Japanese-speaking Functional Analyst

We are seeking an experienced Japanese-speaking Functional Analyst with strong expertise in Fixed Income post-trade processing, settlements, and securities operations within the Japanese market.

The successful candidate will act as the key liaison between Business, Operations, and Technology teams, translating business requirements into functional and technical specifications and ensuring successful delivery of solutions through the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Responsibilities:

• Business Analysis & Stakeholder Engagement:
• Partner with Operations, Finance, and Technology teams to gather, analyze, and document business requirements.
• Translate business needs into detailed functional specifications and high-level technical requirements.
• Facilitate workshops, interviews, and requirement-gathering sessions with Japanese and global stakeholders.
• Ensure proposed solutions align with business strategy, regulatory requirements, and target-state operating models.
• Obtain business sign-off on requirements and manage requirement traceability throughout the project lifecycle.

• Functional Design & Documentation:
• Produce clear and comprehensive functional specifications, process flows, business events, and system interaction diagrams.
• Document current-state and future-state business processes, identifying critical inputs, outputs, controls, and dependencies.
• Create and maintain business-facing documentation including: Functional Specifications, User Manuals, Solution Briefs, Functional Summaries, and Operational Procedures.

• Japanese Fixed Income Domain Expertise:
• Provide subject matter expertise across the Japanese Fixed Income post-trade lifecycle, including Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs), Corporate Bonds, Cash Trades, Repo Transactions, Buy/Sell-Back (B/L), Gensaki Transactions.
• Support business initiatives, regulatory changes, and operational improvements impacting settlement processes.

• Settlement Operations & Securities Processing:
• Demonstrate expertise in: Securities Settlements, Fail Management & Financing, Securities Borrowing & Lending, Inventory Control, Custody Operations, Books and Records Management, Corporate Actions Processing, Settlement Risk Management.

• Market Infrastructure Knowledge:
• Maintain strong understanding of Japanese market infrastructure, including Clearing Houses and Central Counterparties (CCPs), Depositories and Custody Networks, Japanese Settlement Market Practices and Regulations.

• Testing & Quality Assurance:
• Ensure all business requirements are testable and fully traceable.
• Design business test scenarios, test objectives, and acceptance criteria.
• Prepare and execute System Integration Testing (SIT), Functional Testing, UAT coordination.
• Support business users during testing cycles and peak operational periods.
• Review interface testing results between multiple applications and external systems.
• Produce test completion and test exit reports.

• Technology & Application Support:
• Collaborate with development teams and vendors throughout the development lifecycle.
• Provide functional guidance during solution design, implementation, and deployment.
• Support release management and production deployments.
• Investigate functional issues, perform root cause analysis, and coordinate remediation activities.
• Work closely with Application Management teams on production incidents, enhancements, and defect resolution.

• Project Delivery & Governance:
• Track open issues, assumptions, risks, and dependencies.
• Coordinate resolution across Project Managers, Architects, Development Teams, and Business Stakeholders.
• Assist project management teams in prioritizing change requests and delivery milestones.
• Ensure compliance with SDLC standards, governance controls, and audit requirements.

Requirements:

• 5+ years' experience in IT in large corporate environments, specifically in the area of controlled production environments or in Financial Services Technology in a client-facing function.
• Extensive experience in Fixed Income post-trade processing and settlement operations within the Japanese market.
• Exposure to vendor-managed settlement systems and market infrastructure integration.
• Experience working with Japanese vendors & Japan Regulatory applications like JASDEC, BOJ & JSCC.
• Experience in requirements analysis, solution design, testing, and production support.
• Ability to interpret technical specifications and assess business impact.
• Fundamental technology understanding e.g. Java, MQ, SFTP, Oracle, SQL, OS (Linux, Windows Server) and Cloud computing.
• Fluent Japanese (Business level or Native).
• Fluent English (Business level).
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of delivery outcomes.
• Collaborative mindset with experience working across global and regional teams.
• Flexible and willing to support critical business activities during peak periods or project milestones.
• Educated to University degree level.

Benefits:

• Corporate Group Insurance – premium borne by company.
• Annual health checkup – cost borne by company (once a year; conditions apply).
• Flexible Work Arrangements – various ways to work, to fit employees’ needs.
• Child care and elderly care benefits – corporate discount through designated child care & elderly care vendors.
• EAP – free and confidential counseling, online work-life resources.
• Employee networks – Diversity, volunteering, sports, family care - various activities to participate.
• Special leaves entitlement.