Senior Risk Business Data Analyst

About the role 

At Sun Life, we work together, share common values and support growth and achievement. Corporate Risk Operations helps protect and enhance stakeholder value by enabling effective risk management practices across business segments. 

As part of this team, you will help drive change, innovation and operational excellence. You will support risk management practices, contribute to digital solutions, including AI-enabled initiatives, and help the team deliver practical improvements in a fast-changing environment. 

What you will do 

As a Senior Risk Business Data Analyst, you will play a key role in connecting business needs with effective delivery. You will combine business analysis expertise, data fluency, technical acumen, risk awareness and strong facilitation skills to support quality solutions aligned with business objectives and risk expectations. 

You will work closely with the Product Owner, business stakeholders, data enablement partners, AI and Generative AI teams, technology teams, vendors and cross-functional delivery teams to define clear requirements and support successful outcomes. 

You will translate business objectives into requirements, user stories, data attributes, data integration considerations, source-to-target mapping expectations, validation criteria and delivery-ready backlog items. You will also support Agile ceremonies, help manage priorities and contribute to solutions that align with business goals, risk management expectations and operational readiness. 

Key responsibilities 

• Lead and facilitate requirement discovery sessions with stakeholders at all levels, ensuring scope, objectives, assumptions, dependencies, risks, success criteria and data impacts are clearly understood and documented. 

• Elicit, analyze, validate and communicate business, functional, non-functional, data, reporting, analytics and compliance requirements in a clear and practical way. 

• Partner with the Product Owner to define, refine and prioritize Agile backlog items, including epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, data requirements, dependencies, business value and release considerations. 

• Support Agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, backlog refinement and roadmap discussions, with a focus on business readiness, data readiness and value delivery. 

• Translate business needs into data attributes, source-to-target mapping considerations, reporting needs, data validation expectations, data quality requirements and technical specifications that can be understood by data engineering, development and IT partners. 

• Analyze business processes, systems, data flows, operational pain points and source-system dependencies to identify opportunities for process improvement, optimization, automation, analytics enablement and innovation. 

• Partner with business users, peers, vendors, technology partners, data engineering, development, QA, project managers and leadership teams to plan, implement, test, roll out and support new or enhanced applications, data solutions, reporting capabilities and processes. 

• Validate delivered solutions against business requirements, data requirements and acceptance criteria, working with cross-functional teams to support successful delivery and adoption. 

• Review and contribute to high-level designs, test strategies, test plans, user documentation, training material, implementation notes and rollout plans to confirm alignment with business requirements and desired outcomes. 

• Identify gaps, risks, interdependencies, delivery blockers, data quality concerns and decision points; document mitigation strategies and escalate issues or decisions in a timely and structured way. 

Product Owner support 

In this role, you will help the Product Owner keep delivery priorities clear, organized and aligned to business objectives. You will: 

• Maintain and organize the delivery backlog in JIRA or equivalent tools, ensuring items are business-ready, data-ready, appropriately sequenced and aligned to objectives. 

• Write, review and interpret epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, business rules, data requirements, data mappings, validation expectations and implementation notes for clarity and completeness. 

• Prepare concise updates on progress, risks, blockers, decision needs, data dependencies, delivery capacity and upcoming priorities. 

• Help ensure backlog items reflect measurable business outcomes, customer impacts, compliance expectations, operational readiness needs, data readiness expectations and delivery dependencies. 

• Facilitate alignment between the Product Owner, business stakeholders, data enablement partners and delivery teams by clarifying expectations, challenging assumptions and recommending practical alternatives. 

• Create and update JIRA automation rules and AI agents to help improve productivity with business stakeholders, delivery teams and other key partners. 

• Support budget and expense tracking by monitoring performance, reporting variances and providing explanations where needed. 

Risk, data and technology focus 

You will bring a strong understanding of risk management, operational controls and business analysis to help define and improve risk management processes. You will also contribute to application risk assessments, risk-based testing, control documentation and operational readiness activities, as required. 

You will work with data enablement and technology partners to understand data lineage, database concepts, relational and dimensional models, source-to-target mapping, data ingestion, data integration, data validation and data quality challenges. 

Where applicable, you will explore and analyze data stored in platforms such as Amazon S3, Snowflake, MS SQL, PostgreSQL or similar environments to support reporting, analytics, AI use cases and risk operations outcomes. 

You will use data, process evidence, stakeholder feedback and system behaviour to develop clear insights and communicate findings to both technical and non-technical audiences. This role may also support data transformation, reporting, dashboarding, analytics, business intelligence and digital solution initiatives that contribute to Corporate Risk Operations outcomes. 

You will support AI and Generative AI initiatives by helping define the business context, data requirements, data quality considerations, and reporting or decision-support outcomes needed for responsible value delivery. 

What you need to succeed 

• 5 or more years of progressive experience as a Business Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Product Owner support role, Data Analyst or similar role with increasing responsibility. 7 or more years of related experience is preferred for data-heavy or complex delivery environments. 

• A bachelor’s degree, college diploma or equivalent practical experience. Education in computer science, mathematics, engineering, business, risk management or a related discipline is an asset. 

• Experience working in Agile environments such as Scrum, Kanban or SAFe, including Agile ceremonies, backlog refinement, prioritization, iterative delivery and JIRA or equivalent tooling. 

• Experience working with cross-functional teams, including business users, executive stakeholders where appropriate, vendors, development, QA, project managers, data enablement, data engineering and technology partners. 

• Strong understanding of data requirements, data ingestion, data integration, data flows across multiple source systems, source-to-target mapping, data validation, data quality and reporting concepts. 

• Hands-on familiarity with relational database systems, database querying, relational models, dimensional models, SQL, Snowflake, MS SQL, PostgreSQL or similar database technologies is an asset. 

• Ability to translate business requirements into clear technical specifications and implementation notes for development, IT and data engineering teams. 

• Strong interpersonal, facilitation, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate clearly across technical, data, business and leadership audiences. 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to assess root causes, identify gaps, develop recommendations and communicate practical options. 

• Working knowledge of risk management, compliance expectations, operational controls, data quality, reporting, financial services or insurance business processes is an asset. 

Preferred skills and experience 

• Experience in third-party risk management, technology and cyber risk management, Archer, ServiceNow, risk operations, operational risk, control management or related enterprise risk areas. 

• Experience with data visualization, analytics, reporting, dashboard development, Tableau, Power BI, data lakes, data warehouses, Amazon S3, Snowflake, source-to-target mapping, SQL, database querying or data validation. 

• Exposure to AI or Generative AI projects, with an understanding of the data requirements, data quality expectations, governance considerations and business outcomes needed to support responsible AI-enabled solutions. 

• BA, BSA, BSC, CBAP, PMI-PBA, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, data analytics, database or BI training/certification, or demonstrated practical experience with these concepts. 

• Experience supporting automation, workflow, digital transformation, process optimization, BI modernization or data platform initiatives. 

• Experience with customer communication, stakeholder management, matrix organizations, vendors and multi-site virtual teams. 

How you will contribute 

You will be most successful in this role if you are collaborative, curious and comfortable working through ambiguity. You communicate clearly, build strong relationships and help teams stay focused on meaningful outcomes. 

You will also demonstrate Sun Life’s BOLDER behaviours: Bias for Action, Open to Listen, Learn All the Time, Drives Outcomes, Empowering and Resilient. 

Why join us 

You will have the opportunity to contribute to meaningful risk operations work, support change and innovation, and collaborate with partners across business, data, technology and delivery teams.