Business Analyst – Data In-Licensing & Data Governance

Job Description

Business Analyst – Data In-Licensing & Data Governance Role: Business Analyst – Data In-Licensing & Data Governance Domain: Life Sciences / Pharmaceutical R&D Engagement Focus: Current-State Assessment, Gap Analysis, Requirements Definition & Future State Roadmap Role Overview We are seeking an experienced Business Analyst with strong knowledge of data governance, data licensing, data lifecycle management, and enterprise data management practices to support an assessment of the Data In-Licensing process within Novartis Biomedical Research (NIBR). The individual will work closely with business, scientific research, data management, legal, procurement, compliance, and technology stakeholders to assess the current operating model, identify process and technology gaps, and recommend improvements to strengthen governance, compliance, traceability, and operational efficiency across the licensed data lifecycle. Key Responsibilities1. Data In-Licensing Process Assessment Analyze the end-to-end data in-licensing lifecycle, from data acquisition and contractual agreements through onboarding, provisioning, consumption, renewal, expiry, and retirement. Conduct stakeholder interviews and workshops to understand the current operating model, systems, responsibilities, and pain points. Identify manual activities, fragmented workflows, unclear ownership, and opportunities for automation. Prepare AS-IS process maps, gap assessments, and recommended TO-BE workflows. 2. Data Bill of Materials (DBoM) and License Management Define business requirements for a centralized Data Bill of Materials to track all licensed datasets. Identify essential metadata, including data provider, dataset ownership, licensing terms, permitted usage, restrictions, contractual obligations, renewal dates, expiration timelines, and retention requirements. Assess current mechanisms for tracking licensed datasets and their downstream dependencies. Define requirements for notifications, license renewals, compliance checkpoints, and expiry management. 3. Access Governance and Entitlement Management Assess existing Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and entitlement management processes. Map user roles, access privileges, approval workflows, and data usage restrictions to contractual requirements. Identify gaps in access approvals, access reviews, and entitlement revocation. Define business requirements for visibility into who accesses licensed datasets, for what purpose, and under which permissions. 4. Data Lifecycle and Retention Management Evaluate existing practices for data retention, archival, expiration, and secure deletion. Translate contractual retention and deletion obligations into actionable business requirements. Identify gaps in handling expired licenses, downstream copies, and derived datasets. Define requirements for deletion workflows, approvals, exception handling, and evidence of deletion. 5. Auditability, Data Lineage, and Compliance Assess the organization's ability to trace licensed data from acquisition to consumption. Define requirements for audit trails, usage monitoring, and end-to-end data lineage. Identify gaps in demonstrating compliance with contractual usage restrictions and internal governance policies. Work with risk, legal, and compliance stakeholders to define reporting and audit evidence requirements. 6. Gap Analysis and Future-State Recommendations Consolidate findings into a structured gap assessment covering people, process, technology, and governance. Prioritize gaps based on business impact, contractual exposure, operational risk, and implementation complexity. Develop business requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and a prioritized improvement backlog. Collaborate with the Data Engineer and solution architects to define feasible remediation options and a phased implementation roadmap. Required Skills and Experience

• 6–10 years of Business Analysis experience, preferably in pharmaceutical, life sciences, research data, or regulated enterprise environments.
• Experience with data governance, data management, data cataloging, and metadata management.
• Understanding of data licensing, contractual data usage restrictions, and third-party data management.
• Strong knowledge of RBAC, access governance, data lifecycle management, and audit requirements.
• Experience with business process mapping, stakeholder workshops, gap assessments, and requirements documentation.
• Familiarity with SQL, relational databases, data lineage concepts, and enterprise data architectures.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills. Preferred Skills
• Exposure to pharmaceutical R&D or scientific research data ecosystems.
• Experience with data governance/catalog platforms such as Collibra, Informatica, Alation, or equivalent.
• Understanding of GDPR, retention policies, contractual compliance, and internal data governance standards.
• Experience working with Jira, Confluence, Visio, or BPMN modeling tools. Expected Deliverables
• Current-State Data In-Licensing Process Assessment.
• Stakeholder and System Interaction Mapping.
• End-to-End Process and Governance Gap Analysis.
• DBoM Business Requirements and Metadata Definition.
• Access Control, Entitlement, Retention, and Deletion Requirements.
• Auditability and Data Traceability Requirements.
• Future-State Process Recommendations.
• Prioritized Business Requirements and Remediation Roadmap. Primary Outcome: A comprehensive understanding of business and governance gaps, with actionable recommendations to establish an efficient, compliant, and traceable data in-licensing process.