Senior Business / Vendor Analyst, Market Data & AI

About the Role

This role sits at the intersection of the business, Technology, Finance, Procurement, Legal, and vendor partners. It is designed for someone who enjoys turning practical business questions into clear decisions: What do teams need? What will it cost? What value will it create? How should the commercial model be structured so the firm gets the best outcome?

This role owns the business, consumption, cost, vendor, and value lens that helps the firm prioritize funding and get more value from market data, software, AI, and related technology services.

About the Team

This is a high-impact partnership role working with investment teams, Technology, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Procurement, and business leaders to turn requests into well-structured business cases. The role helps define the problem, expected value, consumption needs, cost drivers, and funding priority.

The role also works with Technology to understand design options and attach the right commercial framework: pricing model, contract terms, entitlements, usage assumptions, renewal considerations, and vendor strategy. The goal is to help the firm fund the right work, avoid unnecessary spend, and make sure each solution is commercially sound before money is committed.

Job Responsibilities

1. Bring Commercial Discipline to Spend Decisions

Know What We Own, Use, and Pay For

• Maintain a reliable view of the firm’s market data, software, AI tools, cloud/data services, contracts, entitlements, users, and costs.

Make Costs Easier to Understand

• Review invoices, contracts, entitlements, users, and consumption data so costs are accurate, explainable, and useful for forecasting, allocation, capitalization, and chargeback discussions.

Help Leaders See the Tradeoffs

• Build reporting that shows spend, usage, demand trends, funding tradeoffs, and whether decisions are backed by a clear business need, expected value, and realistic usage assumptions.

Vendor Strategy & Negotiation

• Lead vendor strategy and negotiations across market data providers, software vendors, AI providers, and cloud/data platform providers.
• Drive leverage through competitive sourcing, standardization, rationalization, enterprise-wide strategies, and negotiation of pricing and contractual terms that reduce long-term cost and risk.

1. Partner with Technology on Design, Usage, and Commercial Fit

Entitlements & Access Governance

• Partner with Technology, Risk, Compliance, and business stakeholders to ensure access and usage are governed in line with licensing rights, contractual restrictions, data usage policies, consumption requirements, and AI governance standards.

Consumption & Utilization Optimization

• Work with Technology to understand design choices, implementation approach, expected consumption, and where vendor capabilities or licensing models may shape the solution.
• Turn usage data into practical insight: who uses the service, how it is used, what drives cost, whether value justifies spend, and where funding should shift.
• Improve the commercial setup, reduce avoidable spend, support adoption where value is strong, and redirect funding away from lower-value usage.

AI & Emerging Technology Management

• Evaluate AI platforms, models, assistants, agents, and emerging technologies from a business case, governance, consumption, risk, and value perspective.
• Support AI intake, approval, and responsible adoption frameworks that balance innovation, risk, and cost.

1. Governance, Risk & Compliance

Contractual, Regulatory & AI Governance

• Ensure compliance with market data licensing obligations, software licensing requirements, AI governance standards, and regulatory or firm risk requirements.
• Maintain a clear inventory of licensing terms, usage rights, restrictions, and obligations.

Business Cases, Intake & Decision Support

• Shape requests before they become commitments by clarifying the problem, users, usage, cost, business value, technical dependencies, and priority against other funding needs.
• Create consistent review criteria so requests can be compared fairly across business need, expected usage, cost, risk, compliance, Technology design considerations, funding priority, and measurable value.

Third-Party Risk Management

• Partner with Risk, Legal, Compliance, Security, and Technology to evaluate vendor risk, contractual exposure, data usage restrictions, AI model governance, vendor concentration, and operational dependencies.

1. Turn Business Demand into Practical Funding Decisions

Stakeholder Engagement & Demand Management

• Translate demand into usage and cost assumptions, then help business and Technology leaders decide which work should be funded first.
• Pressure-test requests by reviewing the business case, expected utilization, alternatives, cost impact, technical design implications, and fit with enterprise priorities.

Measure Whether the Spend Is Worth It

• Review approved investments to see whether adoption, consumption, outcomes, and cost-to-value are tracking as expected.
• Develop business cases, ROI/TCO views, cost-benefit comparisons, and consumption models that help the firm decide where money should go and where it should not.
• Identify opportunities to rationalize overlapping services, consolidate vendors, reduce duplication, improve utilization, and enhance business value.

Adoption & Change Management

• Support adoption by defining value measures, expected usage, and post-implementation review criteria with business and Technology stakeholders.

Qualifications & Education Requirements

• Extensive knowledge of global financial markets, including fixed income, equities, derivatives, alternatives, and investment management workflows.
• Experience with market data, software, technology, or AI vendor portfolios
• Strong understanding of the evolving intersection between financial data, software, analytics, cloud technologies, and AI, including where capabilities overlap and opportunities exist to rationalize vendors, platforms, and spend.
• Strong understanding of licensing models, entitlements, market data services, commercial models, and vendor contracts
• Proven negotiation, sourcing, financial analysis, forecasting, utilization analysis, business case, and ROI/TCO skills
• Ability to build governance frameworks and influence stakeholders across Technology, Finance, Legal, Risk, Procurement, Operations, and Investment teams
• Strong communication, relationship management, analytical, and strategic thinking skills

Operating Model & Mindset

• Enterprise portfolio mindset across market data, software, AI, and technology services
• Data-driven, automation-oriented approach to decisions and reporting
• Commercial discipline balanced with business enablement, governance, and innovation
• Centralized business strategy and value measurement with Technology-owned architecture, implementation, operations, and platform management
• Strong cross-functional partnership and continuous improvement mindset