Product Business Analyst

Department: Information Systems
Reports to: Manager, DevOps Marketing Cloud/Engagement
FLSA Status: Exempt
 
The anticipated salary for this position starts at $76,900+ for the Analyst role. The final pay will be determined based on several factors, including qualifications, experience, education, and years within the job or industry, with a strong emphasis on maintaining internal equity.
 
Who we are and what we’re about:
KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization and the official fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas.  We partner with donors in providing philanthropic support to build a greater KU.

As an employee of KU Endowment, you’ll witness firsthand the power of our donors’ generosity.  You will join a talented and fun group of people who are inspired to help KU through the support of loyal alumni and friends.  This support fuels excellence, enabling students and faculty to develop innovative programs and research that distinguish the university.  We connect the philanthropic passions of donors with the needs of students, faculty and programs – and everyone benefits.

People are engaged. Purpose is ignited.  Lives are changed.
 
What we are looking for:
As KU Endowment continues to stabilize and optimize its advancement technology ecosystem, the Product Business Analyst – Marketing and Engagement position plays a critical role in translating advancement engagement priorities into clearly defined, actionable system development requirements across KU Endowment’s outreach platforms. An effective Business Analyst ensures stabilization and roadmap initiatives are rapidly scoped, prioritized, and documented so the product and engineering teams can deliver solutions that improve fundraising operations.
 
This role will focus on engagement platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud and additional messaging tools that power donor and alumni outreach. The position also plays an important role in supporting scalable audience operations and engagement architecture across enterprise outreach systems.
 
A successful Business Analyst will partner closely with advancement stakeholders to translate operational challenges into clearly defined user stories and acceptance criteria, to populate a backlog that enables faster delivery and reduced rework.
 
The preferred Business Analyst candidate should bring advancement domain knowledge into daily collaboration with IS and the product team, ensuring roadmap initiatives are shaped by engagement best practices and aligned with the evolving strategic plan at KU Endowment.
 
Reporting to the Manager, DevOps – Marketing Cloud/Engagement, this role ensures roadmap initiatives supporting alumni and donor communications, segmentation, and campaign operations are well-scoped and aligned with fundraising and engagement goals. This position partners closely with BrandComm, Donor Engagement, and other advancement services teams to translate outreach needs into scalable platform capabilities.
 
The individual in this position is expected to embrace KU Endowment’s stated core values – collaboration, curiosity, empowerment, and excellence – and demonstrate support for them through professional interactions and activities. 
 
Hybrid Work Environment: 
Following the initial training period, this position offers a hybrid work schedule, with the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. However, the role requires multiple days per week on-site at our Lawrence, KS office to ensure effective collaboration, team engagement, and alignment with organizational goals. 
 
What’s a typical day look like?

• Collaborate with advancement stakeholders across the university ecosystem to gather and document requirements related to donor and alumni communications, audience segmentation, engagement journeys, and outreach operations.
• Support the campaign and journey development lifecycle by translating outreach plans into documented requirements, audience logic, and system workflows.
• Support audience data design, segmentation strategy, and campaign workflow development within enterprise engagement systems.
• Work closely with the product and engineering teams to translate requirements into prioritized backlog items, ensuring roadmap initiatives are well-defined and aligned with strategic advancement objectives.
• Translate business needs into functional specifications and wireframes that communicate clear expectations to technical and non-technical team members.
• Conduct process analysis and workflow mapping to identify opportunities for system improvements, automation, or standardization across advancement operations.
• Support system testing and validation, including execution of user acceptance testing (UAT), and documentation of results to ensure solutions meet defined acceptance criteria.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., CRM, advancement services, analytics, and marketing operations) to ensure engagement platforms integrate effectively with ecosystem platforms.
• Provide tools and documentation to assist in training and onboarding efforts for new system features, reports, or tools.
• Monitor performance of deployed solutions and recommend iterative improvements based on feedback, performance metrics, and evolving business needs.

• Regular and reliable attendance is essential for this position.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Project Management, or related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• 3+ years of business analysis experience supporting product, program or technology teams — preferably in fundraising, CRM, or higher education.
• Demonstrated experience eliciting requirements and writing user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Strong proficiency with documentation tools (e.g., Word, SnagIt, Microsoft Office Suite).
• Excellent analytical and communication skills, including presenting technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

• Working knowledge of agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban).
• Prior experience in nonprofit advancement, or within a complex development ecosystem.
• Experience working with marketing automation or engagement platforms such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, Marketo or similar tools.
• Familiarity with audience segmentation, campaign workflows, and marketing audience data structures.
• Experience using Jira or similar product management tools to document requirements, manage backlogs, and support agile development workflows.

• Capable of interpreting complex business processes and translating them into clear functional requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Understands engagement platform concepts such as audience segmentation, journey orchestration, campaign automation, and message personalization.
• Skilled at asking probing questions that clarify the “why” behind needs and uncovering assumptions.
• Effective in leading discussions with business users and technical partners.
• Communicates complex ideas clearly in both written and verbal formats to diverse audiences.
• Understands agile principles and the flow of user stories, sprint planning, and backlog refinement.
• Works collaboratively with the Product Owner to surface, prioritize, and detail user stories.
• Sees patterns, identifies root causes, and proposes solutions that balance stakeholder needs with technical feasibility.
• Thrives in iterative environments where requirements evolve with feedback and learning.
• Ability to establish and maintain professional and effective working relationships inside and outside KU Endowment.
• Ability to adapt to new procedures and technology.

• A valid driver’s license.
• Must have access to reliable transportation to travel between multiple locations for training and/or work-related activities.
• Must be able to respond quickly and effectively to directions and safety hazards.

• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office productivity machinery such as computers, keyboards and a mouse, laptops, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.
• This is largely a sedentary role; however, some filing is required. This would require the ability to move files, open filing cabinets and bend or stand as necessary.

• The ability to observe details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

• Must be able to communicate with others effectively.
• Physical effort/lifting, such as sedentary- up to 10 pounds
• Travel requirements are rare and can include the following, evenings, weekends, and out-of-town overnights as a regular part of the job.

• 100% employer-paid pension plan
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) and Roth 401(k) matching program
• Section 125 flexible benefits
• Generous paid leave including holidays, personal and sick leave
• Volunteer and community engagement opportunities
• Paid Parental Leave
• Life, AD&D, short- and long-term disability insurance
• Legal & ID Theft Protection
• Critical Illness
• Accident and Hospital Indemnity insurance
• KU education assistance
• Free parking