| Job title | Senior Business Analyst, Product Development |
| Reporting to | Director of Product Development |
| Years of experience | 7+ |
| Location | Toronto – Hybrid work environment (3 days in office and 2 days remote.) |
| Position type | Full-Time, 12-month contract |
| Compensation | $100,000 - $120,000 |
About Raising The Village
Raising The Village (RTV) is an international development organization working to end ultra‑poverty in last‑mile rural communities across sub‑Saharan Africa. Our 24‑month universal graduation programs combine targeted material support with agency‑building interventions to help households move durably out of ultra‑poverty.
About the Venn Platform
RTV is investing in the next generation of Venn, an integrated platform for program delivery, monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
What sets Venn apart is its unique ability to unify two critical domains:
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL): The measurement frameworks, indicators, instruments, and learning loops that drive continuous program improvement.
- Systems: The applications, data infrastructure, and data science capabilities that power and operationalize those frameworks.
Getting this platform right has direct consequences for program delivery at scale across multiple countries.
Position Overview
As the Venn platform scales across multiple countries and partner organizations, RTV needs a Senior Business Analyst, Product Development to serve as the connective tissue between technical teams and program stakeholders. You will own requirements discovery from intake to delivery, shape the product backlog, and ensure that what gets built maps to real field realities and program outcomes.
In this role, you will play a pivotal part in translating complex socio-economic development data into seamless digital workflows that directly empower last-mile communities. Your ability to navigate both technical architectures and human-centric design will be critical as we refine a platform capable of operating in low-connectivity, resource-constrained environments. Ultimately, your work will ensure that our scaling efforts remain deeply rooted in operational excellence and measurable social impact.
This is a high-visibility, 12-month contract role. Your primary collaborators are the Platform Architect, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, and Product teams.
Key Responsibilities
1. Requirements Gathering & Analysis
- Lead intake sessions - Facilitate structured discovery with Leadership, Platform Architect, Engineering, Programs, Field Teams, and Partners to surface workflows, data needs, and pain points.
- Translate domain logic - Convert program and operational concepts into structured, actionable requirements.
- Own documentation - Document functional and non-functional requirements and user stories; ensure documentation is versioned, searchable, and aligned with governance standards.
2. Product Definition & Roadmapping
- Define features - Write product features, user stories, acceptance criteria, and success metrics.
- Manage the backlog - Maintain and prioritize the product backlog in alignment with RTV's strategic goals.
- Architecture alignment - Collaborate with the Platform Architect to ensure requirements are feasible, scalable, and technically sound.
- Data Alignment - Work with Data Engineers to ensure cleaning rules, transformations, and metadata reflect program logic.
3. Cross‑Functional Coordination
- Bridge technical and program teams - Act as the connector between engineering teams and program stakeholders, translating in both directions.
- Workshop facilitation - Lead workshops, design reviews, and sprint planning sessions.
- Communication management - Ensure clear, documented communication of timelines, risks, and decisions to all stakeholders.
4. User Experience & Adoption
- Conduct user research - Run user interviews, usability testing, and feedback cycles with internal teams and field partners.
- Advocate for usability - Ensure platform features are intuitive, accessible, and grounded in field realities.
- Stakeholder onboarding - Lead training and onboarding for internal teams and partners on new platform capabilities.
5. Quality Assurance & Release Readiness
- Define acceptance criteria - Work with QA teams to build test plans aligned to requirements.
- Validate releases - Review and sign off on platform releases before deployment.
- Support rollouts - Ensure smooth delivery of new capabilities across countries and partner organizations.
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years in Business Analysis or Product Management, with demonstrated experience owning requirements end-to-end in multi-team, multi-phase technical programs.
- Post-secondary degree in Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Technology or relevant discipline/equivalent
- Strong understanding of data engineering concepts and cloud platforms.
- Familiarity with MEL frameworks, program monitoring, or evaluation design in development contexts.
- Proven ability to translate business and program requirements into technical specifications.
- Experience writing user stories, acceptance criteria, and process maps.
- Strong facilitation skills; comfortable leading sessions with diverse stakeholder groups including senior leaders and technical specialists.
- Experience with Agile delivery frameworks (Scrum and Kanban).
- Proficiency with project and product management tools such as Jira, ClickUp, or equivalent.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in international development, social impact, or NGO environments.
- Experience with low-connectivity or field-facing software products.
- Background in data governance, metadata management, or data quality frameworks.
- CBAP, PMI-PBA, or equivalent professional certification.
