Lead Analyst (System & Business Analysis)

We are looking for an experienced Lead Analyst to join an ambitious digital banking project in Ethiopia. This is an opportunity to help build a modern, technology-driven bank and shape its analytics function from the ground up. Responsibilities Research & Product Analytics - Collaborate with Product Owners to define research questions, success metrics, and validation plans. - Analyze customer journeys, funnels, user behavior, and operational data to identify improvement opportunities. - Work with UX and Product teams to combine qualitative and quantitative insights. Systems Analysis & Solution Design - Analyze AS-IS processes and design TO-BE processes and end-to-end flows across digital channels, backend services, core banking systems, and integrations. - Define business rules, system states, dependencies, edge cases, and error-handling scenarios. - Model complex workflows using BPMN 2.0, UML, and sequence diagrams. - Translate business needs into clear functional and system requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria. - Design integration scenarios, including APIs, asynchronous communication, and failure recovery. Leadership & Delivery - Lead and mentor a team of analysts, establishing effective analysis practices and documentation standards. - Collaborate with Product, Architecture, Engineering, and QA teams throughout the development lifecycle. - Resolve requirements ambiguities, support functional acceptance, and contribute to production incident analysis. - Drive continuous improvement through automation and efficient analytical processes. Requirements - 3+ years of experience as a Lead in systems analysis, product analytics, or business analysis, with strong hands-on systems analysis expertise. - Experience leading analysts or providing functional leadership and mentoring. - Strong knowledge of BPMN 2.0, UML, system modeling, and end-to-end flow design. - Experience with REST/gRPC APIs, microservices, event-driven architecture, and asynchronous integrations. - Practical experience defining system requirements, use cases, user stories, and acceptance criteria. - Understanding of Kafka or other message brokers, API contracts, data mapping, and system state models. - Strong SQL skills and ability to analyze complex data and business processes. - Ability to identify edge cases, integration failures, and operational exceptions. - Strong communication, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills. - English proficiency at Intermediate level or above. Nice to Have - Experience in banking, fintech, payments, or other regulated transactional products. - Knowledge of product metrics, funnels, cohorts, and experimentation. - Experience combining quantitative analysis with qualitative user research. - Familiarity with AI-powered tools and process automation. Tools & Technology - Analysis & Documentation: BPMN 2.0, UML, Jira, Confluence, Miro. - APIs & Integrations: REST, gRPC, OpenAPI/Swagger, Kafka, AsyncAPI. - Data: SQL, PostgreSQL, Python, BI and product analytics tools. - Technology Context: Kotlin/JVM, Spring Boot, Redis, event-driven architectures, DDD, Saga, and idempotency. - Banking Domains: KYC, payments, cards, lending, and daily banking.