Senior Financial Business Analyst (Onsite)

Choose To Make A Difference

Come care with us at West Coast University. Here we can deliver innovative solutions to today's complex business issues! You will play an essential role in higher education to lead high-profile projects, evaluate our business needs and propose comprehensive solutions, which will improve organizational efficiency, increasing automation opportunities, and reducing organizational risk in a highly regulated environment. Our focus on emerging technology solutions along with our commitment to student success has resulted in an organization that is consistently recognized as a certified "Great Place to Work."

This position is based onsite at our Irvine, California location.

The Senior Business Analyst for the Funding Value Stream is a strategic partner who drives transformational change by leading various high-impact projects across student financial operations within the institution. This role is responsible for the end-to-end analysis, design, and optimization of complex business processes, focusing on areas such as student accounts, tuition management, payment processing, general ledger accounting, financial reporting, and financial aid administration. You will act as the principal liaison between finance and accounting units, student accounts teams, financial aid departments, administrative stakeholders, and technical teams, translating strategic institutional goals into clear, actionable requirements and robust, compliant solutions. The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in business analysis methodologies, significant experience within a higher education financial environment, and a proven ability to guide project teams and senior leadership toward data-informed decisions that enhance financial accuracy, operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and institutional effectiveness.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Senior Business Analyst will apply advanced analytical skills and deep domain knowledge to achieve the following:

Lead various complex projects focused on the analysis and redesign of cross-functional financial operations (e.g., student billing, payment plan administration, receivables management, general ledger reconciliation, financial aid disbursement, application configuration) to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, compliance risks, and audit findings.

Design and propose comprehensive process, procedural, and technical solutions that result in measurable improvements in efficiency, accuracy, cost-effectiveness, regulatory compliance, and service delivery to students and stakeholders.

Guide leadership in prioritizing project scope and objectives by presenting clear, data-driven insights and proposed solution roadmaps that align with the institution's strategic goals and compliance requirements.

Spearhead the full lifecycle of requirements management, employing advanced techniques (e.g., use cases, process mapping, data flow diagrams, financial modeling) to document business, functional, and non-functional requirements for financial systems and processes

Serve as the primary Subject Matter Expert (SME), collaborating closely with technical teams to ensure proposed enterprise application configurations and integrated system solutions (e.g., Anthology, Salesforce, Custom Apps, etc) accurately meet documented financial business needs and regulatory requirements.

Develop clear business cases, project charters, and comprehensive documentation to secure project approval and ensure successful solution implementation, financial controls validation, and user adoption.

Facilitate governance, communication, and expectation management between finance departments, student accounts teams, financial aid offices, administrative leaders, and IT teams throughout the project lifecycle.

Champion data integrity, financial controls, audit compliance, federal and state regulatory compliance (including Title IV financial aid regulations, FERPA, PCI-DSS), and security standards across all systems and processes.

Provide leadership and expertise in the selection, configuration, and continuous improvement of critical enterprise applications that underpin student financial operations, accounting functions, and financial aid administration, including routine configurations.

Oversee quality assurance and user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure delivered solutions are accurate, compliant with financial regulations, scalable, and fully meet the defined business requirements and internal controls.

Deliver high-quality training materials, support documentation, and consultation to internal stakeholders, fostering self-service capabilities and high user adoption of financial systems.

Work collaboratively with technical teams and end users to resolve day-to-day issues and tickets related to financial systems, providing timely troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and effective solutions.

Identify and evaluate opportunities to integrate AI agents and tools into funding value stream activities, including automated payment processing, intelligent account reconciliation, and predictive financial analytics.

Collaborate with IT teams to define the business requirements for AI-driven solutions, ensuring ethical use, data governance, financial controls, and relevance to financial outcomes and compliance requirements.

Leverage AI-powered tools for enhanced business analysis, including rapid document summarization, complex financial data pattern identification, anomaly detection, and sophisticated process simulation modeling to accelerate project delivery and improve financial insights

EDUCATION:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Information Systems, or related field required or equivalent experience

KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE:

Broadly knowledgeable about financial operations, student accounts management, financial aid administration, and business analysis within higher education, with demonstrated experience in administering complex cross-functional projects and programs preferred. 5+ years of progressive business analysis experience with demonstrated expertise in financial operations, preferably within higher education or complex multi-entity organizational environments