Lead Business Analyst

Canada Life is strengthening enterprise delivery through the continued evolution of the Business Project Management Office (BPMO) within COBE. The Lead Business Analyst is a key leadership role responsible for bridging business strategy and execution by identifying opportunities, defining business capabilities, and enabling the successful delivery of complex initiatives. 

Working across multiple business areas and stakeholder groups, this role brings structure to ambiguity, facilitates alignment on strategic priorities, and ensures business requirements, processes, and solution designs support the intended outcomes. The Lead Business Analyst serves as a trusted advisor and thought partner, helping the organization make sound, evidence-based decisions while driving continuous improvement and business value realization. 

What you will do:

• Lead end‑to‑end business analysis activities for complex, cross‑functional initiatives within assigned business areas. 

• Partner closely with business leaders to define clear problem statements, business goals, desired outcomes, and success measures. 

• Elicit, analyse, and document end‑to‑end business requirements, ensuring clarity, traceability, and alignment to business outcomes. 

• Develop and maintain detailed current‑state and future‑state business process models across people, process, and technology dimensions. 

• Support the definition of Day‑2 operating models, including roles, processes, controls, hand‑offs, and operational impacts. 

• Partner with Technology teams to define and validate functional, data, and non‑functional requirements that support business intent. 

• Enable clear definition of reporting and information requirements to support operational and executive decision‑making. 

• Ensure business analysis deliverables align to enterprise BA standards, templates, and practices defined by the BA practice. 

• Support testing activities by reviewing test cases for coverage against business requirements and assisting with defect triage and resolution as needed. 

• Provide day‑to‑day coaching and guidance to BA resources (where applicable) working on shared or adjacent initiatives. 

• Act as a trusted analysis advisor within delivery teams, proactively identifying risks, gaps, and dependencies related to scope, requirements, or outcomes. 

• Contribute to the continuous improvement of the Business Analysis practice through input to standards, templates, Communities of Practice, and training. 

What you will do:

• 7+ years extensive experience performing senior‑level business analysis within large, complex organisations, preferably in regulated environments. 

• Strong hands‑on expertise in requirements management, process modelling, operating model design, and outcome definition. 

• Proven experience working on initiatives across Wealth, Insurance, Group Benefits, Operations, or similarly complex business domains. 

• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with Technology teams on data, non‑functional requirements, solution design, and testing. 

• Solid understanding of end‑to‑end delivery lifecycles, including governance, testing, and implementation readiness. 

• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage and influence senior business and delivery leaders. 

• Ability to balance enterprise standards with pragmatic, delivery‑focused execution. 

• Experience mentoring, coaching, or informally leading other BA practitioners. 

• Excellent communication and documentation skills, with the ability to translate complex analysis into clear, actionable outputs.