Project Management Specialist - Business Analyst

This opportunity is a "Right-to-Hire" opportunity beginning as a consulting opportunity with expected conversion to a permanent employee within the first year. The client is not in position to provide Visa sponsorship. Responsibilities : The Business Analyst is responsible for supporting various initiatives across the Fixed Income investment team, with an emphasis on understanding the project(s) requirements from the business perspective and to ensure those requirements are translated into the appropriate functional deliverables. He will be part of a group that supports the following business areas: Portfolio Management and Analysis, Operations, Compliance, Client Services and Credit Research Performance Reporting. The group leads/participates in 1) Technology projects 2) Infrastructure upgrades 3) Process Improvements 4) Strategic Business Initiatives. Requirements : Undergraduate (B.S.) degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or computer related field. Minimum of 2-4 years experience in the Fixed Income Industry and Information Systems. Proven ability to solve problems based on researching and analyzing information. Strong analytical skill and ability to make independent decisions and develop creative solutions to meet business needs. Strong knowledge of fixed income securities, trading or operational processing. Strong computer skills including experience with key Investment management tools and trading systems, such as Blackrock Solutions Aladdin Trading System. Proficient with MS Excel, MS Word, MS Visio and PowerPoint. Project management and systems solutions implementation experience preferred. Possesses excellent communication and interpersonal skills and comfortable working with all levels of an organizations technology and business departments. Basic understanding of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Must be customer focused meaning must be able to understand the importance stakeholders business objectives and drive the process towards achieving those objectives. Ability to proactively manage workload and identify opportunities for additional contribution. Must be a self-starter, enthusiastic; and possess very strong organizational, task management and prioritization skills. Preferred Additional skills : Experience conducting and leading requirements gathering sessions and translating business requirements into functional specifications for testing and development. Experience in executing QA efforts from requirements inception to production release, including well rounded testing skills with some understanding of Functional, System, User Acceptance and Regression Testing. Experience in data manipulation and writing SQL queries. Experience in executing validation tests on application development or process/workflow design.