Lead Business Analyst - Trade Finance

Job description / Role

We are looking for someone to lead end-to-end business analysis for Trade Finance digitisation initiatives, leveraging strong domain expertise across Letters of Credit, Collections, Open Account Financing, Export Financing and Islamic Trade Finance. The role is responsible for translating business requirements into functional specifications, designing end-to-end trade workflows, defining system integrations with core banking platforms such as T24, SWIFT and other banking applications, and ensuring operational controls, regulatory compliance and successful implementation through SIT, UAT and go-live.

Key responsibilities

• Lead requirements gathering, analysis and documentation for Trade Finance products and business processes.
• Define end-to-end workflows covering transaction initiation, validation, approvals, processing, financing, settlement and closure.
• Prepare Business Requirement Documents (BRDs), Functional Specification Documents (FSDs), process flows, use cases and user stories.
• Work closely with Trade Finance Product, Operations, Compliance, Risk, IT and technology vendors to translate business needs into functional solutions.
• Define system requirements and integration points with core banking systems (T24), SWIFT, sanctions screening, limits, collateral and document management platforms.
• Ensure appropriate controls for transaction processing, document verification, four-eyes approvals, duplicate financing prevention and audit trails.
• Support the design and implementation of Conventional and Islamic Trade Finance products, ensuring adherence to Sharia principles wherever applicable.
• Review functional designs and specifications to ensure alignment with approved business requirements.
• Lead functional discussions, resolve business queries and support defect prioritisation during development and testing.
• Drive SIT, UAT, test scenario preparation, defect management and business sign-off.
• Identify process gaps, operational inefficiencies and opportunities for workflow automation and digital transformation.
• Leverage AI-enabled tools for requirements analysis, process mapping and indicative UI/UX wireframe development.
• Support implementation partners throughout delivery, deployment and post-go-live stabilisation.

Requirements

• Overall experience in banking or financial services, primarily in business analysis, including at least six years in the trade finance space, covering Letters of Credit, documentary collections and trade financing programmes.
• Islamic Trade Finance experience is essential: hands-on delivery of Islamic trade products such as Murabaha-based LCs or trade financing, including working with a Sharia supervisory board or committee on product structures and controls.
• Experience leading business analysis on at least two end-to-end Trade Finance implementations, such as trade portals, trade workflows or core banking trade modules, from requirements through go-live.
• Awareness of Temenos T24 Trade Finance modules is preferred, though not essential.
• A track record of crafting digital journeys and shaping product backlogs in a product owner or proxy product owner capacity.
• Hands-on use of generative AI tools in business analysis, including drafting requirements, process flows and indicative wireframes, within appropriate data and control boundaries.
• Experience specifying SWIFT trade messaging, sanctions screening and trade-based money laundering controls.
• UAE or wider GCC banking experience is strongly preferred, with working familiarity with CBUAE regulatory expectations.