland Park, KS

14d•$80,000 - $113,000•Hybrid

About The Position

New York Life Insurance (NYL) is seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented Business Analyst to join our high-performing team focused on continually improving our technology ecosystem and transforming our business processing capabilities that support our institutional clients in an industry-leading business unit, Institutional Life (IL). IL offers sophisticated life insurance products in the Bank Owned Life Insurance (BOLI), Corporate Owned Life Insurance (COLI), and Corporate Sponsored markets. The Business Analyst is a key member of the Institutional Life Technology organization, partnering closely with the Sales organization, New Business, Technical & Business Product Owners, technical teams, third-party vendors, and subject matter experts to support the Illustration platforms that drive the new business and sales processes. This role serves as a key partner to Sales, developing a deep understanding of business objectives, user needs, and operational challenges, and helping translate those needs into well-defined business and functional requirements, in partnership with Product Owners and technology partners, to enable successful technology solutions. Working in partnership with the Technical Product Owner, the Business Analyst provides business expertise and stakeholder insight to help ensure business requirements and acceptance criteria are effectively defined, understood, and validated throughout the delivery lifecycle. Operating within a SAFe Agile delivery framework and a hybrid development model, the Business Analyst supports backlog refinement, solution design, testing, release planning, and implementation across multiple illustration platforms while balancing agile delivery practices with third-party vendor timelines. The successful candidate builds strong relationships across the Sales organization to understand evolving product offerings, sales processes, and customer needs. By collaborating with stakeholders throughout solution delivery, the Business Analyst helps ensure illustration capabilities are accurate, compliant, user-focused, and aligned with business objectives. This individual develops a deep understanding of Illustration platforms and the data that supports downstream systems, while continuously identifying opportunities to improve processes, increase efficiency, and deliver innovative, high-quality solutions that support business and team objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
5+ years of Business Analyst experience supporting technology solutions, preferably within the life insurance or financial services industry.
Experience partnering directly with Sales organizations and business stakeholders to understand business needs and deliver technology solutions that improve business outcomes.
Experience gathering, documenting, and validating business and functional requirements, user stories, process flows, and acceptance criteria.
Strong understanding of Agile methodologies and experience working within a SAFe Agile delivery framework.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with Product Owners, development vendors, and business stakeholders throughout the software development lifecycle.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, facilitation, and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Hands-on experience developing test cases and executing system, integration, regression, and user acceptance testing activities.
Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, including advanced Excel skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience with life insurance illustration platforms and supporting Illustration business processes.
Knowledge of Individual or Institutional Life Insurance products, including Universal Life (UL), Variable Universal Life (VUL), COLI/BOLI, and advanced market solutions.
Working knowledge of life insurance illustration regulations, including IRC 7702, IRC 7702A, and applicable illustration compliance requirements.
Experience understanding downstream data integrations and understanding data flows associated with illustration platforms.
Exposure to test automation tools, AI-assisted testing capabilities, or other productivity technologies that improve test coverage, reduce manual effort, and increase delivery efficiency.
Experience working with third-party software vendors in a hybrid delivery model.
Passion for continuous improvement with a demonstrated ability to simplify business processes and drive operational efficiencies.

Responsibilities

Partner closely with the Sales organization, New Business, Product Owners, technical teams, third-party vendors, and business stakeholders to understand business objectives and translate them into technology solutions.
Develop deep business knowledge of Institutional Life products, sales processes, and customer needs to identify opportunities to enhance the illustration experience.
Partner with Technical and Business Product Owners by providing Illustration business expertise, process knowledge, and stakeholder input to support the development and validation of business and functional requirements, acceptance criteria, process flows, and business rules.
Support backlog refinement activities by clarifying business needs, answering functional questions, validating requirements with stakeholders, and helping ensure work items are understood and ready for delivery.
Facilitate requirements workshops, stakeholder and vendor meetings, and solution discussions to drive alignment across business and technology teams.
Analyze existing business processes, system capabilities, and data flows to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, accuracy, scalability, and the overall user experience.
Partner with development teams and third-party vendors to ensure solutions meet documented business requirements and applicable operational and regulatory standards.
Develop test scenarios, test cases, test data, and validation plans, and perform hands-on functional, integration, regression, and user acceptance testing to confirm delivered solutions meet business expectations and quality standards.
Create and maintain test data and testing documentation while partnering with business stakeholders and developers to validate delivered functionality and support release readiness.
Support Illustration platforms in production by investigating business and system issues, partnering with technical teams and vendors to resolve defects, validating fixes, and ensuring business needs are met following implementation.
Ensure business and technical documentation remains accurate, complete, and aligned with delivered functionality.
Support continuous improvement initiatives by identifying opportunities to enhance business processes, delivery practices, and Illustration platform capabilities.