Application Strategist

We are seeking an accomplished Senior Application Strategist to join our SMA Engineering team. This senior role will help define and advance the strategic direction of the Allspring SMA application suite by partnering with business stakeholders, subject matter experts, engineers, designers, testers, and leaders across the firm.

The Senior Application Strategist will translate complex investment and operational needs into clear requirements, scalable solutions, and executable delivery plans. The role will provide leadership across the full application lifecycle, from discovery and solution design through implementation, quality assurance, production support, and continuous improvement. Success requires sound judgment, strong technical and analytical capabilities, disciplined execution, and the ability to communicate effectively with both business and technology audiences.

We currently operate in a hybrid working model, whereby you will be required to work in-office 4 days per week.

Location(s):

Data Analysis and Process Improvement

• Analyze investment, account, security, and operational data to identify business needs, data-quality concerns, control gaps, and opportunities for improvement.
• Evaluate existing business processes and application workflows, anticipate emerging requirements, and recommend practical improvements that increase accuracy, efficiency, scalability, and user experience.
• Use data-driven analysis to validate issues, assess solution options, and support informed business and technology decisions.

1. Requirements and Business Analysis

• Lead the discovery, documentation, validation, and prioritization of business, functional, data, and nonfunctional requirements.
• Translate business objectives into precise technical specifications, process flows, user stories, acceptance criteria, and implementation-ready documentation.
• Maintain end-to-end traceability of requirements, decisions, dependencies, risks, issues, and enhancements throughout the delivery lifecycle.

1. Forward Delivery & Strategic Execution

• Define and drive the application roadmap by partnering with business stakeholders, product owners, and engineering teams to prioritize strategic initiatives and translate business objectives into actionable delivery plans.
• Lead the planning, coordination, and execution of new capabilities, platform enhancements, modernization efforts, and process improvements while actively managing delivery risks, dependencies, timelines, and stakeholder expectations.
• Champion continuous improvement, automation, and operational efficiency initiatives that enhance application functionality, scalability, user experience, and measurable business value.
• Establish clear success measures, monitor delivery outcomes, and adjust priorities or execution plans as needed to sustain alignment with strategic objectives and business needs.

1. Stakeholder Communication and Collaboration

• Serve as a trusted liaison between business stakeholders, product partners, engineering teams, quality assurance, operations, and other cross-functional groups.
• Communicate strategies, recommendations, delivery status, risks, decisions, and implementation impacts clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Facilitate productive working sessions, build alignment across competing priorities, and drive decisions to timely resolution.

1. Production Support and Quality Assurance

• Provide front-line technical and functional support, rapidly triaging production incidents, identifying root causes, assessing business impact, and coordinating issues through resolution.
• Lead and oversee quality assurance activities, including test planning, test-case development, defect triage, regression validation, and readiness assessments.
• Plan and coordinate user acceptance testing cycles, establish clear entry and exit criteria, manage issue resolution, and secure stakeholder approval before release.
• Develop and maintain clear, accurate help guides, support pages, release communications, troubleshooting resources, and operational documentation that improve user adoption and support readiness.
• Identify recurring support themes and convert production lessons into sustainable process, documentation, monitoring, and application improvements.

Core Capabilities

• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex investment data, application behavior, and business processes and convert findings into actionable solutions.
• Advanced business analysis skills, including requirements elicitation, process analysis, user-story development, acceptance-criteria definition, and solution-impact assessment.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, with demonstrated ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and influence stakeholders at multiple levels.
• Strong organizational and delivery skills, with the ability to manage concurrent priorities, dependencies, risks, and deadlines in a complex environment.
• Demonstrated ownership, sound judgment, attention to detail, and a proactive approach to resolving issues and improving outcomes.

Technical and Documentation Skills

• Strong SQL knowledge, including the ability to query, reconcile, validate, and troubleshoot data across relational data sets.
• Proficient in documenting and tracking requirements, user stories, issues, defects, decisions, and enhancements using Jira and Confluence.
• Experienced in documenting workflows, system interactions, business processes, and solution designs using visual collaboration and diagramming tools such as Miro and Microsoft Visio.
• Working knowledge of software delivery practices, quality assurance, user acceptance testing, production support, incident management, and change or release processes.
• Ability to create concise, user-centered help content and technical documentation for business users, support teams, and technology partners.

Experience and Education

• Five or more years of experience in investment management, financial services technology, application strategy, business analysis, product delivery, or a related discipline.
• Experience supporting investment applications or separately managed account platforms is strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in business administration, finance, computer science, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Please note: This position does not offer sponsorship for employment visas. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in The United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Base Pay Range: $110,000 - $130,000

Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, base salary internal peers, prior performance, business sector, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, the competitive compensation package may include, depending on the role, participation in an incentive program linked to performance (for example, annual discretionary bonus programs, or other annual or non-annual incentive or sales plans.)

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We are an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment regardless of age, race, color, national origin, sex, religion, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected status