Senior IT Business Analyst – Market Risk recruitment
The IT BA team is a small focused group providing bespoke solutions directly to the Market Risk teams. Business Analysts are expected to work closely with the developers and Market Risk users to deliver enhancements and new functionality.
This is a middle office Market Risk team and as such sound knowledge of key Market Risk principles: "Historical Simulation VaR" and its derivatives will be mandatory.
As such experience of working on the implementation of a strategic Market Risk System would be highly desirable, but is not essential. However candidates will need core business financial product knowledge with more detailed knowledge of at least one asset class desirable, preferably equities and equity derivatives. Further to this, at least a good understanding the day-to-day market risk desk procedures and practices involved is required.
In terms of core IT BA skills candidates will need structured requirements documentation experience, as they will be responsible for the development of business and functional specifications and involvement in test cycles. Technical testing (unit, functional and regression) They will also be expected to contribute to the technical architecture and solution design. Proven ability to use modelling languages (UML) and ability to develop Use Cases from textual requirements. Proven focus on quality assurance, best practices and water-fall methodologies will also be a necessity.
In terms of technical knowledge candidates should be able to perform at least basic level database queries in Oracle or Sybase to query risk data. Basic knowledge of, and regular use of MS Excel to manipulate large data sets is expected.
The ideal candidate will have had exposure to the investment banking Market Risk (preferred) or Counterparty Credit Risk. The candidate should be able to communicate clearly and effectively within the team and with the various end users.
Background
The current Risk systems source data from a multitude of Front Office systems and provide Risk calculations, Risk Aggregation and Reporting components to support the global and local reporting and analysis requirements of the Risk teams. Regularly interfacing with Risk managers, means candidates will need to be up to speed on the latest Basel 2.5 regulations: Equity Event VaR, Incremental Risk Charge, Comprehensive Risk Charge, Stress Testing, Stressed VaR in order to push back during the requirements elicitation phase.
The Project
The BA is required to participate in a new multi-year Programme that has recently been launched with the aim of designing and building a strategic market risk management system. You will be expected to participate in the usual phases of a water-fall driven model of project execution: currently we are heavily involved in the Requirements Analysis and Planning phase of the programme, so there is an urgent need to augment the existing BA team in order to drive out detailed specifications and work with the development teams to derive functional and technical specifications.