Business Analyst 3 (Senior)

Job Title: Business Analyst 3 (Senior)
Location: Remote
Contract: USDA OMNI – NRCS Operations & Maintenance
Security Clearance: USDA Public Trust

Position Overview

The Business Analyst 3 is a senior-level position responsible for leading requirements analysis, stakeholder engagement, product management, and process improvement activities across the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) IT ecosystem. This role requires deep expertise in business analysis, Agile/SAFe delivery frameworks, and federal IT program operations. The Business Analyst 3 operates with significant autonomy, drives portfolio- and program-level planning, manages complex stakeholder relationships across Government Product Owners (GPOs), Business Owners (BOs), and ISD leadership, and serves as a subject matter expert on assigned application domains. The role combines business analysis, product ownership, and Scrum Master responsibilities to ensure delivery teams produce outcomes aligned with NRCS mission objectives and FPAC governance standards.

Key Responsibilities

Requirements Analysis and Product Management

Lead requirements elicitation, analysis, and documentation for O&M and DM&E initiatives across assigned application domains (e.g., Protracts, NPAD, CART, CD).

Collaborate with Government Product Owners to translate business needs into well-defined Epics, Features, and User Stories with measurable acceptance criteria.

Develop and maintain product backlogs, roadmaps, and release plans aligned with PI objectives and business priorities.

Write Portfolio-level and Program-level Epics with benefit hypotheses; decompose into Features and Stories suitable for sprint execution.

Conduct gap analysis, AS-IS/TO-BE process mapping, and business process reengineering to identify improvement opportunities.

Facilitate Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions, stakeholder interviews, and whiteboard discussions to elicit and validate requirements.

Develop Business Requirements Documents (BRDs), functional specifications, use cases, screen design mockups, and workflow diagrams using tools such as MS Visio, Balsamiq, or equivalent.

Ensure all requirements and deliverables are traceable through the Government-designated system of record (Jira) and meet defined Acceptable Quality Levels (AQLs).

Stakeholder Management and Communication

Serve as the primary liaison between delivery teams and Government stakeholders (GPOs, BOs, GPMs, COR) for assigned application domains.

Represent delivery teams on product-related questions, process design decisions, and cross-functional coordination.

Present solutions, strategic roadmaps, and status updates to governance bodies and executive leadership.

Facilitate consensus-building across multiple stakeholder groups with competing priorities.

Provide timely compliance, governance, and status reporting to the Government in formats and frequencies requested by the COR or GPMs.

Support change control processes by documenting scope changes, impact assessments, and obtaining required Government approvals.

Process Improvement and Governance

Manage and facilitate a Business Analysis Center of Excellence to standardize BA practices across delivery teams.

Contribute to the Project Management Plan (PMP) including governance structure, communication protocols, risk management approach, and escalation procedures.

Maintain and actively manage entries in the risk and issue log in the Government-designated tool, including modernization dependencies, compliance gaps, and delivery risks.

Ensure adherence to FPAC architectural principles, the Technical Guidance Framework (TGF), and enterprise practices across delivery activities.

Support ITIL-aligned incident, problem, and change management processes consistent with FPAC standards.

Work Intake and Authorization Support

Collaborate on SPOE/Feature/Story/SET ticket workflows with GPOs to ensure proper intake, triage, and authorization of work items.

Support the Government-approved change control process; ensure no work begins outside the approved baseline without documented Government authorization.

Track delivery timelines against approved schedules and proactively communicate risks or delays.

Coordinate with GPMs to obtain formal approvals prior to initiating work; document approvals in the Government-designated system of record.

UAT Coordination and Quality Assurance

Coordinate User Acceptance Testing (UAT) activities including test case validation, defect tracking, and sign-off procedures with NRCS business users.

Work with testing teams to validate test cases and manage overall UAT execution.

Ensure delivered functionality meets business requirements and acceptance criteria prior to production deployment.

Support release validation activi