Smart Plan Business Analyst (Must have experience with Colleague) - United States Remote

Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with approximately 3,000 customers across 50 countries, serving more than 21 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for all students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

• Business Requirements Gathering and Analysis: Partner with higher education clients and internal stakeholders to gather, analyze, document, and validate business and functional requirements related to academic advising, degree planning, credential discovery, and transfer processes. Translate business needs into clear functional specifications and actionable requirements for implementation teams.
• Business Process Analysis and Improvement: Analyze existing institutional workflows, identify process gaps and opportunities for optimization, and recommend improvements that align with business objectives and Ellucian Smart Plan capabilities. Support institutions in adopting effective processes and improving operational efficiency.
• Functional Solution Design and Configuration: Collaborate with functional consultants and technical teams to translate business requirements into solution configurations, advising rules, and functional workflows. Support the implementation and enhancement of Ellucian Smart Plan, Credential Discovery, and Transfer solutions while ensuring alignment with institutional needs.
• Data Analysis and Validation: Analyze student academic data from Ellucian Colleague to support business requirements, data mapping, migration, and validation activities. Use SQL or other data analysis tools to investigate data discrepancies, validate business rules, and ensure data integrity across integrated solutions.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Communication: Facilitate discovery sessions, requirements workshops, and client meetings to understand institutional challenges, clarify business expectations, and communicate functional solutions. Act as a liaison between clients, developers, QA teams, and implementation stakeholders to ensure shared understanding and alignment.
• Functional Testing and Issue Resolution: Define functional test scenarios, document expected outcomes, and support system integration testing and user acceptance testing (UAT). Collaborate with development and QA teams to investigate issues, validate resolutions, and ensure solutions meet documented business requirements.
• Documentation and Knowledge Management: Develop and maintain business requirements documents, functional specifications, process flows, test scenarios, and supporting implementation documentation. Use collaboration platforms such as Confluence to maintain visibility, traceability, and consistency across project activities.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration and Delivery Support: Work closely with implementation consultants, product teams, developers, and project stakeholders to clarify requirements, manage dependencies, prioritize business needs, and support successful solution delivery across multiple client engagements.

• 2–4 years of experience in business analysis, business systems analysis, or a related role involving enterprise software implementations, preferably within higher education technology.
• Functional or technical knowledge of Ellucian Colleague, including an understanding of student academic records, curriculum structures, academic advising, degree requirements, or degree audit processes.
• Experience gathering, analyzing, documenting, and translating business requirements into functional specifications, process workflows, or solution configurations.
• Understanding of academic advising, degree planning, credential discovery, transfer credit evaluation, or related higher education business processes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to evaluate complex business scenarios, identify process gaps, and recommend practical solutions.
• Experience working with data analysis, data validation, or data mapping activities. Ability to use SQL or similar tools to investigate data and support functional analysis.
• Experience supporting functional testing, test case development, issue investigation, and user acceptance testing to validate solutions against business requirements.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with business stakeholders, technical teams, developers, QA professionals, and implementation consultants.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to translate complex functional or technical concepts into clear, actionable information for different audiences.
• Experience creating and maintaining functional documentation, business process flows, requirements traceability, and project-related documentation using collaboration tools such as Confluence.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple assignments, coordinate cross-functional activities, and meet project deadlines in a client-facing environment.

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision
• Flexible time off
• Thrive Flex Lifestyle Account (LSA) that allows you to contribute towards your health, financial or learning interests
• 401k w/ match & BrightPlan - to help you save for the future
• Parental Leave
• 5 charitable days to support the community that supports us
• Telemedicine
• Wellness
  
  • Headspace Care (mental health)
  • Wellbeats (virtual fitness classes)
• RethinkCare & Wellthy– caregiver support
• Diversity and inclusion programs which provide access to internal employee resource groups
• Employee referral bonuses to encourage the addition of great new people to the team
• We Foster a learning culture with:
  o Education Assistance Program
  o Professional development opportunities
  o LinkedIn Learning