Senior Business Analyst

SUMMARY:
Ready to Redefine the Future of Insurance?

POSITION INFO:

Purpose of the Role:

Dis-Chem Life is redefining the future of insurance through data, insight, and bold thinking. We are looking for an exceptionally sharp, detail-obsessed Senior Business Analyst who thrives in complexity, demands precision, and brings structure and discipline to everything they touch.

This role is not for generalists. It is for a highly experienced, results-driven problem solver who thrives in regulated, data-rich environments such as insurance, finance, fintech or healthcare. You will be expected to own ambiguity, challenge assumptions, and bring absolute clarity to business challenges, translating them into structured, validated, and actionable solutions that unlock measurable business value.

Role Summary

As a Senior Business Analyst, you will lead high-impact business and technology initiatives across the business, from ideation through delivery. You will work across a matrixed environment, collaborating with stakeholders in finance, operations, compliance, product, and data, ensuring that every requirement is interrogated, validated, prioritised, and executed with excellence.

You will be responsible for building the analytical and functional foundation of strategic change, whether it’s launching a new product, optimising customer onboarding, improving underwriting logic, or delivering actionable insights for operational and financial decisions.

Benefits:

• Be part of a data-led, tech-forward organisation that is actively redefining the life insurance experience in South Africa.
• Operate in a business that values rigour, structure, and detail, where complex problem-solving is rewarded.
• Gain exposure to executive-level decision-making, cutting-edge tooling, and a cross-functional landscape that expands your business and technical fluency.
• Own your domain with clarity and accountability.
• Contribute to the roadmap of a regulated, fast-growing business with the agility of a fintech and the discipline of a licensed insurer.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Analysis & Requirements Ownership

• Lead end-to-end discovery and requirements analysis for complex initiatives, ensuring clarity, completeness, and alignment to enterprise architecture and technology strategy.
• Elicit and document business, functional, and non-functional requirements with a high level of precision, ensuring traceability through to delivery and test scenarios.
• Translate abstract business problems into structured, technically feasible requirements that can be confidently estimated, built, and scaled by engineering teams.
• Own and refine the business case for each initiative, articulating value, cost, effort, and measurable ROI in collaboration with finance and technology stakeholders.

Data-Driven Analysis & Decision Support

• Conduct data-led root cause analysis using structured and unstructured data to validate assumptions, challenge bias, and guide prioritisation.
• Collaborate with BI and data engineering teams to define analytical models, KPIs, and monitoring tools that drive insight and operational efficiency.
• Support the development of real-time or near-real-time decision support tools where automation or dynamic intervention is required.

Process Design & Solution Evaluation

• Design and optimise cross-functional processes that span product, operations, underwriting, distribution, and customer experience, with a lens on automation, scalability, and regulatory control.
• Lead the evaluation of solution options across internal build, low-code/no-code platforms, or third-party vendors, always considering cost, complexity, extensibility, and integration risk.
• Own the production of “To-Be” architecture for business processes, working closely with solution architects to align on target states.

Technical Collaboration & Delivery Support

• Serve as the “voice of the business” inside engineering while also holding the business accountable to delivery realities, ensuring a strong partnership between product, BA, and tech teams.
• Write, review, and refine documentation consumed directly by developers (e.g., user stories, use case diagrams, workflow specs, data field mappings).
• Support UAT, system validation, and production readiness assessments, ensuring traceability between requirements, test scripts, and outcomes.
• Proactively manage delivery risks including ambiguity, scope creep, and system dependencies; escalate where needed with a solutions-first mindset.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Enablement

• Engage at executive level across Finance, Compliance, Product, and Distribution to align on strategy, scope, and timelines.
• Facilitate collaborative design workshops, playback sessions, and prioritisation forums – balancing business urgency with system capacity and risk.
• Drive change readiness by supporting training, go-live communication, SOP updates, and the handover of new functionality to business units.

Technical Skills

• Advanced proficiency in process modelling (BPMN or similar), data analysis, and documentation standards.
• Strong Excel skills, and comfort working with SQL or structured data to validate assumptions and inform logic.
• Familiarity with data warehousing, API concepts, and integration requirements.
• Experience working with reporting tools (e.g., Power BI) and contributing to dashboard specifications.
• Understanding of software development life cycle (SDLC) and agile delivery frameworks.

Soft Skills:

• A-type personality, high energy, precision-focused, and thrives under pressure.
• Exceptionally structured, methodical, and analytical.
• Naturally skeptical, validates all assumptions with data, stakeholder input, and evidence.
• Uncompromising attention to detail, every word, number, and diagram must be exact.
• Able to think both strategically and operationally, zooming in and out with ease.
• Confident, assertive communicator across all levels, including C-suite.

Experience:

• 6–10+ years experience as a Business Analyst in fast-paced, high-accountability environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading business analysis for large-scale system implementations, digital transformations, or regulatory projects.
• Experience in insurance, financial services, or fintech environments is strongly preferred.
• Exposure to data-driven or insight-heavy environments is a must (BI, analytics, decision automation, etc.).
• Experience working in regulated environments with familiarity in risk, compliance, and audit processes is highly beneficial.

Bonus (Not Required, But Advantageous):

• Comfortable writing and understanding basic SQL queries for data validation and analysis.
• Familiarity with interpreting server logs to support troubleshooting and testing of requirements.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Finance, or related field.
• Postgraduate qualification or professional certifications (e.g. CBAP, IIBA, PMI-PBA) are advantageous.
• Candidates without formal degrees will be considered if they have exceptional experience and a demonstrable track record of high-performance delivery.