Lead Data Business Analyst / Data Subject Matter Expert - Citi

About the Role

Discover your future at Citi
Working at Citi is far more than just a job. A career with us means joining a team of approximately 219,000 dedicated people from around the globe. At Citi, you'll have the opportunity to grow your career, give back to your community and make a real impact.

Job Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced and analytical Lead Data Business Analyst / Data Subject Matter Expert (SME) with 10+ years of proven experience in data analysis, business analysis, and data architecture within enterprise data ecosystems.

In this role, you will serve as the core Subject Matter Expert for Client and Account data flows, end-to-end data lineage, transaction processing, and data governance. You will bridge the gap between business stakeholders, operations, technology teams, and data engineering to ensure data accuracy, optimal pipeline design, compliance, and actionable business intelligence.

What you'll do

• Data Domain Expertise & Data Flow Architecture
  • Serve as the principal SME for Client Master Data, Account Hierarchies, Account Onboarding/Offboarding, KYC/Entity reference data, and downstream data flows.
  • Map, document, and maintain end-to-end data lineage and data flow diagrams from source ingestion (CRM, core banking, client onboarding systems) through operational data stores, data lakes/warehouses, to downstream reporting and regulatory consumers.
  • Identify data bottlenecks, discrepancies, latency issues, and breakage points across distributed applications and data pipelines.
• Advanced Data Analysis & SQL Engineering
  • Write complex, high-performance SQL queries, stored procedures, CTEs, and window functions across relational and distributed databases (e.g., Oracle, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Teradata) to perform data discovery, reconciliation, profiling, and root-cause analysis.
  • Conduct comprehensive data profiling, variance analysis, gap analysis, and trend identification to validate system migrations and data feed integrity.
  • Define and implement automated data quality rules, validation scripts, and reconciliation frameworks.
• Business Analysis & Stakeholder Management
  • Lead requirement gathering sessions with business leaders, compliance teams, operations, and product managers; translate ambiguous business problems into precise technical specifications, BRDs (Business Requirement Documents), and FRDs (Functional Requirement Documents).
  • Define user stories, acceptance criteria, and data dictionary/mapping specifications for engineering and scrum teams in an Agile/Scrum environment.
  • Lead User Acceptance Testing (UAT) planning, create complex data test cases, validate data cutover strategies, and oversee test execution.
• Data Governance, Metadata & Quality
  • Partner with Data Governance teams to ensure compliance with enterprise data standards, data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA), and financial regulatory reporting frameworks (e.g., BCBS 239, Reg reporting).
  • Define critical data elements (CDEs), data ownership models, business glossaries, and metadata catalogs for the Client and Account data domains.

What we'll need from you

• Total Experience: 10+ years of experience as a Data Analyst, Business Analyst, Data SME, or Technical Data Consultant in enterprise environments (preferably Financial Services, Banking, FinTech, or Consulting).
• Technical Mastery (SQL): Expert-level proficiency in SQL (complex joins, aggregations, window functions, query optimization, indexing, and debugging data pipelines).
• Domain Knowledge: In-depth, hands-on domain expertise in Client & Account Data Models, including:
  • Client hierarchy management (Ultimate Parent, Immediate Parent, Subsidiary levels).
  • Account lifecycles (Creation, Maintenance, Settlement/Clearing, Status Transitions, Closure).
  • Counterparty reference data, Party master data, Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) handling.
• Data Flow & Modeling: Proven track record in reverse-engineering data models, creating Entity-Relationship (ER) diagrams, and mapping source-to-target data interfaces (STTM).
• Tools & Methodologies:
  • Proficiency in Agile/Scrum delivery models and tools (Jira, Confluence).
  • Experience with BI and Data Visualization platforms (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or Qlik).
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with proven ability to influence senior business executives and technical leads alike.

What we can offer you
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