Technical Product Owner, HRS SF424

Huron helps its clients drive growth enhance performance and sustain leadership in the markets they serve. We collaborate with education organizations to develop strategies and implement solutions that enable the transformative change our clients need to own their future. Together we empower clients to drive innovation create sustainable funding streams and deliver better student outcomes.

Today leaders of higher education institutions and academic medical centers are spending too much time reacting to market forces rather than focusing on the essential priorities that help students faculty and staff thrive. The most productive path forward requires an intentional approach and innovative thinking whereby stakeholders across the entire institution rally around a shared vision and embrace the hard work of effecting change.

Youll help our clients to achieve organizational effectiveness improve student outcomes implement new technologies and align resources and investments to ensure long-term sustainability.

Join our team as the expert you are now and create your future.

The SF424 Business Analyst is responsible for supporting the product team through detailed requirements analysis mapping validation requirements workbook preparation status tracking release validation and cross-functional communication for the HRS SF424 product area. This role provides the structure and execution support needed to move SF-424 forms from analysis and generated outputs into validated work products that engineering teams can implement and test.

The role requires a strong analytical orientation and the ability to learn a complex intersection of federal grants administration system-to-system submission requirements HRS Grants workflows form engines field mappings XML schemas validation rules attachment handling and agency-specific form behavior. The ideal candidate is comfortable working close to technical detail without needing to be a software engineer.

This Business Analyst will work in close partnership with the HRS SF424 Product Owner and HRS Product Management. The role supports requirements of clarity validation throughput engineering readiness and product continuity while Product Management and the Product Owner retain final roadmap prioritization and product decision authority.

SF424 Forms & Research Administration Domain Support
Expectation: Build enough SF424 and research administration knowledge to support accurate product analysis and informed decision-making.
Develop strong working knowledge of SF-424 SF-424 R&R mandatory individual short organization budget subaward and agency-specific form families used in federal grant application packages.
Understand how HRS Grants supports proposal development institutional routing and approvals sponsor opportunity packages submissions attachments budgets subawards certifications and related research administration workflows.
Analyze federal form instructions business rules form versions schema changes agency-specific requirements and customer workflow expectations to determine product and implementation impact.
Support the Product Owner and subject matter experts by preparing structured analysis surfacing decision points documenting rationale and reducing dependency on a single product lead for detailed operational product support.
Pay particular attention to complex budget-related forms and subaward forms where calculations repeats attachments cross-form dependencies and HRS implementation logic may require deeper manual analysis and validation.

Requirements Mapping Validation & Engineering Readiness
Expectation: Turn SF424 source materials mappings and technical inputs into clear validated requirements that engineering and QA can act on.
Create and validate SF424 requirements workbooks from instructions schemas HRS Grants logic field-level rules and product priorities.
Analyze key form details including field definitions versions display and required rules validation rules list values help text repeatable sections attachments and budget logic.
Review generated workbooks scorecards mappings and inferencing outputs to identify gaps incorrect assumptions rule issues and missing requirements.
Translate ambiguous input into clear requirements assumptions open questions decisions and follow-up actions.
Validate mappings between fields XML/XSD schemas HRS Grants data configuration source-system behavior and expected form output.
Partner with engineering architecture and QA to interpret requirements in the context of forms schemas integrations data models rules attachments and submission workflows.
Prepare clean engineering handoff materials with validated requirements assumptions risks test considerations implementation notes and unresolved questions.
Support QA and post-build validation for form generation validation attachments submission scenarios regression coverage UAT defect triage and acceptance.
Balance business needs technical constraints data availability compliance implementation complexity and release risk when recommending next steps.

Prototyping & Future-State SF424 Experience
Expectation: Use prototyping AI-assisted discovery and technical analysis to help redefine how SF424 supports a lower-friction path from funding discovery through integration submission and award.
Explore future-state SF424 workflows that reduce friction across funding opportunity search proposal preparation form population validation submission status tracking and award transition.
Use AI-assisted analysis to identify new ways to integrate with agency systems sponsor data sources funding opportunity feeds research administration systems and related pre-award or post-award workflows.
Create lightweight prototypes workflow concepts data-flow sketches prompts test cases proof-of-concept artifacts or structured experiments that help the product team evaluate new SF424 integration and automation approaches.
Assess how emerging capabilities could improve opportunity discovery data reuse institutional approvals sponsor-specific requirements attachment preparation validation confidence submission readiness award setup and downstream handoffs.
Translate prototype findings into practical recommendations risks assumptions product options and candidate backlog items that Product Management the Product Owner Engineering and Services can evaluate for roadmap consideration.

Collaboration with Product Team
Expectation: Work closely with Product Management the Product Owner Engineering QA and Services to align decisions dependencies and delivery execution.
Partner closely with Grants Product Management the HRS SF424 Product Owner engineering QA and Services to clarify requirements align delivery expectations and support product execution across SF424 forms and form waves.
Coordinate with the Product Owner and Product Management to document decisions dependencies blockers open questions validation status ownership due dates and follow-up actions.
Work with other Product Owners and Product Managers to keep the system of record in Azure DevOps well-groomed prioritized current and aligned with Hurons SDLC process.
Work with engineering and QA to ensure requirements mappings validation notes test considerations and handoff materials are clear complete and actionable.
Collaborate with Services to understand implementation considerations customer-facing impacts UAT needs and practical delivery constraints that may affect SF424 readiness or rollout.
Communicate complex functional and technical findings clearly within the product team including concise summaries options recommendations risks and escalation points.

Documentation Knowledge Transfer & Process Improvement
Expectation: Create durable documentation repeatable processes and knowledge-transfer materials that improve continuity and execution quality.
Document SF424 repository structure form analysis approach workbook creation steps validation expectations handoff process generated artifact usage known issues and repeatable review patterns.
Create and maintain templates checklists review guides traceability notes and process documentation that improve consistency and reduce reliance on informal knowledge transfer.
Identify opportunities to improve requirements quality validation throughput generated output accuracy tracker hygiene handoff readiness and engineering feedback loops.
Use tools such as Azure DevOps GitHub GitHub Copilot ChatGPT Microsoft Excel SharePoint Microsoft Teams Salesforce and internal product tools where appropriate to support analysis and collaboration.
Serve as a dependable backup resource for product-related questions requirements context validation history and release support when the Product Owner or primary subject matter expert is unavailable.

Required Qualifications
Domain & Industry Expertise
U.S. work authorization is required.
Bachelors degree or equivalent work experience in business administration research administration public administration science computer science management information systems industrial engineering mathematics or another analytical business scientific or technology-related field.
At least 2 years of experience as a Business Analyst Product Analyst Product Owner Implementation Consultant Quality Analyst or similar role supporting complex software products or cross-functional software delivery teams.
Experience working in research administration grants management federal grant applications government or compliance-driven programs higher education healthcare academic medicine or another complex regulated domain.
Ability to develop a strong working understanding of SF-424 forms federal grant application packages proposal development workflows budgets subawards attachments and system-to-system submissions.

Business Analysis & Requirements Management
Strong ability to document clear requirements user stories acceptance criteria validation notes decision logs open questions assumptions and stakeholder-facing summaries.
Ability to translate messy incomplete ambiguous or highly technical input into structured analysis actionable next steps and engineering-ready requirements.
Experience supporting backlog refinement bug triage requirements validation release readiness UAT support implementation support or similar delivery activities.
Ability to compare source materials generated outputs system behavior stakeholder feedback and test results to identify discrepancies gaps risks and required corrections.
High attention to detail balanced with the judgment to keep work moving forward escalate appropriately and distinguish must-fix issues from items that can be deferred or documented.

Technical Fluency
Working understanding of enterprise software SaaS products forms engines rules engines data mappings integrations APIs XML or JSON schemas data flows configuration attachments error handling and release validation.
Ability to read and discuss technical artifacts such as field mapping files schema definitions architectural diagrams repository structures generated outputs test results and non-functional considerations at a business analyst level.
Comfort working in tools such as Azure DevOps GitHub or source repositories Microsoft Excel SharePoint Microsoft Teams Salesforce and internal product or support tools.
Ability to communicate technical concepts tradeoffs risks and questions clearly to non-technical stakeholders and functional requirements clearly to engineering and QA teams.
Comfort using AI-assisted productivity or analysis tools such as ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot while validating outputs carefully against source materials requirements and subject matter expert guidance.
Collaboration & Communication
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to create polished documentation and communicate clearly with product engineering QA support implementation customer-facing and leadership stakeholders.
Strong facilitation analytical thinking problem-solving and follow-through skills across both technical and non-technical topics.
Demonstrated empathy for users and passion for delivering high-quality software that supports grants management and federal research funding processes.
Ability to work independently manage competing priorities adapt quickly and bring structure to ambiguous or fast-moving work.
Ability to collaborate effectively across multiple time zones and with distributed teams including teams in the U.S. and India.

Preferred Qualifications
3 years of experience as a Business Analyst Product Analyst Product Owner Implementation Consultant Quality Analyst or similar enterprise software role.
Experience with Huron Research Suite Huron Click InfoEd Cayuse Kuali COEUS or similar research administration or grants management solutions.
Direct experience with SF-424 SF-424 R&R Workspace system-to-system submissions federal form packages or federal form instructions and schemas.
Familiarity with applicant web services or APIs XML/XSD schemas WSDLs application zip files submission status certificate-based authentication mTLS hashing attachment handling and related integration concepts.
Experience supporting proposal development sponsored projects award setup budgets subawards attachments compliance forms institutional approvals or related research administration processes.
Experience creating or validating requirements workbooks traceability matrices field mapping documents display or require rules validation rules catalogs scorecards test cases or release readiness artifacts.
Experience using Azure DevOps for features user stories bugs tasks queries and delivery tracking.
Experience using GitHub GitHub Copilot ChatGPT or similar tools to support analysis documentation generated output validation or process improvement.
Experience supporting QA UAT release validation customer implementation activities or production issue triage for complex enterprise software.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel Word PowerPoint Visio or Lucid SharePoint Microsoft Teams Salesforce and related collaboration or product execution tools.

Success Metrics
SF424 requirements workbooks are more complete accurate consistent and ready for engineering with fewer unresolved questions and fewer avoidable rework cycles.
The Product Owner and subject matter experts experience reduced operational burden because the Business Analyst can prepare analysis validate outputs track questions and coordinate follow-up independently.
Forms move more predictably through the validation workflow from workbook creation to requirements validation post-review engineering readiness implementation validation and completion.
Generated mapping workbook inferencing and scorecard outputs improve over time because errors rule gaps and recurring patterns are documented and fed back into the process.
Engineering teams receive clearer handoff packages better requirements context more complete validation notes and more actionable test considerations.
Budget subaward attachment validation and cross-form dependency issues are identified earlier documented clearly and escalated with enough context for decision-making.
Status trackers and stakeholder updates accurately reflect current progress ownership blockers due dates and readiness across SF424 forms and waves.
Delivered SF424 capabilities align with form specifications schema requirements system-to-system submission expectations HRS Grants workflows and customer needs.
Documentation and knowledge transfer improve continuity for the SF424 product area and reduce reliance on informal knowledge held by a single consultant product lead or subject matter expert.

Associate

United States of America