Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for M&O Business Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

As our M&O Business Analyst, you will be the critical bridge between our hands-on maintenance and operations teams and our strategic business objectives. You will dive deep into our operational data, leveraging your analytical prowess to uncover trends, identify inefficiencies, and champion process improvements. This is not just a reporting role; you are a strategic partner who will translate complex data from systems like SAP PM or Maximo into compelling business cases and clear requirements for our technology teams. Your work will directly impact asset performance, operational uptime, and the financial health of our maintenance programs. If you are passionate about using data to solve real-world operational challenges, we want to talk to you.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Data Analyst
Junior Business Analyst
Maintenance Planner / Reliability Technician

Advancement To:

Senior M&O Business Analyst / Lead Analyst
Asset Manager or Reliability Manager
Business Intelligence (BI) Manager

Lateral Moves:

Project Manager
IT Business Partner (Operations)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Act as the primary liaison between M&O business units and IT, translating complex business needs into detailed functional and technical requirements for system enhancements and new reporting solutions.
Perform in-depth analysis of maintenance and operational data from our CMMS/EAM systems (e.g., SAP PM, Maximo, Infor EAM) to identify trends, root causes of equipment failure, and opportunities for improving asset reliability and uptime.
Design, develop, and maintain insightful KPI dashboards and performance reports using BI tools like Power BI or Tableau, providing leadership with clear visibility into operational effectiveness.
Lead requirement elicitation workshops and stakeholder interviews to capture, document, and validate business, functional, and non-functional requirements for M&O projects.
Analyze and map current-state business processes ("as-is") and collaborate with cross-functional teams to design optimized future-state processes ("to-be") that reduce waste and improve efficiency.
Develop compelling business cases and cost-benefit analyses for proposed process improvements, technology investments, and strategic initiatives to secure project funding and stakeholder buy-in.
Investigate operational data integrity issues within the CMMS, working with data stewards and technical teams to implement corrective actions and improve overall data quality.
Analyze work order data to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive and predictive maintenance programs, providing data-driven recommendations for strategy optimization.
Support the M&O leadership team with annual budgeting, long-range forecasting, and monthly variance analysis by providing detailed reports on maintenance spending and resource allocation.
Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) on significant equipment failures and operational disruptions, presenting findings and preventative recommendations to engineering and maintenance teams.
Manage stakeholder communication and expectations throughout the project lifecycle, ensuring alignment between business goals and project deliverables.
Create and maintain comprehensive documentation, including business requirements documents (BRDs), process flow diagrams, and user guides for M&O systems and reports.
Evaluate the impact of proposed system changes on business processes and work with teams to manage the organizational change, including developing training materials.
Monitor key performance indicators such as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), highlighting areas for focused improvement.
Partner with reliability engineers to use data analysis in support of asset lifecycle management, capital planning, and spare parts inventory optimization.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis from various business stakeholders to answer pressing operational questions.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by advocating for M&O data needs and promoting a data-driven culture.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into clear user stories and engineering requirements for our data platform and BI teams.
Participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and other agile ceremonies as a key member of the data and analytics delivery team.
Provide training and support to end-users on newly developed reports, dashboards, and system functionalities to drive adoption and ensure value realization.
Assist in the evaluation and testing of new software patches, upgrades, or new modules for the core CMMS/EAM platform.
Stay current with industry best practices in maintenance, reliability, and business analysis to bring innovative ideas to the team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

SQL Proficiency: Demonstrated ability to write complex SQL queries to extract, manipulate, and analyze data from relational databases.
BI & Visualization Tools: Hands-on expertise in creating dashboards and reports in tools like Power BI (preferred), Tableau, or Qlik Sense.
CMMS / EAM Systems: Strong working knowledge of enterprise asset management or computerized maintenance management systems, such as SAP Plant Maintenance (PM), IBM Maximo, or Infor EAM.
Advanced Excel: Mastery of advanced Excel functions, including PivotTables, Power Query, and complex formula creation for data analysis and modeling.
Business Process Modeling: Experience using tools like Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart, or similar software to document and design business process flows (BPMN is a plus).
Requirements Documentation: Proven ability to write clear, concise, and unambiguous business requirements documents, user stories, and functional specifications.

Soft Skills

Analytical & Critical Thinking: A natural curiosity and a structured approach to identifying the root cause of a problem and evaluating solutions from a data-first perspective.
Stakeholder Management: Exceptional ability to build rapport and collaborate effectively with individuals at all levels, from shop-floor technicians to senior leadership.
Communication & Presentation: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business language and compelling narratives.
Influential Problem-Solver: A proactive and resourceful approach to overcoming obstacles, with the ability to influence others towards a recommended course of action without direct authority.
Meticulous Attention to Detail: A commitment to accuracy and quality, ensuring that data, reports, and requirements are precise and reliable.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Information Systems / Computer Science
Industrial Engineering
Data Analytics / Data Science
Finance or Economics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3-7 years of professional experience in a business analysis, data analysis, or operations analysis role.

Preferred:

Experience within an asset-intensive environment such as manufacturing, energy, utilities, facilities management, or logistics is highly desirable.
Direct, hands-on experience configuring, reporting from, or analyzing data from a major CMMS/EAM platform (e.g., SAP PM, Maximo) is a significant advantage.
A proven track record of successfully leading data-driven improvement projects that resulted in measurable cost savings or efficiency gains.