Senior Business Analyst

Ciklum is looking for a Senior Business Analyst to join our team full-time in Bulgaria.

We are a custom product engineering company that supports both multinational organizations and scaling startups to solve their most complex business challenges. With a global team of over 4,000 highly skilled developers, consultants, analysts and product owners, we engineer technology that redefines industries and shapes the way people live.

About the role:

As a Senior Business Analyst, to join our cross-functional development team. In this role, you will be at the forefront of building an innovative, next-generation fintech platform designed to redefine how users interact with digital financial services. We are focused on engineering a robust, high-performance solution that empowers users with seamless, real-time access to transaction services, secure, modern banking ecosystems, and global payment capabilities.

Responsibilities:

• End-to-End BA Ownership: Plan, estimate, and execute Business Analysis activities across all SDLC stages, managing requirements from initial ideation through to final acceptance and ongoing maintenance
• Payment-related Feature Definition: Define business needs and core objectives for critical payment workflows, checkout features, and transaction processing
• Scope & Backlog Ownership: Manage the product backlog from definition through execution, perform backlog prioritisation and refinement, contribute directly to the solution roadmap, and tightly manage the solution scope to prevent scope creep
• Process Modelling: Model requirements and technical workflows by using the most applicable notation, specifically UML and BPMN, tailored to complex financial interactions
• Framework Design: Define Business Analysis approaches and processes from scratch, establish high-quality Information Architecture for project documentation, ensure overall requirements quality, and define clear change management procedures
• User-Centric Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Managers, Product Designers, and User Researchers utilising customer journey mapping to deliver coherent, high-impact payment experiences
• Agile Facilitation: Collaborate closely with the development team, lead and facilitate Agile ceremonies, ensuring delivery methodology effectiveness and focus on business value
• Stakeholder Management: Secure strong stakeholder engagement, establish and drive effective collaboration frameworks across all participating business and technical groups

Requirements:

Domain & Payments Specialisation:

• Financial Domain Expertise: Proven experience in the financial industry, with a mandatory specialisation in digital banking and payments systems
• POS & Terminal Systems: Experience with card/payment terminals, MPOS and SoftPOS would be advantageous
• Payment Gateways & Integrations: Deep experience analysing and documenting integrations with third-party Payment Service Providers (PSPs), acquiring banks, or international payment gateways (e.g., Stripe, Adyen, PayPal)
• Transaction Lifecycle Knowledge: Strong understanding of end-to-end payment processing, including authorisation, capture, clearing, settlement, and ledger reconciliation
• Alternative Payment Methods (APMs): Hands-on experience defining requirements for digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), instant peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, or Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services
• Compliance & Standards: Practical understanding of payment security regulations and compliance standards (such as PCI-DSS, PSD2/PSD3, KYC/AML frameworks) and strong customer authentication (SCA)

Regional Market Expertise (at least one of them):

• US Payment Ecosystem: Deep understanding of the US multi-rail payment infrastructure, including real-time rails (FedNow, The Clearing House RTP), clearing house mechanisms (ACH, Same-Day ACH), and wholesale clearing systems (Fedwire, CHIPS). Practical familiarity with US regulatory oversight bodies (FRB, CFPB, FinCEN) and compliance requirements (Regulation E, Bank Secrecy Act/AML)
• EU Payment Ecosystem & Regulations: Comprehensive knowledge of European payment frameworks, with a strong focus on the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR / SEPA Instant), ISO 20022 standard migrations (including structured postal address criteria), and evolving open finance directives (PSD2/PSD3, PSR, and FiDA)

Core Business Analysis Capabilities:

• Lifecycle Setup: Comprehensive experience in setting up Business Analysis processes and approaches across elicitation, decomposition, modelling, documentation, traceability, prioritisation, and change management
• Lifecycle Management: Vast experience in setting up requirements lifecycle management alongside high proficiency in requirements documentation, structure definition, and template creation
• Phase Leadership: Proven experience in Pre-sales and Discovery phases, maintaining full ownership of BA tasks and deliverables
• AI Tool Integration: Experience in selecting, configuring, and applying AI-powered tools to accelerate BA deliverables without compromising quality
• AI Innovation Mindset: Readiness to continuously explore emerging AI capabilities and embed them into BA workflows to shorten analysis cycles, improve clarity, and enhance traceability across the delivery lifecycle
• Technical Modelling: Advanced skills in UML and BPMN modelling with the agility to shift approaches based on project context
• Methodology Mastery: Deep expertise in BA techniques, best practices, and flexible Agile product delivery

Desirable:

• Architecture: Solid knowledge of major architectural types (such as microservices, API-led connectivity, or event-driven financial systems)
• Databases: Practical experience in working with main database types and writing database/SQL queries to validate transaction structures
• AI Product Development: Technical understanding or practical experience in developing AI-based features and AI-driven products (e.g., predictive analytics, intelligent fraud detection, or conversational AI for financial applications)
• Financial Standards: Familiarity with financial messaging standards (e.g., ISO 20022, SWIFT) or open banking API specifications

Personal skills:

• Stakeholder Engagement: Proven ability to work with different groups of stakeholders, including C-level, along with experience in setting up a structured stakeholder management approach
• Structured Communication: Fluent or upper-intermediate English language proficiency, with an ability to express complex financial and technical ideas simply, concisely, and in a structured way
• Accountability: High level of personal accountability for your own scope of work, strictly following the "said and done" principle
• Growth Mindset: Eager to learn and grow, naturally curious, keen on constant self-development, and proactive in suggesting new ideas or alternative solutions
• Leadership & Mentorship: Capable of assessing the tasks of less experienced colleagues and providing constructive feedback

What’s in it for you?

• Regular salary reviews based on performance
• Corporate events: webinars, offline parties, and meetups
• Internal Mobility Program
• Tailored education path (including full access to Udemy, certifications, etc.)
• 25 paid days off: 20 business days of vacation per calendar year + 5 undocumented sick leave days
• Additional health insurance
• 100% company-covered Multisport card, with discounts available for family members

About us:

At Ciklum, we are always exploring innovations, empowering each other to achieve more, and engineering solutions that matter. With us, you’ll work with cutting-edge technologies, contribute to impactful projects, and be part of a One Team culture that values collaboration and progress.

Since expanding to Bulgaria in 2022, we’ve been building a fast-growing team that thrives on learning, collaboration, and innovation. Join us on this exciting journey and help shape the future of our delivery center.

Explore, empower, engineer with Ciklum!

Interested already? We would love to get to know you! Submit your application. We can’t wait to see you at Ciklum.