Our client, a leading financial services organization, is seeking a Operational Readiness & Test Analyst to support technology delivery and readiness initiatives across Custody, Settlements, and Asset Servicing. This is a daily rate contract for 10 months.
Hybrid: 3 days per week onsite.
Key Responsibilities:
Operational Readiness & Testing
* Validate that all business and operational requirements for custody, settlements, and corporate actions are met prior to go-live.
* Conduct end-to-end validation across trade capture, settlement, and asset servicing workflows to confirm system readiness and operational integrity.
* Design, prepare, and execute operational readiness test cases that simulate real-world business scenarios and production workflows.
* Perform Functional, UAT, and regression testing, ensuring alignment with business expectations and operational processes.
* Support dress rehearsals, dry runs, and go-live validation as part of release cycles.
* Assess and document operational impacts, dependencies, and business readiness for deployment.
Defect & Issue Management
* Log, track, and manage defects using JIRA, ensuring issues are well-documented, prioritized, and resolved ahead of deployment.
* Collaborate with business analysts, developers, and operations teams to ensure defects are accurately assessed and verified.
* Maintain structured test evidence and sign-off documentation for audit and compliance reviews.
Collaboration & Continuous Improvement
* Partner closely with Operations, Product, and IT teams to align testing outcomes with business readiness objectives.
* Participate in test planning, readiness assessments, and change control reviews to support controlled production releases.
* Identify process or control gaps uncovered during testing and recommend operational improvements.
* Contribute to the continuous improvement of operational readiness frameworks and testing standards.
Required Skills & Experience
* 3+ years of experience in testing, business readiness, or implementation roles within custody, settlements, or asset servicing.
* Strong understanding of financial instruments and the transaction lifecycle, including trade capture, confirmation, settlement, and corporate actions.
* Demonstrated experience performing end-to-end business process validation in a financial operations environment.
* Proficient with JIRA for defect tracking, testing documentation, and project visibility.
* Working knowledge of SQL for data verification and reconciliation testing.
* Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a structured approach to scenario analysis and issue resolution.
* Effective communicator able to liaise between technical, business, and operations teams.
* Experience working within Agile or hybrid project delivery frameworks.
Preferred Qualifications
* Hands-on experience in Operational Readiness Testing (ORT) or Business Readiness Assessments within financial institutions.
* Knowledge of SWIFT messaging, corporate actions processing, and reconciliation workflows.
* ISTQB certification or relevant qualification in testing or operational excellence.