Strategic Opportunity Analyst

Derrick Corporation; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Derrick Corporation in Buffalo, NY seeks a Senior Research Analyst to translate technical opportunities into rigorous, decision-ready business assessments. You will work with technical specialists, product teams, and leadership to shape market sizing, customer value framing, and ROI-focused business cases, and you will lead MRD development and customer validation efforts.

The role requires collaborating across Derrick's engineering and commercial teams, producing structured analyses, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA or other business-focused graduate degree strongly preferred.
• 5+ years in corporate strategy, product management, product planning, business analysis, management consulting (industrial practices) or related disciplines.
• Ability to take ambiguous opportunities and develop them into clear, decision-ready business assessments.
• Strong written communication, especially in structured analytical documents like MRDs and business cases.
• Comfortable translating between technical potential and business viability; industrial context preferred.
• Strong business judgment: market sizing, value-in-use, TCO and ROI fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Work with technical specialists and engineering teams to translate opportunities into structured business assessments.
• Produce opportunity assessments with market sizing, customer value framing, competition, and ROI logic.
• Lead customer engagement to validate assumptions and conduct on-site discovery with plant managers and operations leadership.
• Author Market Requirements Documents (MRDs) outlining market problem, segments, use cases, and metrics.
• Maintain knowledge of competitive offerings and market trends to ground assessments.
• Build relationships with stakeholders to provide the structured opportunity view for investments.
• Travel up to 15% to customer sites and events.

Skills

Market sizing

MRD writing

Business case

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or similar

Job description

Derrick Corporation in Buffalo, NY seeks a Senior Research Analyst to translate technical opportunities into rigorous, decision-ready business assessments. You will work with technical specialists, product teams, and leadership to shape market sizing, customer value framing, and ROI-focused business cases, and you will lead MRD development and customer validation efforts.

The role requires collaborating across Derrick's engineering and commercial teams, producing structured analyses, and