Senior Business Process Analyst (Application Modernization)

About Kirkland & Ellis

At Kirkland & Ellis, we are united in our ambition and drive to move forward. We share core values that help us achieve excellence: collaboration, talent empowerment, service, inclusion, respect and gratitude. Our people are our greatest asset, and we invest in the brightest talent and encourage a diversity of perspectives and strengths to create dynamic teams that operate at the pinnacle of their field. Our talented professionals show up every day knowing they will engage in meaningful work, continuous learning and professional development.
 
As one of the world’s leading law firms, we serve a broad range of clients with market-leading practices in private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions; investment fund formation and alternative asset management; restructurings; high-stakes commercial and intellectual property litigation; and government, regulatory and internal investigations. We handle the most complicated and sophisticated legal matters because we don’t just meet industry standards, we create them. We bring innovation and entrepreneurialism to every engagement and, as a result, have long-standing client relationships with leading global corporations and financial sponsors. With 6,500 employees (including more than 3,500 lawyers) operating from 21 offices across the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, we are one of the largest law firms in the world and a top financial performer.

Essential Job Functions

The Business Process Analyst will collaborate with various departments and stakeholders to identify, gather, document, and analyze business requirements, processes, and workflows.  They will translate these requirements into functional requirements for technical teams and work closely with project managers, developers, architects, and the testing team. The position requires driving change from idea to delivery including validating resulting change meets the business requirements. An analytical and detail oriented professional with an exceptional ability to grasp complex workflows quickly and completely with numerous use cases and critical business impact is essential for this role. Ingenuity coupled with the ability and desire to continually improve both business operations and processes.

This position reports to the Director of Process and requires working closely with mid to senior level management, attorneys, application developers, and product designers, to elicit, document, and translate specifications on applications for the departments, Firm, and the Firm’s clients.  The successful candidate must be results driven and have experience working with stakeholders who demand high quality and quick turnaround. Thus, the applicant must possess highly developed skills, including but not limited to, advanced verbal and written communication, active listening, business analysis and technical writing.  This individual must have experience working with developers, architects, and external vendors. The Business Process Analyst must have a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 7 years’ experience applying business systems analysis and business process management principles at different levels of an organization within an iterative and phased approach.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS (This list is not exhaustive and may be supplemented and changed as necessary.)

• Work closely with business stakeholders to understand their needs, objectives and challenges and propose innovative and practical solutions to address business challenges.
• Research, understand, and document business processes and process flows.
• Elicit and capture requirements from key business contacts and ensure documented requirements satisfy business needs (aligning use cases and stories/features to business processes) while addressing all downstream impacts. 
• Create business requirements and functional specification documentation, process flows, use cases and user stories.
• Evaluate how new requirements fit into existing products and/or applications and ensure consistency throughout the product and/or application.
• Work with business stakeholders, developers, architects, testers, and others to review and ensure requirements are understood and implemented to meet business needs. 
• Be a part of the change management process and effectively communicate required changes to development teams.
• Deliver project requirements and service levels in a deadline driven environment.
• Demonstrate analytical and organizational skills by analyzing and documenting complex information involving multiple layers of data and workflows.
• Identify and recommend areas for process improvements and assist in their implementation.
• Work independently and self-manage tasks and time to balance and adapt to changing priorities.
• Adapt communication language and style to varied audiences making use of Microsoft PowerPoint, Visio, and other Firm tools.
• Adhere to Firm and department policies, procedures, approved artifacts, methodologies, and delivery approaches to ensure that project efforts are focused on the proper solution and level of functionality needed to meet the objectives of Firmwide, practice group, and functional department customers, without supervision.
• Communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Knowledgeable and experienced with Cloud and evaluating SaaS solutions.
• Participate in user acceptance testing and validation of implemented solution, as needed.
• Escalate issues to management, as appropriate, when client expectations and functionality do not match and cannot be reconciled without additional time, cost, or resources.

OTHER FUNCTIONS

• Any other functions/duties as assigned by management.

Qualifications & Requirements

Required:

• 7+ years’ experience in software product delivery disciplines and activities (i.e., product management, business analysis, testing, and project management activities); including delivery adhering to Agile methodologies and the SDLC.
• 5+ years’ experience documenting business and system requirements.
• Bachelor’s degree in business (analytics or information science) or equivalent experience.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in requirement gathering techniques, process modeling, and documentation.
• Outstanding customer service orientation and work ethic.
• Familiarity with a DevOps tool (such as Jira or Azure DevOps).

Preferred

• Legal knowledge and understanding.
• Experience in Change or Release Management.

Technologies/Software

• Microsoft Office Suite
• Visio
• Microsoft Azure DevOps/VSTS/TFS
• JIRA

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets.

How to Apply

Thank you for your interest in Kirkland & Ellis LLP.  To complete an application and submit your resume, please click "Apply Now."

Equal Employment Opportunity

All employment decisions, including the recruiting, hiring, placement, training availability, promotion, compensation, evaluation, disciplinary actions, and termination of employment (if necessary) are made without regard to the employee’s race, color, creed, religion, sex, pregnancy or childbirth, personal appearance, family responsibilities, sexual orientation or preference, gender identity, political affiliation, source of income, place of residence, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military veteran status, unfavorable discharge from military service, physical or mental disability, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

Closing Statement

The www.kirkland.com job postings and recruiting mailbox are for candidates only. If you are a recruiter, search firm or employment agency, and do not have a signed contract with Kirkland & Ellis LLP ("K&E") and have not been asked specifically to submit candidates, you will not be compensated in any way for your referral of a candidate even if K&E hires the candidate. Direct contact with K&E employees in an attempt to present candidates is inappropriate and will be a factor in determining any future professional relationship with the Firm. #LI-Hybrid #LI-JN1