Finance Business Analyst

Since Aspen was founded in 2002, we have become a leading, diversified specialty insurance and reinsurance company. We respond thoughtfully and creatively to find the best outcomes for our clients and business partners through carefully-tailored solutions.

We believe the way we work is just as important as the work we do, and we are guided by our core values of respect, honesty, trust and professionalism.

Aspen is a great place to develop your career offering an exciting and challenging environment where achievement is rewarded.

Role Purpose 

• Support the finance change management process for assessment and sizing of finance specific change requests to feed into appropriate governance for prioritisation. 

• Work closely with the Senior Finance Business Analyst to engage with requires business and IT stakeholders to establish and document business requirements for business sign off. 

• Support delivery of the impact assessment process for assessing end to end change impact implications for the business both upstream and downstream. 

• Gain a strong understanding of finance operations and accountancy practices within Aspen to support with challenging and advising on best practice change. 

• The Finance Business Analyst will be key in the delivery of engaging with all team across the whole of our finance department to drive out detailed finance systems requirements, this will be done via engaging with key finance and technical stakeholders, reviewing business processes and change implementations that are supporting the business to meet global objectives. 

• Our Aspen Values are expected to be reflected in the delivery and performance of every role. 

Key Results Areas 

Strategy and Planning 

• Contributes to and advises on the plan developments and changes in order to ensure relevancy, compliance and optimal delivery of key programme workstream objectives. 

• Assists and contributes towards production of critical enhancement impact assessments to support with overall timeline delivery planning, prioritisation. 

• Identification and escalation to workstream lead of key dependencies, risks and potential issues relating to requirements gathering. 

• delivery outcomes which could impact overall timelines or direction of delivery scope/outcomes. 

• Determines own work priorities and activities in line with agreed plans to ensure the achievement of the programme and workstream objectives. 

• Comply with all legal and regulatory requirements to ensure obligations are met. 

• Engages with key stakeholders internally and externally to the programme to draw out any dependency mapping requirements. 

Policy, Process and Procedures 

• Assists in the extraction, articulation and documentation of key requirements of critical enhancements and end state in line to support with defining our overall reporting strategy across all of finance. 

• Reviews policies and procedures on regular basis to ensure relevant links to regulatory reporting process as part of requirements/proposal building. 

• Reviews assigned business processes from end-to-end to identify and address operational, financial and technological risks and improvements to efficiency. 

• Develops and details process changes as required, gaining business agreement and documenting as appropriate. (inc cross programme engagement) 

• Adheres to standards and good practice to minimise risk and maximise efficiency in line with process-control time frames. 

• Ensures that files are maintained in a logical and accessible manner and/or other issues are clearly documented. 

• Ensures awareness of and compliance with regulatory and legislative requirements. 

Environmental Awareness/Customer Focus 

• Establishes, strengthen, develop and maintain relationships with stakeholders to support their needs, maximise influence, and achieve business objectives 

• Analyses the needs of internal Aspen clients and pro-actively ensures resolution of issues and queries within agreed timeframes. 

• Responds to internal and external stakeholder requests in accordance with service standards. 

• Demonstrates an understanding and awareness of change appetite and change control to enhance business performance and acceptance. 

Technical Performance 

• Acts as a technical expert to troubleshoot issues to resolution 

• Acts as a technical expert to support the identification of issues and opportunities within area of expertise. 

• Identifies and evaluates potential improvements to maximise the use of technology. 

• can be implemented within agreed scope and timeframe. 

• Championing continuous Financial Systems improvements 

• Create training material and deliver user training as necessary 

• Use SQL queries to troubleshoot 

• Continually review and update procedures and support documentation 

• Provide extended critical support during Quarter and Year End 

• Provide support across other Finance Systems applications as required 

Knowledge 

• Hands-on knowledge of technology and system lifecycles. 

• Knowledge of documentation of user requirements. 

• Excellent working knowledge of relevant Aspen systems. 

• Good knowledge of industry changes and best practice. 

• Good understanding of company objectives and how own role contributes to these

Skills 

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills. 

• Excellent quality documentation production. 

• Good organisational skills. 

• Ability to resolve issues quickly and independently. 

• Proficient in MS Office applications e.g. Excel and other relevant software packages. 

• Able to manage conflicting priorities to achieve deadlines. 

• Able to plan effectively and efficiently. 

• Strong customer orientation skills. 

• Ability to collaborate effectively within a team environment. 

• Strong attention to detail.  

• Strong analytical skills. 

• Strong investigative skills.

Experience 

• Specific professional qualifications at a level of degree or equivalent (e.g. Business or Computer Science). 

• Relevant professional/industry-related experience and courses e.g. International Institute of Business Analysis UK (IIBA) or The Chartered Institute for IT (BCS) or equivalent. 

• Extensive experience of business analysis, development or IT operations, preferably gained in a financial services organisation. 

At Aspen we know that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is good for our people, good for our business and good for the environments in which we operate.  We therefore welcome applications from people which allows us to draw on diverse cultures, perspectives, skills and experiences.