Project Advisor I

US-CA-Los Angeles

Req No. 2021-7587
Category Professional
Type Full-Time

The Opportunity

We are seeking a talented Project Advisor I to serve as a liaison among project stakeholders in order to understand business process, structure, policies, and operations of the organization with the goal of documenting requirements that will help deliver new and enhanced processes, products, and services. The Project Advisor I is an external, client-facing role which assists in formulating recommendations that enable the organization or business unit to achieve its goals.

What You Can Look Forward to

• Helps define estimate, scope and requirements documentation and uses appropriate templates across all projects.
• Utilizes methods of elicitation, requirements gathering, requirements analysis and solution assessment and validation. Understands stakeholder environment, prioritizing and refining requirements to meet the needs of the client and organization.
• Assists in the evaluation of proposed solutions, ensures initial unit testing of all changes is completed, and further assess the deployed solution to ensure delivered results meet the needs of the business and or client.
• Ensures the development of all project scope and requirement documents are completed and signed off on by internal business partners and clients. Uses an iterative approach, involving business and clients to ensure needs and requirements are well defined.
• Communicates effectively, consistently and iteratively with internal business partners and clients to ensure the understanding of appropriate business processes, requirements, and project timelines.
• Follows change control and appropriate change management processes.
• Develops working relationships with clients and internal business partners/ project team members to effectively communicate and support the successful delivery of CO-OP implementations.
• Adhere to Agile principles and philosophies (Scrum or Kanban, as applicable) in fulfillment of the role.
• Collaborate within the direct team in accordance with Team Agreement, Definition of Ready, and Definition of Done.
• Work as a cross-functional team member in an Agile setting to help complete and deliver the team commitments.
• Collaborate across teams and across business areas in the spirit of an Agile mindset.
• Fulfill the role in the spirit of the Agile Manifesto, with emphasis on delivery of incremental value with frequent iterations and feedback loops.
• Regular and reliable attendance.
• Responsible for reporting risks that are identified to the appropriate team and/or management. Additionally, responsible for managing, monitoring and reporting risks within the scope of your work area, to include, but not limited to Information Security risks.
• Actively supports our CO-OP culture and embraces our core values of Work as Partners, Communicate Openly and Honestly, Demonstrate Excellence and Champion Change in all interactions.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Computer Science plus 2-4 years related work experience, or equivalent training and/or experience.
• In-depth knowledge of one, or multiple areas, of CO-OP Financial Services departments, products and/or services.
• Knowledge of elicitation, requirements management, enterprise analysis, requirements analysis, and solution assessment and validation.
• Knowledge of use cases, process maps, data flow diagrams and ability assist in the creation and documentation of those processes.
• Knowledge of unit testing, integration testing, functional testing and UAT.
• Knowledge of Financial Institution Systems and project management methodologies.
• Understanding of software development methodologies, design and implementation.
• Knowledge of entire development process, including specification, documentation and quality assurance.
• Experience using Microsoft Project, Office and Visio.
• Knowledge of CO-OP Financial Services products and services with experience in an area(s) such as Card Processing Platforms, Vendor Data Sources (FD or FIS), Payment Solutions, Application Programming Interfaces or others not listed.
• Understanding of core systems, applications and technical platforms.
• Exceptional communication, teamwork and influencing skills that foster a collaborative and continuous-improvement environment.
• Organization, presentation and facilitation skills are required.
• Ability to collaborate with departments to identify, document and communicate business needs and provide solutions.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality pertaining to non-public business, financial and technological information, plans or data.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment.
• Ability to listen, understand and respond to external and internal customers’ needs in a timely manner.
• Ability to work the time necessary to complete projects or meet deadlines.
• Ability to manage multiple, concurrent projects, activities and tasks under time constraints.
• 3+ years’ experience as a Business Analyst or in a Project Management role preferred.
• Experience modeling/ mapping as-is and to-be business processes preferred.
• Experience performing current state analysis of existing business systems, applications and functions is a plus.
• Experience in test planning, test case development and execution preferred.
• Experience with both traditional Waterfall SDLC and Agile/ Lean methodologies preferred.
• Knowledge of SharePoint preferred.
• Knowledge of finance, credit card systems and FD data sources is preferred.

Why Join CO-OP?

CO-OP is committed to fostering a workplace where every employee feels valued, respected, and connected. We are dedicated to understanding, attracting and engaging a diverse workforce; ensuring that our employee base reflects the consumers we serve; cultivating a workplace in which every employee can live up to their full potential. The result of this effort is an inclusive environment where diverse talent thrives. You will be part of an organization that focuses on a strong culture and embodies the credit union movement philosophy of People Helping People. CO-OP’s commitment to reflecting our own core values and purpose extends beyond how we serve our clients and the products that we deliver.

With more than 35 years of industry leadership, CO-OP Financial Services is the largest, most comprehensive credit union service organization in the nation. CO-OP serves as THE credit union technology engine, bringing payments solutions, engagement services and strategic counsel to help credit unions optimize member experiences to consistently provide seamless, personalized multi-channel offerings, while delivering secure, sophisticated fraud mitigation service.

CO-OP serves more than 3,000 client credit unions, with 60 million debit and credit cardholders, nearly 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs and more than 5,600 shared branches nationwide. Our vast technological ecosystem facilitates more than 6.5 billion transactions every year and equips credit unions of all sizes to deepen member engagement and prosper in the fast-paced world of fintech.

The Perks

• Fun, challenging and, collaborative work environment with passionate colleagues that care deeply about the intersection of technology and human-centered financial services.
• Great Work/Life Benefits – Paid Time Off (PTO), Maternity, Parental, Family Care, Adoption Leave Programs, Community Volunteer Time Off, and 10 Paid Holidays.
• Health benefits – medical, dental, & vision plus wellness programs and gym reimbursements.
• 401K with generous company match.
• Tuition reimbursement.

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