Principal Business Analyst (Functional Design Lead)

Responsibilities

• The role is the senior functional authority for a product or product area, responsible for defining how capabilities should work end to end and ensuring that the resulting solution is coherent, effective and fit for purpose
• Working closely with Product Managers, Product Directors, Business Analysts, Engineering, Architecture, UX and other stakeholders, the role translates product strategy and business outcomes into high-level functional designs and Functional Requirements Documents (FRDs) that guide delivery
• The role sits between product intent and detailed delivery, owning the high-level functional design that connects the two
• It does not primarily own detailed specifications or user stories; these are elaborated by Lead/Senior Business Analysts and Business Analysts but an active steering role in elaboration is expected
• During delivery, the role provides functional decision-making and design authority, resolving ambiguity, addressing cross-component conflicts and ensuring the product works coherently end to end from a functional perspective
• LSEG Risk Intelligence increasingly uses AI and LLM-based capabilities both within its products and across the software delivery lifecycle
• Functional Design:
• Define and own high-level functional designs, FRDs and component scope
• Translate product goals into functional behaviours, boundaries, workflows and component interactions
• Maintain a coherent end-to-end functional view across the product area
• Identify dependencies, constraints, assumptions and integration points
• Provide the design basis from which BAs and SBAs develop detailed specifications, stories and acceptance criteria
• Product and Solution Shaping:
• Partner with Product Managers and Product Directors to shape capabilities and solutions
• Challenge proposals where they create functional gaps, unnecessary complexity or adverse downstream impacts
• Determine how product outcomes should be realised functionally
• Assess cross-product impacts and contribute functional insight to prioritisation and roadmap decisions
• Functional Authority:
• Act as the senior point of authority for functional questions
• Lead and arbitrate cross-component functional decisions where requirements conflict, gaps emerge or delivery teams require clarification
• Convene appropriate collaborators as an ad hoc functional design authority where required
• Resolve ambiguity during development while maintaining alignment with the intended end-to-end design
• Escalate significant product, architectural or business decisions where appropriate
• Delivery and End-to-End Coherence:
• Provide functional direction and clarification to BAs, SBAs and engineering teams throughout delivery
• Review detailed specifications to ensure alignment with the intended functional design
• Participate in design reviews, refinement oversight and delivery governance
• Identify inconsistencies across components, teams and requirements and drive resolution
• Balance immediate delivery needs with longer-term product coherence and maintainability
• Leadership:
• Provide functional leadership and guidance to Business Analysts and Senior Business Analysts
• Mentor analysts and support development of functional analysis and design capability
• Promote consistent approaches to functional design and decision-making
• Where applicable, provide day-to-day leadership to a small analyst team while remaining primarily focused on functional ownership
• Success is demonstrated through:
• Clear and coherent functional designs that enable effective delivery
• Strong alignment between product intent, detailed requirements and delivered functionality
• Fewer functional gaps, conflicts and late-stage surprises
• Faster resolution of cross-component functional decisions
• Improved consistency of functional analysis across teams
• A product that works coherently end to end rather than as a collection of individually delivered features

Requirements

• Experience in AI-enabled product design or AI-assisted delivery would be advantageous
• Demonstrated experience defining high-level functional designs for complex or highly integrated products
• Significant experience in business analysis, functional analysis, product analysis or a related field within complex software environments
• Experience making or facilitating decisions across multiple components and delivery teams
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, particularly where requirements are incomplete, conflicting or ambiguous
• Ability to translate product strategy into clear functional direction
• Strong understanding of how software components and capabilities interact end to end
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and challenge proposed solutions constructively
• Experience working across Product, Engineering, Architecture and Business Analysis
• Previous experience as a Lead, Senior or Principal Business Analyst
• Experience mentoring or leading analysts
• Experience with enterprise-scale, platform or highly integrated software products
• Familiarity with Agile delivery and AI-enabled product development