IT Lead Business Analyst Data Lake Platform Migration (Cloudera to Cloud)

Title: IT Lead Business Analyst Data Lake Platform Migration (Cloudera to Cloud)

Preferred New Jersey

Role Overview

The IT Lead Business Analyst Data Lake Platform Migration will work at the intersection of business stakeholders, data engineering teams, and cloud technology to support the migration of an on premise Cloudera-based data lake platform to a modern cloud-based analytics ecosystem (e.g., Databricks, Cloudera).

This role combines business analysis, technical understanding of data platforms, and basic project management activities to ensure successful planning, execution, and value realization of the migration initiative. The incumbent will translate business and technical requirements into clear user stories, support delivery teams through the migration lifecycle, and help coordinate activities, timelines, and dependencies across multiple stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Business Analysis & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with business, analytics, and data engineering stakeholders to understand current-state data usage, reporting needs, and future-state cloud analytics requirements.
• Elicit, analyze, and document functional and non-functional requirements related to data ingestion, transformation, storage, governance, and consumption.
• Translate complex technical and business needs into clear, business-language user stories, use cases, and acceptance criteria.
• Act as a primary liaison between IT delivery teams and business partners to ensure shared understanding of scope, priorities, and outcomes.

Data Platform & Migration Support

• Support the migration of the enterprise data lake from Cloudera on-premise to a cloud platform (e.g., Databricks, Cloudera), ensuring continuity of critical data pipelines and analytics workloads.
• Collaborate with architects and engineers to document current-state data flows, dependencies, and constraints.
• Contribute to future-state design discussions by providing business and analytical context to technical teams.
• Validate migrated data pipelines and analytics outputs against business requirements.

Technical Collaboration

• Work closely with data engineers and platform teams using Cloudera, Databricks, and Python-based frameworks.
• Review and validate technical designs, data mappings, and transformation logic from a business and analytical perspective.
• Support data quality, reconciliation, and validation activities during and after migration.

Project Management & Delivery Support

• Perform basic project management activities, including:
  • Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
  • Supporting planning and sequencing of migration waves
  • Identifying and escalating risks and issues
  • Providing regular status updates
• Ensure stakeholders are aligned on roadmaps, timelines, interdependencies, and key decisions.
• Contribute to status reporting, governance forums, and migration readiness assessments.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Data & Analytics, Business, or a related field.
• 4+ years of experience in a Business Analyst or similar role supporting data, analytics, or platform initiatives.
• Hands-on technical knowledge and practical experience with:
  • Cloudera (on-premise or cloud-based platforms)
  • Databricks (or similar cloud-based analytics platforms)
  • Python (for data analysis, validation, or pipeline understanding)
• Experience working with data lake concepts, ETL/ELT pipelines, and analytics ecosystems.
• Strong experience defining and documenting requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria for technical solutions.
• Familiarity with Agile delivery methodologies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting cloud migration programs, especially data or analytics platform migrations.
• Exposure to cloud providers (Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform) and modern data architectures.
• Understanding of data governance, security, and compliance considerations in cloud environments.
• Experience working in hybrid roles that combine business analysis and light project coordination.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences.

Key Skills & Competencies

• Business Analysis & Requirements Engineering
• Data Lake & Analytics Platforms
• Cloudera, Databricks, Python
• Stakeholder Management
• Agile Delivery
• Migration Planning & Dependency Management
• Risk & Issue Tracking
• Documentation & Communication