Senior Business Analyst: Credit Process & Operations (Banking)

SUMMARY:
Senior Business Analyst: Credit Process & Operations - Somerset West ( Banking) 

POSITION INFO:
Our Banking Client is currently looking for an experienced Senior Business Analyst: Credit Process & Operations based in Somerset West. This is a permanent, full-time position within the Credit division, reporting to the Product Manager . The role operates within the first line of defence: Credit \/ Product & Operations . There are no direct reports. This is an individual contributor role with functional authority. Role Purpose The successful candidate will help build the processes and operational capability required to run a credit business, translating credit product strategy into clear, executable end-to-end operations. While the Product Manager owns product direction, this role acts as the process expert who translates that direction into practical processes that customers, employees, systems and operational teams can execute. This includes designing both the ideal customer journey and the scenarios where things go wrong, covering roles, responsibilities, hand-offs, operational queues, service-level agreements (SLAs), exceptions, controls and escalation paths. Requirements Experience Proven experience designing and implementing significant end-to-end processes from scratch. - Strong understanding of credit operations and the lending lifecycle. - Experience defining operating models, roles, responsibilities, SLAs, queues and exception handling. - Greenfield or major transformation experience. - Experience working across large, interconnected systems and organisational ecosystems. - Strong business analysis skills across process analysis, requirements, business rules, data and implementation. - Banking or financial services experience. - Experience working directly with Product, Operations and Technology teams. - Demonstrable evidence of processes or capabilities personally designed and implemented, rather than length of process analysis experience alone. Approach and Working Style Thinks end-to-end, recognising one customer journey and an interconnected operating system across departmental processes. - Comfortable starting with a blank page and systematically determining what needs to happen, who is responsible, which systems are involved and what happens when a process fails. - Uses process analysis to make the business work in practice. - Pays particular attention to exceptions and understands that the quality of an operating model is often revealed when the ideal customer journey fails. Key Competencies The following competencies apply across the client's Senior Business Analyst: Credit specialisations: Builder mentality: Proven experience creating capabilities, platforms or processes from scratch, beyond maintaining or incrementally enhancing established systems. Credit depth: An established understanding of lending fundamentals. Banking understanding: Understands the broader ecosystem in which credit operates. Systems thinking: Considers the impact of requirements on customers, channels, processes, data, systems, integrations and controls. Deep curiosity: Questions initial explanations and investigates until the underlying problem is understood. Structured problem-solving: Works effectively with ambiguity and breaks complex problems into executable components. Constructive challenge: Confidently questions Product, Technology and other stakeholders where evidence supports a better solution. Technical fluency: Comfortable discussing APIs, integrations, data and system behaviour with engineers and architects, without needing to be a developer. Commercial awareness: Understands that technical correctness must be considered alongside business value. Accountability: Takes ownership through implementation and issue resolution, extending beyond handing over documentation. Strong communication: Communicates effectively with executives, subject-matter experts and developers. AI-enabled working: Actively uses modern AI tools to accelerate discovery, analysis, documentation and quality assurance while applying human judgement and remaining accountable for the output. Key Responsibilities End-to-End Process Design Translate credit strategy and product intent into executable future-state processes. - Design processes across the full credit lifecycle, including acquisition, onboarding, origination, fulfilment, servicing, account management, treatment and collections. - Design processes across relevant channels. - Ensure customers and work can move coherently between channels. Operating Model and Exception Design Define roles, responsibilities, hand-offs, queues, SLAs, escalation paths and operational controls. - Identify and design for exceptions, alternative journeys and failure scenarios, beyond the ideal customer journey. - Define operational requirements for case management and manual intervention where automation is not possible. Cross-Functional Delivery Work across Product, Operations, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Data and other stakeholders to ensure processes work end-to-end. - Translate processes into detailed requirements, user stories, business rules and acceptance criteria. - Identify unnecessary steps, duplication, manual work and opportunities for straight-through processing. - Support operational readiness, testing, implementation and training. Continuous Improvement Analyse process failures and operational incidents to identify root causes and corrective requirements. - Measure whether implemented processes are performing as designed. - Use AI to accelerate process discovery, modelling, scenario analysis, exception identification and requirements quality. Regulatory and Governance Knowledge The successful candidate must apply working knowledge of: The National Credit Act (NCA) and National Credit Regulator requirements, ensuring operational processes-including origination, servicing and collections-reflect responsible lending obligations. - Credit lifecycle fundamentals across acquisition, onboarding, assessment, decisioning, servicing, arrears management and collections. - The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), as it applies to customer data handling within operational processes. - The regulated credit environment, ensuring customer experience, commercial outcomes, risk and compliance work together. Please take note: if you have not been contacted within 14 days, please consider your application unsuccessful.