Senior Systems Analyst

Are you looking for more than just a job and do you want to make a difference? If so, then join the National Student Clearinghouse talent community and discover your impact today!

We are a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization and the leading provider of educational reporting, data exchange, verification, and research services. Serving the education, workforce and learner communities has been at the heart of our mission for over 30 years. Our work - performed in a trusted, secure, and private environment - provides numerous time- and cost-saving benefits to students, schools, administrators, and requestors. Education leaders rely on the Clearinghouse's unique national student data resources to better understand student pathways and outcomes in order to help students succeed, and our research better informs practitioners and policymakers about student educational pathways and enables informed decision making.

Are you passionate about writing great requirements that help develop transformative and innovative IT solutions?

Do you have experience in collaborating with business partners and IT development teams in an Agile environment to deliver complex software applications? If so then the Senior Specialist, Systems Analysis (a.k.a. Senior Systems Analyst) is the right role for you!

The Senior Specialist, Systems Analysis is a crucial role in fostering the strategic partnership between various application development teams and the business. In this role you will be responsible for developing requirements and related business rules for existing and new software solutions that are being strategized by the Clearinghouse business and technology teams. As a subject matter expert for multiple enterprise applications and services and you will work closely with business partners and other subject matter experts in the definition, development, testing, training, implementation, and support of functional requirements. Our solution delivery follows the Agile SCRUM process and SDLC prescribed by the Clearinghouse technology team.

In addition, you will provide cross organizational support as needed, run multiple projects at once, and use creative and innovative methods for analysis, design, documentation, and process improvements. In this role, you'll leverage your knowledge and understanding of multi-tiered system design, application integration and document integration points and dependencies with other systems. Using your understanding of the functionality of existing applications you will also help the Clearinghouse with platform modernization effort by effectively documenting system requirements and interface specifications for the application development teams.

Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

• Contribute to the successful on time, on budget and in scope delivery of business and technology initiatives.
• Accurately represent the needs of the business owner(s) to the software IT development team and vice versa.
• Lead grooming meetings to solicit, review, document, and refine requirements via interviews, workshops, group meetings, and/or existing systems documentation or procedures with product owners, business stakeholders and IT.
• Understand and effectively communicate to project teams and business owners all the data elements utilized by the service.
• Work with business owners and application development teams to drive consensus across multiple stakeholders.
• Serve as the IT Subject Matter Expert for enterprise applications and services managed by Common Services.
• Accountable for presenting timely, accurate project and product information to all levels of stakeholders at the Clearinghouse including but not limited to Executives, Senior Managers, the IT Division, and applicable operational staff.
• Derive business requirements and system requirements from use cases in an agile environment.
• Create, revise, validate, and maintain business flow maps, business requirements, business rules, user stories, user flows, and acceptance criteria.
• Define user personas and develop user stories, use cases with actors and interactions, wireframes, sequence diagrams, and data flow diagrams.
• Produce "as-is" and "to-be" process flow diagrams.
• Define conceptual technical and/or non-functional requirement documents to translate business requirements into technical information that developers can use.
• Document and maintain traceability of requirements and system requirements for enterprise applications interface specifications for enterprise services managed by Common Services.
• Conduct training sessions with internal business user before product release/launch
• Analyze the impact of new business requirements, technology changes on the current applications from both a business and technical perspective.
• Read and write SQL code and perform complex data analysis tasks.
• Work with users and Testers to lead the development of test cases based on documented requirements and perform user acceptance testing during sprints and as part of formal testing activities.
• Collaborate with developers, testers, and business analysts to identify all cross-system interfaces, dependencies and requirements.
• Participate in daily stand-up meetings with technology and other business partners to facilitate the understanding, clarification, and implementation of requirements in an Agile development environment.
• Manages and prioritizes two sprint worth of backlog for application development team by conducting backlog refinement sessions with various business and IT stakeholders
• Maintain the sprint backlog quality with accurate story description and acceptance criteria.
• Demonstrate NSC's competencies, which align with our corporate values.
  
  
  
  • Core Competencies include: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic
  • Manager will provide more detail to candidates as needed.
  
  
  
  

Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

• Bachelor's degree in IT, Business, or a related field, or a combination of education and experience, including through military service will also be considered.
• 5 - 8 years of overall experience within the IT field with at least 5 years of experience soliciting and defining requirements for mission critical business applications across technology.
• Experience:
  
  
  
  • With developing requirements and delivering multiple digital products from conception to launch.
  • Collaborating with cross functional project teams, working directly with stakeholders and translating their needs into solutions that address those needs.
  • Working on complex technology projects and transformation initiatives.
  • Articulating system requirements using system context diagrams, process flow and architecture diagrams.
  • Prototyping and wireframe techniques for use case analysis.
  • Analyzing data for composing targeted and concise reports.
  • Embedding quality controls in work processes to assure uninterrupted operation.
  
  
  
  
• Ability to refine system requirements and perform feasibility assessments.
• Demonstrated proficiency:
  
  
  
  • Working with Agile principles and processes, and merit-based feature evaluations that drive prioritization and decision making.
  • Communicating effectively and confidently with internal stakeholders from all levels of the organization, and external stakeholders to represent the team, department, and company.
  • Managing and prioritizing requirements for multiple projects to ensure successful, timely completion and issue resolution.
  • Working with Microsoft Office Suite and other collaboration tools.
  
  
  
  
• Excellent critical thinking skills and solution oriented.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills; effective presentation skills.
• Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes. Refer to our HR Policies Page, located on our Careers site at https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers/human-resource-policies/, for more details.
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We do not intend to sponsor external applicants for work visas, and may consider sponsorship only if no qualified candidates can be found who are authorized to work without sponsorship.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Additional Desired Requirements:

• Experience in moving in-house applications to cloud architecture preferably AWS.
• Experience with Agile/SCRUM management tools (Rally, Jira, Confluence).
• Certification: Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), or an equivalent certification.

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
• Use of a copy machine and telephone.
• Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day in close proximity to others in an open office environment.
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account, are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays, up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period, and up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year. Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 11 paid holidays per year.

Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications. Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription. There are additional employee benefits too, including but not limited to, mental health and well-being benefits. To find out more, please request a copy of our Benefits at a Glance!

Additionally, we reasonably believe that the salary range for this position is between $120,000 and $150,000.

This job announcement was posted to the National Student Clearinghouse's Careers site at www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers on 3.31.2025 and the online application period will be open for at least 3 days. A completed online application is required to be considered for this opportunity.

Internal Candidates: If you feel that you qualify and meet the requirements of the job, we highly encourage you to apply and focus on preparing for the application process. Once the final candidates are selected, they can anticipate a review of the compensation prior to any offer made.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities: The National Student Clearinghouse is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status (or known to have a spousal, family, business, social or other relationship or association with a protected veteran), sexual orientation, genetic information, arrest record, natural hairstyle, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment.

Pay Transparency Notice: The National Student Clearinghouse is a federal contractor that abides by all applicable equal opportunity laws and regulations. Under these laws, companies doing business with the federal government must provide applicants and employees with certain policies, including the following information. The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)