Enterprise Portfolio Management Office - EPMO Senior Project Analyst

EPMO Senior Project Analyst

Golden 1 Credit Union is among the top credit unions in the country. As a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative, Golden 1 is guided by the credit union philosophy of "people helping people." We are committed to empowering our members and uplifting our communities as we create a more equitable and financially inclusive California. We welcome all who embrace our Core Values.

You are passionate about helping businesses grow by delivering lending solutions that support long-term success. You excel at balancing sound credit practices, operational excellence, and relationship management while leading teams toward shared goals. Your leadership, business acumen, and commitment to quality help drive sustainable growth and exceptional member experiences.

The SPA supports the successful execution of enterprise projects by leading business analysis efforts, driving project planning and reporting, requirements management, maintaining stakeholder engagement, and supporting risk, change, and governance processes. The role bridges the gap between strategy and execution, delivering insights, structure, and alignment across project teams, while championing continuous improvement and ensuring compliance with EPMO governance. The SPA role spans the full project lifecycle, from intake and feasibility through requirements definition, traceability and validation, performance monitoring, stakeholder management, and post-delivery validation. The SPA collaborates with business leaders, project managers, and technical teams to ensure projects are scoped realistically, governed effectively, and adopted successfully. In addition to supporting individual initiatives, the role contributes to compliance enforcement, reporting excellence, and ongoing improvements across the EPMO.

Project Planning, Feasibility, Reporting, and Readiness Support

• Analyze project scope, costs, risks, feasibility, and resource needs to ensure projects are positioned for success.
• Leads project teams to elicit current state workflows and develops desired future state that addresses business problems or emerging business needs.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to identify operational readiness, training, communication, and user adoption needs.
• Collect, analyze, and synthesize project and portfolio performance data for leadership reporting.
• Produce executive dashboards, status reports, and key metrics aligned to EPMO standards.
• Adapts to ambiguity and ensures artifacts and deliverables adhere to EPMO governance, and quality standards.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of state and federal laws and regulations related to credit union compliance including bank secrecy and anti-money laundering laws appropriate to the position.

Requirements Management, Traceability, and Validation

• Create and lead feasibility assessments by evaluating requirements against operational constraints, technical complexity, and business readiness to inform early go/no-go discussions.
• Elicit, document, and validate complex or cross-functional requirements.
• Facilitate business requirements gathering sessions with stakeholders and SMEs to ensure completeness, clarity, and alignment to business outcomes.
• Establish and maintain requirements traceability throughout the lifecycle, ensuring alignment between business needs, functional requirements, and testing artifacts.
• Validate requirements by reviewing solution design documentation, change requests, and test results to ensure they reflect stakeholder expectations and business intent.
• Collaborate with solution architects and product owners to ensure requirements are solutionable, sustainable, and aligned with enterprise capabilities, helping avoid downstream rework.
• Partner closely with the Project Manager to align analysis and readiness activities to the project plan, ensuring visibility of critical milestones and dependencies.
• Provide inputs that support identification and monitoring of critical path risks and decision points.
• Develop and lead the UAT strategy in partnership with impacted stakeholders, defining scope, entry/exit criteria, and roles.
• Support UAT planning and execution to validate that delivered solutions meet documented business requirements.
• Track and report UAT defects, retesting progress, and resolution to ensure readiness for go/no-go decision-making.
• Develop and maintain UAT dashboards and summary reporting to support stakeholder visibility and leadership approval.
• May need to develop Request for Information (RFI) and Proposals (RFP), including business needs, current state, high-level requirements, and product/service expectations. Analyze and compare vendor responses, collate vendor risk assessments (financial, physical, and electronic security reviews).

Stakeholder Relationship and Communication Management

• Build and maintain productive relationships with business owners, executives, and cross-functional teams.
• Proactively engage with project managers and cross-functional teams to ensure analyst-driven activities are transparent and integrated with the broader project plan, enabling visibility to critical path items, key risks, and potential impacts to delivery timelines.
• Facilitate stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle to ensure clarity, buy-in, and collaboration.
• Translate complex project details into clear communications for varied audiences, from executives to frontline teams.
• Act as a liaison between business and technical teams to ensure alignment and timely resolution of concerns.

Risk, Issue, and Change Management Support

• Track mitigation plans and follow up on resolution of critical risks and issues.
• Proactively monitor, document, and escalate project risks, issues, decisions, and change requests in alignment with governance standards and escalation protocols.
• Facilitate timely resolution planning by partnering with project managers and stakeholders to analyze root causes, recommend mitigation actions, and drive accountability.
• Maintain clear documentation and audit trails for all risk and change items to support compliance, traceability, and executive transparency.
• Support benefits realization tracking by aligning risks and change impacts to expected business value, ensuring early visibility into potential threats to success measures.
• Collaborate with Business Owners and SMEs to assess the downstream impacts of unresolved issues or changes on adoption, member experience, or operational readiness.
• Contribute to risk-based decision making by surfacing scenario-based recommendations, highlighting critical path impacts, and supporting go/no-go readiness reviews.

Continuous Improvement, Governance, and Compliance

• Champion the use of EPMO-approved methodologies, tools, and delivery standards.
• Monitor project compliance with governance requirements, including stage gates, documentation, and reporting standards.
• Participate in internal reviews and audits to assess alignment with enterprise policies and controls.
• Analyze project outcomes and stakeholder feedback to identify and recommend ongoing improvements to frameworks, tools, and processes.
• Contribute to building a culture of accountability and excellence across the project management community.
• Facilitates communities of practice and project community forums to address ongoing needs for the project professional community. Supports the execution of ongoing efforts to improve program and project delivery in the EPMO department.
• Leverages industry-specific best practices or lessons learned to benefit the organization.

Qualifications and Preferences:

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Management Information Systems or Computer Science required
• Master's Degree in Business Administration or other related area preferred
• 3+ years of combined experience in project analysis, coordination, and management with a minimum of three years of experience directly creating requirements and quality analysis. Experience supporting complex projects end-to-end, preferably in a financial institution. required

Golden 1 Credit Union provides its employees a market-competitive and internally equitable total rewards compensation package through a variety of programs. These programs are designed to attract, motivate, and retain employees that drive and support the achievement of Our Mission, Vision, and Strategic Goals. The Credit Union is committed a total rewards philosophy built on; a comprehensive compensation package, well-being and work-life balance, career development and growth, rewards and recognition, and a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We believe in fostering a workplace where every employee is recognized, valued, and motivated to contribute their best.