IT Business Analyst Manager

World Travel Holdings is seeking an experienced, remote IT Business Analyst Manager to help us deliver innovative solutions that make leisure travel more accessible and fun. This crucial role will oversee and lead a team of business analysts in a hybrid waterfall/agile process and partner with strategic business partners and technical leaders to bridge the gap between business and technology. The ideal candidate will be an excellent critical and strategic thinker, be a strong team leader and have a deep understanding of business analysis methodologies and best practices.

About World Travel Holdings
World Travel Holdings is the nation’s largest cruise agency and award-winning leisure travel company with a portfolio of nearly 40 diverse brands. In addition to owning some of the largest brands distributing cruises, villas, resort vacations, car rentals, resort day passes and luxury travel services, World Travel Holdings has a vast portfolio of private-label partnerships comprised of top leisure travel providers, including almost every U.S. airline, leading hotel brands and prominent corporations. The company also operates a top-rated travel agency franchise and is consistently recognized as an industry leader in employee engagement and work-at-home employment. Its global presence includes operating multiple cruise brands in the United Kingdom. World Travel Holdings has offices in Wakefield, Mass.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and Chorley, England. For more information, visit WorldTravelHoldings.com.

Team Leadership & Management

• Lead and manage a team of 6 business analysts, providing guidance, support, coaching and fostering a collaborative and innovative team environment
• Establish and maintain best practices for requirements gathering, documentation and stakeholder engagement
• Foster a culture of growth, ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Position yourself and the BA team as technical and business thought leaders, to drive business outcomes through a deep understanding of technology

Business & Technology Alignment

• Partner with Product, Engineering and business stakeholders to translate strategic objectives into clear, actionable requirements
• Maintain a holistic understanding of business processes, customer journeys, and technical dependencies
• Build a strong understanding of the technical ecosystem, across the front end experiences to the back end services and APIs
• Jira administrator, trainer and champion the adoption of BA tools, including project and technical documentation repositories and knowledge bases

Requirements Management

• Oversee the end-to-end process of gathering, analyzing, and developing business requirements documents and user stories
• Develop and maintain high-quality artifacts including business requirements, acceptance criteria, business process flows and system interaction diagrams
• Ensure requirements reflect scalability, security, quality and usability considerations
• Perform high level business requirements gathering and assessments early in the project life cycle, prior to project being assigned to a delivery team
• Facilitate executive workshops, steering committees, and cross-functional discovery sessions. 

Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as a trusted advisor to stakeholders (business, operations & technology) by clarifying needs, challenging assumptions, and identifying opportunities for optimization
• Facilitate workshops, discovery sessions, and cross-functional discussions to align on scope and deliverables
• Build strong relationships across technology, business, and operations teams
• Spearhead a mindset shift for the BA organization to transition from reactive work to strong technical thought leaders that drive business outcomes

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business, or related field required
• 8+ Years of relevant BA or Product Owner experience with a minimum of 2 as a manager
• Business Analysis certification (e.g. Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), Certified Scrum Product Owner, etc.)
• Experience working in a hybrid model of a blend of waterfall and agile project delivery
• Demonstrated expertise in understanding data flows, integrations, and cloud-based (GCP & Azure) architectures for front-end and back-end platforms
• Advanced proficiency in using SQL, Excel, Tableau, or other data analysis tools is highly desirable. Experience in data modeling, database design, or software development is a plus
• Intimate working knowledge of agile tools required, preferably Jira and Confluence, but understanding of tools such as Trello, Scrumwise and demonstrated ability to implement and learn a new tool accepted
• Ability to translate complex technical details into business-friendly language
• Familiarity with cruise ship operations or the travel industry, including revenue management, passenger booking systems, and onboard operations a plus