Lead Business Analyst (Japanese Proficiency) (Contractual)

Job description

As a Lead Business Analyst, you will play a key role within the Business Analysis competency, partnering with business and technology stakeholders to drive data-driven decision making, process optimization, and successful delivery of analytics solutions. You will lead requirements management activities, facilitate collaboration across cross-functional and cross-cultural teams, and translate complex business needs into scalable Power BI solutions that create measurable value for procurement and finance organizations. ### **What You'll Be Doing:** ### Business Analysis & Stakeholder Management - Lead requirements elicitation workshops and discovery sessions with procurement leaders, category managers, finance controllers, IT teams, and data owners. - Analyze and document current-state and future-state business processes. - Contribute to and drive continuous process improvement initiatives aligned with evolving business needs within the procurement function. - Facilitate alignment between business and technical stakeholders, ensuring a common understanding of project objectives and requirements. - Act as the primary liaison between business users, project teams, and technical delivery teams. ### Solution Definition & Documentation - Translate business requirements into detailed functional specifications for Power BI dashboards and analytics solutions. - Define data model expectations, calculation logic, KPIs, business rules, visualizations, user stories, and user interaction requirements. - Produce and maintain high-quality business requirements documents (BRDs), functional specifications, process maps, data mapping documents, and related project documentation. - Review solution designs to ensure alignment with business objectives and requirements. ### Project Delivery & Governance - Support the Project Manager in delivering project objectives on time and within budget. - Contribute to scope definition, effort estimation, dependency management, and milestone tracking. - Ensure requirements-related issues, assumptions, risks, decisions, and dependencies are appropriately tracked and managed through RAID and Decision Logs. - Communicate project plans, status updates, risks, and issues across governance forums and stakeholder groups. ### Testing, Deployment & Adoption - Coordinate and facilitate User Acceptance Testing (UAT), including test planning, defect management, and stakeholder sign-off. - Support deployment and implementation activities to ensure smooth solution adoption. - Prepare training materials, user guides, and knowledge transfer documentation. - Provide hypercare and post-go-live support to business users and stakeholders. ### Leadership - Provide guidance and mentorship to junior and mid-level business analysts. - Promote best practices in requirements management, stakeholder engagement, and business analysis methodologies. - Drive continuous improvement in business analysis processes, standards, and delivery frameworks. ### **What We're Looking For** - Bachelor's Degree or Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Finance, or a related discipline. - Minimum 5 years of experience as an IT Business Analyst. - At least 1 year of experience in a lead or senior business analysis capacity. - Proven experience delivering business intelligence, reporting, analytics, or dashboard projects. - Demonstrated success in requirements elicitation, business process analysis, and stakeholder management. - Experience producing BRDs, functional specifications, process documentation, and data mapping artifacts. - Hands-on involvement in Power BI implementation projects, including requirements definition, dashboard design, data model reviews, and UAT facilitation. #### Language Requirements - Fluent written and spoken English. - Fluent written and spoken Japanese, with the ability to facilitate business discussions and documentation in both languages. #### Technical Knowledge - Strong understanding of Power BI, including: - Data modeling and star schema concepts - DAX measures and calculations - Row-Level Security (RLS) - Incremental refresh - Dashboard and report design best practices - Knowledge of Azure-based data platforms and modern analytics architectures. - Understanding of data integration, ETL/ELT processes, and data warehousing concepts. - Ability to understand and communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders. #### Core Competencies - Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities. - Excellent interpersonal, communication, and facilitation skills. - Strong prioritization, organizational, and time-management skills. - Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and competing priorities. - Experience working across cross-functional and cross-cultural teams. - Strong attention to detail and commitment to delivery excellence. #### Preferred Skills - Experience in spend analysis, spend classification, spend categorization, and procurement analytics. - Experience working with ERP and procurement platforms such as SAP MM, SAP Ariba, Coupa, Oracle Procurement, or similar solutions. - Understanding of procurement data structures, including: - Purchase Orders - Invoices - Contracts - Goods Receipts - Supplier Master Data - Material and Service Classifications - Familiarity with spend classification frameworks such as UNSPSC, eClass, and custom procurement taxonomies. - Experience supporting digital transformation, reporting modernization, or procurement optimization initiatives.