Business Analyst Financial Operations Belfast 3 days per week onsite **Must be located in Northern Ireland** Hayward Hawk are currently recruiting for an experienced Business Analyst. This is an excellent opportunity for someone with a strong analytical mindset and a background in financial operations or securities services to join a high-performing team driving process improvements and digital transformation across core systems. Key Responsibilities: Collaborate with internal stakeholders to assess business needs and define system requirements for enhancements to custody-related platforms. Perform in-depth research and gap analysis to define project scope, user stories, and technical requirements in alignment with operational goals. Support the redesign and automation of existing processes, ensuring efficiency, scalability, and alignment with industry best practices. Prepare documentation including business requirement documents (BRDs), test cases, risk assessments, and implementation plans. Facilitate communication between business and technical teams, translating complex ideas into clear, actionable deliverables. Monitor project progress, identify risks and dependencies, and contribute to testing, validation, and rollout of new systems or enhancements. Champion the use of Agile frameworks, using tools such as JIRA and GitLab to track progress and foster cross-functional collaboration. Promote data-driven decision making through dashboards, reports, and presentations tailored to senior stakeholders. Experience & Skills: Minimum 5 years experience in business analysis, ideally within financial services, securities processing, or operational risk functions. Solid understanding of custody operations and the broader post-trade lifecycle is highly advantageous. Proven track record of working within Agile delivery models, with practical experience using tools like JIRA, Confluence, and GitLab. Strong analytical, documentation, and problem-solving skills with attention to detail and a proactive mindset. Comfortable interpreting data sets and trends using Excel and other MS Office tools. Confident communicator with the ability to influence stakeholders and drive consensus across departments. Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality results under tight timelines. Knowledge of regulatory compliance and control frameworks related to financial services is a plus. Skills: Custody Reporting Business Analysis Jira