Business Analyst

About the Role:
As a Business Analyst at Baird, you will play a highly visible, impactful role at the intersection of business and technology, helping shape solutions that drive meaningful outcomes across the firm. We are seeking individuals who bring curiosity, creativity, and sound judgment to operate effectively in a complex, fast-moving environment, and who are energized by turning ambiguity into clarity.

This role is designed for individuals who want to move beyond traditional requirements gathering and act as a true partner to the business, translating evolving needs into clear direction for delivery teams and influencing outcomes along the way. Over time, you will build deep domain expertise and grow into a trusted business proxy, helping teams make informed decisions and maintain momentum, even when direct business input is limited.

This BA role is a member of our Advisory Technology team focused on enabling innovative technology solutions for the fastest-growing area in Private Wealth Management. As a Business Analyst on this team, you’ll have the opportunity to work closely with project management, developers, QA, and product management to deliver impactful tools for our financial advisors. The role involves mapping and modeling data, collaborating across many teams at Baird, and partnering with vendors to bring software solutions to life.

The position requires working from our Milwaukee office a minimum of 3 days per week.

The Impact You'll Make:
Business Analysis & Delivery Leadership:
•    Drive business analysis efforts across a wide range of initiatives, including new capabilities, platform enhancements, operational improvements, and data/reporting solutions
•    Plan and execute discovery activities for complex initiatives, identifying stakeholders, clarifying objectives, and helping clearly articulate success measures in environments with evolving or incomplete information
•    Translate business needs into high-quality artifacts such as documented business requirements, process flows, context diagrams, stakeholder maps, and user stories that enable efficient delivery and clear decision-making
•    Maintain focus on outcomes and value, ensuring day-to-day work remains aligned to business priorities and strategic intent
•    Assess initiative complexity and guide teams in selecting and applying appropriate delivery approaches, balancing structure with flexibility to deliver value efficiently
•    Lead requirements validation and acceptance to ensure delivered solutions meet intended business outcomes

Business Partnership & Domain Expertise:
•    Develop a deep understanding of the supported business domain (Corporate Finance/HR or Equities), including end-to-end workflows and client impacts
•    Serve as a trusted partner and effective business proxy, applying informed judgment to keep delivery moving when direct input is limited
•    Anticipate business questions, surface implications of decisions, and clearly communicate impacts across stakeholders

Communication, Influence & Stakeholder Alignment:
•    Communicate effectively across audiences, including senior business leaders, IT leadership, developers, and external partners
•    Tailor messaging to provide concise, outcome-focused narratives for executives and detailed context for delivery teams
•    Build trust and credibility through preparation, follow-through, and sound judgment
•    Facilitate discussions, resolve misalignment, and escalate appropriately with clear rationale
•    Demonstrate the courage to speak up when teams may be deviating from agreed-upon goals or outcomes
•    Partner with architects and engineers to evaluate solutions, clarify tradeoffs, and ensure business intent is accurately reflected in design

Team Leadership & Culture Building:
•    Contribute to the evolution of team practices by sharing lessons learned and improving analysis and delivery approaches
•    Model a “hungry, humble, and smart” mindset with strong ownership, openness to feedback, and emotional intelligence
•    Actively engage in the Business Analysis community, helping shape standards and grow capability across IT

What You'll Bring to Baird:
•    7+ years of professional experience, including 5+ years in Business Analysis
•    Experience working on projects related to the creation, support and enhancement of web applications. Financial services experience strongly preferred
•    Strong experience with writing business requirements, use cases and user stories 
•    Previous experience with data analysis including writing SQL queries and interpreting results to help answer business questions, troubleshoot and support client data needs
•    Proven ability to quickly learn new business domains and translate complexity into clarity
•    Experience working in agile or iterative delivery environments
•    Exceptional communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills
•    High degree of self-motivation, resilience, and emotional intelligence
•    Curiosity and experience leveraging AI tools to enhance analysis and delivery (e.g., M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, ChatGPT, Claude, Snowflake Cortex)
•    Relevant certifications are a plus but not required (e.g., CBAP, IIBA-AAC, PMI-PBA, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSPO). We prioritize demonstrated skills, experience, and impact, and support continued professional development
•    Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, MIS, Business Administration, Finance, or equivalent experience

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Baird is committed to diversity and provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, military service, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other status protected by law.