Technical Business Analyst

SimonsChustr; New York; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Simon & Schuster is modernizing core systems powering order management, fulfillment, partner integration, and finance with .NET/SQL and AI-assisted approaches. The Technical Business Analyst translates business needs into data-focused specifications, maintains test data and reconciliation artifacts, and guides developers on validation criteria.

You will own comparison rules, test data, and reconciliation evidence, work with developers on automation, and validate outputs before production

Qualifications

• 5+ years of technical business analysis, systems analysis, or data-focused QA.
• Strong SQL skills with joins, aggregation, and set comparisons.
• Requirements and process analysis translating needs into specs.
• Data-centric validation across reports, ETL, or migrations.
• Experience preparing test data, running automated checks, and tracking issues.
• Clear communication with concise specifications and evidence-based conclusions.
• Experience using AI tools for analysis or testing with independent validation.

Responsibilities

• Define requirements and processes with stakeholders and document acceptance criteria.
• Trace data and system behavior; document mappings, dependencies, and exceptions.
• Reconcile replacement outputs by running parallel-run comparisons and defects.
• Prepare test data and repeatable checks with extended validation coverage.
• Validate reports and interfaces against requirements with reproducible findings.
• Coordinate UAT and cutover evidence to support informed business decisions.
• Use AI tooling to assist analysis while validating output against rules.

Skills

SQL skills

Requirements analysis

Data validation

Stakeholder comms

AI tooling

UAT coordination

Job description

About the Role

Simon & Schuster, one of the world's leading publishers, is investing in a multi-year modernization of the core systems that power order management, fulfillment, partner integration, and financial transactions. We are replacing long-established technology with modern .NET and SQL solutions using an AI-assisted approach.

The Technical Business Analyst connects business needs with hands-on data investigation. You will map processes, clarify requirements, and translate legacy behavior into specifications and acceptance criteria that developers can implement. Strong SQL skills are central to the role: you will compare existing and replacement outputs, explain differences, and help business users validate results before production cutover.

You will own comparison rules, test data, first-pass reconciliation, and validation evidence, working with developers who own the automation framework and application implementation. This is a technical analysis role with targeted business and data validation, not a dedicated test-automation engineering position.

Key Responsibilities

• Define requirements and processes — Work with business stakeholders to document current and future workflows, business rules, reporting needs, change impacts, and testable acceptance criteria.
• Trace data and system behavior — Investigate batch processes, interfaces, SQL logic, and reports with developers and legacy specialists; document data mappings, dependencies, and exceptions.
• Reconcile replacement outputs — Run established parallel-run comparisons, investigate record-level differences, and distinguish defects from timing artifacts or intended changes.
• Prepare test data and repeatable checks — Maintain representative datasets, expected results, and comparison queries; work with developers to extend validation coverage and retain regression checks for resolved defects.
• Validate reports and interfaces — Check calculations, totals, completeness, and exchanged data against agreed requirements; provide reproducible findings and follow issues through retesting.
• Coordinate UAT and cutover evidence — Organize business testing, maintain requirements-to-test traceability, and summarize results and unresolved issues so business owners can make informed acceptance decisions.
• Use AI tooling critically — Apply AI-assisted analysis, SQL generation, and documentation while checking generated output against actual system behavior and approved business rules.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant technical business analysis, systems analysis, or data-focused QA experience, including requirements analysis and hands-on validation of production business systems.
• Strong SQL skills — independently write queries using joins, aggregation, and set comparisons; recognize data-grain, duplicate-record, missing-data, and timing issues that can distort reconciliation.
• Requirements and process analysis — translate stakeholder needs into process maps, functional and technical specifications, data definitions, and actionable acceptance criteria.
• Data-centric validation experience — investigate reports, batch processing, ETL/data pipelines, or migrations by comparing datasets and explaining discrepancies.
• Experience preparing test datasets, running established automated checks, coordinating UAT, and tracking issues through resolution.
• Clear communication with business users and engineers, supported by concise specifications, reproducible issue reports, and evidence-based conclusions.
• Experience using AI tools for analysis or testing, with the judgment to validate their output independently.

Preferred Qualifications

• Legacy-modernization or system-migration experience using parallel-run validation.
• Microsoft SQL Server, stored procedures, and reusable reconciliation queries.
• Order processing, fulfillment, supply-chain, financial transaction, or EDI experience.
• Exposure to COBOL-era batch environments or AutoSys; COBOL development skills are not required.
• C# / .NET or scripting familiarity for collaboration on existing validation checks.

What Success Looks Like

• Developers receive clear requirements, expected results, and reproducible issues.
• Differences are explained and resolved or approved before cutover.
• Business users trust reports, validation results, and the evidence supporting acceptance.
• Test data and reconciliation checks become easier to reuse with each replacement.

Simon & Schuster is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.