Location: Columbia, MD (Hybrid/Remote - In office 3 days a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday)
Residency Requirement: Candidates must have lived in the U.S. for at least 3 of the past 5 years and be authorized to work in the U.S. (Citizen, Permanent Resident, or EAD).
Sponsorship: This position does not offer sponsorship. Candidates must already be authorized to work in the U.S. (e.g., Citizen, Permanent Resident, or EAD).
Clearance: Public Trust Clearance (or ability to obtain.)
Job Overview:
Cogent People Inc. is seeking an experienced Business Analyst Lead to provide functional leadership across multiple operational workstreams supporting a complex federal program. This role combines business analysis, operational oversight, stakeholder management, and continuous improvement, with responsibility for leading teams of business and data analysts.
The ideal candidate is a proactive, hands-on leader who can independently manage priorities, strengthen team capabilities, and improve existing processes while ensuring consistent delivery of high-quality work.
Responsibilities
- Lead requirements elicitation, analysis, documentation, and validation across complex business processes and data-driven initiatives.
- Translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into clear requirements, actionable tasks, and acceptance criteria.
- Provide day-to-day functional leadership to business and data analysts across multiple operational workstreams.
- Oversee recurring deliverables, coordinate assignments, manage competing priorities, and proactively address delivery risks.
- Provide functional guidance to analysts and oversee the quality of analytical deliverables, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and alignment with business requirements.
- Serve as a key point of contact for stakeholders, managing expectations, resolving issues, and escalating risks as appropriate.
- Coach and develop team members, establish accountability, and strengthen collaboration, knowledge sharing, and backup coverage.
- Lead process improvements, establish SOPs and standardized workflows, and support team adoption of new practices.
- Collaborate with technical teams on data validation, testing, and issue resolution.