Senior Business Analyst

About the Role:

Northwestern Mutual is seeking a Senior Business Analyst to help advance our Service Strategy by identifying opportunities, defining solutions, and delivering capabilities that improve experiences for clients, field representatives, and home office teams.

Working closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, Analytics, and business stakeholders, you'll help uncover customer and business needs, facilitate discovery efforts, evaluate opportunities, and drive alignment across teams. This role will play an important part in shaping future-state servicing experiences while supporting operational efficiency, automation, scalability, and customer-focused improvements.

The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguity, enjoys solving complex business problems, and is energized by bringing clarity where it does not yet exist. Success requires strong analytical thinking, systems thinking, curiosity, adaptability, and the ability to influence decisions across organizational boundaries. This individual will help teams move quickly, learn continuously, and deliver measurable business outcomes through a collaborative and data-driven approach.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

Define success measures, establish baseline performance metrics, and evaluate outcomes to ensure solutions support Service Strategy objectives and business value.

Serve as a strategic thought partner by focusing on business problems, root causes, and opportunities rather than simply documenting requirements.

Lead discovery efforts, stakeholder discussions, and process analysis to identify opportunities and define future-state experiences.

Apply systems thinking to understand how processes, technology, products, data, and organizational decisions impact the broader servicing ecosystem.

Facilitate workshops, process mapping sessions, and alignment discussions that help teams move from ambiguity to actionable solutions.

Leverage quantitative and qualitative data to identify trends, evaluate opportunities, and support prioritization decisions.

Translate complex business needs into clear requirements, user stories, process flows, acceptance criteria, and solution recommendations.

Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, Analytics, and business stakeholders to support roadmap priorities and delivery efforts.

Influence stakeholders and delivery teams across organizational boundaries while driving decisions without direct authority.

Support rapid test-and-learn approaches by identifying opportunities, validating assumptions, incorporating feedback, and measuring outcomes.

Utilize AI-enabled tools and emerging technologies to improve analysis, decision-making, delivery effectiveness, and operational efficiency.

Contribute to strong business analysis practices, continuous improvement efforts, and knowledge sharing across teams.

Communicate effectively with working teams, business partners, leadership, and executives, tailoring information appropriately to each audience.

What You Will Bring to the Role:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of Business Analyst, Product Analyst, or related experience delivering measurable business outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to make data-driven decisions and recommendations.
• Experience working within Agile, product-focused, or cross-functional delivery environments.
• Strong analytical thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments and bring structure to evolving problems and opportunities.
• Experience facilitating stakeholder discussions, discovery sessions, workshops, and alignment activities.
• Ability to influence decisions and build consensus without direct authority.
• Strong communication, relationship-building, and collaboration skills.
• Demonstrated initiative, ownership, and bias toward action.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with attention to detail and execution.
• Curiosity, learning agility, adaptability, and comfort working in new or evolving ways.
• Experience using data, insights, and business context to guide recommendations and prioritization decisions.
• Nice to Have: Financial services experience.
• Insurance servicing experience.
• Annuities experience.
• Experience partnering closely with Product Management and Engineering teams.
• Experience supporting business transformation, modernization, automation, or process improvement initiatives.
• Experience leveraging AI-enabled tools to improve analysis or delivery effectiveness.
• Contact center, servicing, or operations experience.
• Skills You Have: Analytical Thinking: Uses data, analysis, and critical thinking to identify opportunities, solve problems, and support informed decision-making.
• Business Analysis: Evaluates business needs, documents requirements, and translates complex challenges into actionable solutions.
• Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Builds strong relationships across teams while aligning stakeholders around shared goals and priorities.
• Learning Agility & Critical Thinking: Adapts quickly to changing priorities, learns continuously, and applies sound judgment when navigating ambiguity.
• Process Improvement: Identifies opportunities to improve customer experiences, operational effectiveness, and business outcomes.
• Systems Thinking: Understands the interconnected relationships between people, processes, technology, data, and organizational decisions.
• Adaptive Communication: Effectively communicates with technical teams, business partners, and leadership while tailoring messages for the audience.

Geographic Specific Pay Structure:

Structure 110:

$98,320.00 USD - $147,480.00 USD

Structure 115:

$102,800.00 USD - $154,200.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.

Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!