Specialist IS Business Systems Analyst - R&D PPM

As a Business Systems Analyst within our global Commercialization and R&D PPM Technology team, this role will help evolve R&D PPM (Project and Program Management) capabilities. Come join a team that is passionate about innovation and making life better with technology!

In this vital role, you will apply systems, data, and business-process expertise to translate business needs into clear product and system requirements. You will define epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, process maps, use cases, data requirements, and test scenarios that enable delivery teams to estimate, plan, and deliver with confidence.

You will support Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), including Planisware-enabled planning, technology assessments, AI enablement, roadmap development, and data-management activities, using structured, consulting-style problem solving to help stakeholders make informed technology and investment decisions.

The ideal candidate will work closely with R&D PPM subject matter experts, process owners, data owners, Product Owners, developers, data engineers, architects, UX designers, QA teams, portfolio leaders, and external partners to ensure applications, data, analytics, portfolio, and AI-enabled solutions meet business, functional, quality, and compliance expectations.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Product Owners and System Architects to manage business analysis activities, ensuring alignment with business and product goals
• Understand customer needs to shape business processes and product requirements
• Lead structured technology assessments covering business fit, technical fit, architecture alignment, integration and data impacts, security and compliance, cost, risk, scalability, vendor considerations, and implementation readiness; translate findings into decision-ready options, recommendations, business cases, and phased roadmaps.
• Identify and shape AI-enablement opportunities by defining use cases, value hypotheses, data-readiness needs, workflow impacts, responsible-AI considerations, adoption plans, human oversight, and measurable outcomes.
• Develop and maintain integrated product, technology, and capability roadmaps aligned with R&D PPM strategy, business priorities, investment decisions, dependencies, and delivery milestones; support PI planning, backlog refinement, prioritization, release planning, and delivery sequencing.
• Support Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) processes in Planisware, including demand intake, portfolio planning, prioritization, scenario analysis, resource and capacity planning, dependency management, milestone tracking, and portfolio reporting.
• Partner with portfolio and product stakeholders to improve PPM governance, Planisware data quality, reporting consistency, decision support, and adoption.
• Ensure functional and non-functional requirements are documented, traceable, and prioritized in product and release backlogs.
• Clarify requirements, resolve gaps, and facilitate alignment when SMEs or stakeholders have conflicting needs.
• Define and advance data-management practices for ownership, stewardship, definitions, metadata, quality, lineage, access, lifecycle, master and reference data, and governance.
• Work with data engineers, architects, analytics teams, and data owners to ensure data products meet business needs and are usable, trusted, scalable, and compliant.
• Collaborate with Business SMEs and Product Management to prioritize release scopes and refine the Product backlog
• Facilitate the breakdown of Epics into Features and Sprint-Sized User Stories and participate in backlog reviews with the product team
• Clearly express features in User Stories/requirements so all team members and stakeholders understand how they fit into the product backlog
• Ensure Acceptance Criteria and Definition of Done are well-defined and understood
• Stay focused on software development to ensure it meets requirements, providing proactive feedback to stakeholders
• Develop and deliver product demonstrations, assessment readouts, roadmap updates, business cases, and recommendations for business, portfolio, SME, and technical stakeholders.
• Maintain accurate documentation of requirements, assumptions, decisions, processes, assessments, roadmaps, user stories, and changes.
• Use Planisware, Jira, Confluence, and related Agile and PPM tools to manage portfolio information, requirements, backlogs, defects, decisions, and delivery activities.
• Work within Agile and Scaled Agile environments to deliver incremental business value.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual activities and improve portfolio management, requirements, testing, data management, and delivery processes undefined

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The professional we seek is a person with these qualifications.

Basic Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree and 8-13 years of experience in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Data, or a related field.

Functional Skills:

Must-Have Skills

• Extensive experience in business systems analysis, product analysis, or requirements engineering.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) processes, including portfolio planning, prioritization, roadmapping, resource and capacity planning, scenario analysis, and reporting.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with business and technical SMEs to elicit, clarify, validate, and document complex requirements.
• Strong workshop facilitation, stakeholder-management, and executive-communication skills.
• Consulting-style skills in structured problem solving, hypothesis-driven analysis, option evaluation, recommendation development, executive-ready communication, and influencing without authority.
• Demonstrated experience leading technology assessments and translating complex findings into options, trade-offs, recommendations, business cases, and implementation roadmaps.
• Ability to translate specialized R&D, process, portfolio, data, and technology knowledge into clear functional, data, and technical requirements.
• Experience writing epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, use cases, and process maps.
• Experience developing and supporting product, technology, and capability roadmaps, including PI planning, prioritization, dependency management, delivery sequencing, backlog refinement, and user journeys.
• Experience defining data, analytics, reporting, KPI, dashboard, and portfolio-management requirements.
• Understanding of data management and governance, including data ownership, stewardship, metadata, mapping, validation, business rules, reconciliation, lineage, data quality, access, and lifecycle management.
• Experience shaping AI-enabled use cases from opportunity identification through value assessment, data readiness, requirements definition, adoption planning, responsible-use considerations, and outcome measurement.
• Experience testing and validating user stories against business requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Experience supporting functional testing, regression testing, defect management, and UAT.
• Experience using Planisware, Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, or comparable portfolio and product-delivery tools.
• Experience with Agile, SAFe, Scrum, DevOps, and iterative delivery practices.
• Strong ability to communicate complex technical, portfolio, AI, and data concepts in clear business terms.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, decision-making, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Ability to work effectively with global, virtual, and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to quickly learn and apply new business processes, technologies, and tools.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and nontechnical stakeholders and collaborate across global, virtual, and cross-functional teams

Good-to-Have Skills:

• Experience in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, life sciences or another regulated industry.
• Knowledge of R&D processes, systems, operational data, and analytics.
• Experience working with R&D SMEs, process owners, product teams or portfolio-management offices.
• Experience configuring, integrating, administering, or supporting Planisware in an enterprise environment.
• Experience in technology strategy, management consulting, internal consulting, transformation, or enterprise advisory work.
• Familiarity with Databricks, data lakes, data warehouses, ETL/ELT, and enterprise data architectures.
• Understanding of Python, PySpark, SQL, FastAPI, APIs, and data-ingestion concepts.
• Familiarity with AWS cloud services and cloud-based data and analytics platforms.
• Understanding of modern web applications, REST APIs, UX principles, React, Angular, HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, Git, automated testing, DevOps, and software-engineering practices.
• Experience with monitoring and visualization tools such as Grafana, Splunk, Tableau, Power BI, or equivalent technologies.
• Experience using AI-assisted tools to improve portfolio analysis, roadmap development, requirements documentation, process analysis, testing, and business productivity.
• Familiarity with Generative AI, machine learning, AI governance, and AI-enabled product requirements.
• Experience with test-automation tools or frameworks.

Professional Certifications:

• Agile (preferred): SAFe for Teams certification or equivalent
• Project Management (preferred), for example: Project Management Professional, Certified Associate in Project Management, or equivalent
• Business Analysis (preferred), for example: PMI Professional in Business Analysis, Certification of Capability in Business Analysis, Certified Business Analysis Professional, or equivalent

Soft Skills:

• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills
• High degree of initiative and self-motivation
• Ability to manage multiple priorities successfully
• Team-oriented with a focus on achieving team goals
• Strong presentation and public speaking skills