Description

As Discovery Communications' portfolio continues to grow - around the world and across platforms - the Global Technology & Operations team is building media technology and IT systems that meet the world class standard for which Discovery is known. GT&O; builds, implements and maintains the business systems and technology that are critical for delivering Discovery's products, while articulating the long-term technology strategy that will enable Discovery's growing pay-TV, digital terrestrial, free-to-air and online services to reach more audiences on more platforms.

From Amsterdam to Singapore and from satellite and broadcast operations to SAP, we are driving Discovery forward on the leading edge of technology.

Discovery operates on a worldwide basis to produce & acquire content from thousands of global partners, schedule hundreds of linear TV & online channels, and distribute content to hundreds of affiliates including cable TV, free-to-air broadcast, and online video providers such as Amazon and iTunes. The GCS team works with in-house development & 3rd party software providers to implement and manage solutions that track & manage information throughout the content lifecycle. This includes web-based applications and workflow, relational databases, digital asset management, and reporting solutions. The team consists of product managers and business analysts that partner closely with business teams, develop product strategy, manage the requirements process, and support the software development lifecycle through delivery and ongoing maintenance.

The role

The IT Business Analyst is responsible for the planning and execution throughout the lifecycle of one or more software solutions within a business domain. This includes creating and prioritizing product and business requirements and working closely with business and technology teams to ensure business stakeholder and end user satisfaction goals are met. He or she will ideate and develop requirements and concepts for product enhancements in support of business and technology needs. This position provides a wide variety of services to our business users including business analysis and quality assurance, in support of strategic and tactical planning of systems feature / functionality as well as day to day business operations.

Responsibilities:

Accountability

• Serve as primary contact to the business for one or more projects.
• Manage business and functional requirements for one or more business solutions.
• Provide project management support for software releases as necessary.
• Manage relationships with multiple business organizations, global technology groups and 3rd party software vendors including: facilitating requirement and design workshops, reviewing designs, test plans and test cases; reviewing vendor deliverables and schedules; managing quality or delivery issues with the vendor; coordinating end user testing and sign-off for in-house and vendor deliverables.

Expertise

• Provide subject matter expertise for one or more business process areas and supporting systems.
• Has "deep" experience in the following areas:
• Experience with the television industry (or closely related, such as film production, or digital video production)
• Experience working with an in-house (local) software development & testing team. Agile preferred.
• Creates and executes simple SQL queries for reporting/analysis purposes
• Demonstrate strong presentation skills with one-on-one, with small and large groups.
• Demonstrate strong analytical, leadership & communication skills including negotiation, conflict resolution, grace under pressure and the ability to manage upwards and across.
• Participate in assessment and feasibility studies of available technologies and recommend solutions.
• When required, perform quality assurance on custom and vendor released code in support of both projects and application support activities. Ensure test plans are properly developed and adhere to team standards. Execute test plans to validate application functionality.
• Coordinate and manage UAT activities with the business.
• Is able to work under minimal supervision with extensive latitude for independent judgment. Professional, self-starting, self-organizing. Should not expect to lead a staff of BA's.

Customer Focus

• Manage the assessment of business requests for projects and enhancements.
• Work collaboratively with teams to define business specifications, prioritize features, build consensus and coordinate project schedules across multi-discipline teams
• Prioritize enhancement requests with other change requests to improve system reliability and performance and reduce maintenance.
• Deliver support to end users in the organization about how to use various types of software programs efficiently and effectively in fulfilling business objectives. This includes troubleshooting systems and software for internal customers, such as operations, development, and business units.
• Assist in the design, delivery, and improvement of in-house training programs and related courseware.

Clear Thinking

• Develop clear, concise, actionable requirement and materials from both "business" and "technical" perspectives to facilitate feature builds with internal technology team(s) and/or external vendors (wireframes, business process flows, use cases, usability specifications, prototypes, code samples, etc.)
• Manage upfront phases of the software release management lifecycle including prioritization, scoping, planning. Assist in managing delivery phases as needed. Communicate release of new features to business end users and IT stakeholders.
• Elicit, analyze, specify, and validate the business needs for software development, integration projects and systems support activities. This includes interviewing stakeholders and gathering and compiling user requirements to convey to development teams. Apply communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help support the development process, and to ensure that software deliverables are met according to specifications.

Global Mindset & Innovation

• Partner with product manager(s) and functional architects to understand the Global Content system strategy and roadmap and align business requests to fit into or enhance the roadmap.
• Ability to travel to global offices (10-15%)

People Development

• Develop and maintain effective & collaborative working relationships with IT groups, business partners, and vendors.
• Provide feedback for process improvements to help improve self-effectiveness and team efficiency.
• Mentor other team members. Support efforts to cross-train staff to ensure proper redundancy and growth opportunities.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

• Substantial year's experience in the IT industry, with 5+ years of business and/or systems analysis
• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, or equivalent degree/work experience
• Strong skills with Visio are desirable, but not required.
• Strong skills with a wire framing tool (such as Balsamiq) or design tool (such as Photoshop) are desirable but not required.

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