Senior Data Systems Analyst

Location(s) Bloomington, Illinois, Boston, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, Omaha, Nebraska, P&C-Butterfield Road-Downers Grove-IL-AAC, San Antonio, Texas

Details

Kemper is one of the nation’s leading specialized insurers. Our success is a direct reflection of the talented and diverse people who make a positive difference in the lives of our customers every day. We believe a high-performing culture, valuable opportunities for personal development and professional challenge, and a healthy work-life balance can be highly motivating and productive. Kemper’s products and services are making a real difference to our customers, who have unique and evolving needs. By joining our team, you are helping to provide an experience to our stakeholders that delivers on our promises.

Position Summary:

Kemper is seeking a highly analytical and detail-oriented Data Systems Analyst to provide independent validation and quality assurance across enterprise data platforms, business processes, and reporting solutions. This role is responsible for ensuring the accuracy, completeness, reliability, and regulatory compliance of critical business data and end-to-end data workflows.

The Data Systems Analyst serves as an independent quality function within the Data Engineering organization, partnering closely with business stakeholders, data engineers, data architects, product owners, compliance teams, and operational teams to validate business requirements, identify data quality risks, and ensure enterprise data solutions meet business and regulatory expectations.

The ideal candidate possesses strong expertise in data analysis, data warehousing, systems analysis, business process validation, testing methodologies, and data governance. This individual will independently assess data quality across source systems, transformations, integrations, reporting platforms, and downstream consumers while driving continuous improvement in enterprise data quality practices.

Position Responsibilities:

Production Incident and Problem Management

Investigate production data incidents and quality issues.

Perform root cause analysis and identify corrective and preventive actions.

Partner with engineering and operational teams to prioritize remediation activities.

Track recurring issues and recommend long-term quality improvements.

Test Strategy and Quality Assurance

Develop and maintain comprehensive testing strategies for enterprise data platforms and business-critical processes.

Create test cases, test scenarios, traceability matrices, and validation documentation.

Establish risk-based testing approaches to ensure appropriate coverage of critical business functions.

Define quality gates and acceptance criteria for data products and platform releases.

Test Automation and Quality Frameworks

Collaborate with data engineering teams to develop reusable testing assets and automated validation processes.

Support implementation of automated testing frameworks for data validation, reconciliation, regression testing, and quality monitoring.

Promote quality engineering best practices across the data organization.

Regression and Release Validation

Conduct regression testing across enterprise systems following enhancements, migrations, platform upgrades, and releases.

Assess downstream impacts of system and data changes.

Validate production deployments and release readiness.

Non-Functional Testing

Support performance, scalability, reliability, recoverability, and operational readiness testing.

Validate system behavior under expected and peak business workloads.

Assess data processing performance and service-level requirements.

End-to-End Data Workflow Testing

Design and execute test plans for complex business and data workflows spanning multiple applications, databases, integrations, and reporting platforms.

Validate data movement across source systems, ETL/ELT processes, data warehouses, reporting environments, and downstream consumers.

Perform system integration testing, user acceptance testing support, and production validation activities.

Business Requirements Analysis

Partner with business stakeholders, product owners, and data engineering teams to clarify and refine requirements.

Translate business requirements into testable scenarios and validation criteria.

Challenge assumptions and identify requirement gaps, ambiguities, and potential quality risks early in the delivery lifecycle.

Data Quality Governance and Metrics

Develop and monitor data quality KPIs, controls, and scorecards.

Support enterprise data quality governance initiatives.

Contribute to the establishment of data quality standards, policies, and operating procedures.

Drive continuous improvement of data quality management practices.

Independent Business Process Validation

Independently validate critical business processes and supporting data workflows across operational, analytical, and regulatory systems.

Evaluate end-to-end business process execution to ensure data integrity, accuracy, completeness, and consistency throughout the data lifecycle.

Identify control gaps, data risks, process deficiencies, and opportunities for quality improvement.

Data Quality Analysis and Validation

Perform independent validation of enterprise data assets, reports, dashboards, and regulatory submissions.

Conduct data profiling, reconciliation, root cause analysis, and quality assessments across structured and semi-structured data.

Validate business rules, transformations, calculations, aggregations, and reporting logic.

Analyze data anomalies, trends, and quality metrics to identify potential issues and risks.

Governance, Compliance, and Regulatory Validation

Ensure compliance with enterprise data governance standards, policies, and controls.

Validate regulatory, audit, financial, operational, and compliance-related data requirements.

Support internal and external audit activities through independent quality assessments and evidence collection.

Verify adherence to data lineage, data retention, privacy, and security requirements.

Collaboration and Leadership

Serve as a trusted advisor on data quality and validation practices.

Collaborate across business, technology, risk, compliance, and operational teams.

Mentor junior analysts and promote quality-focused thinking across the organization.

Champion a culture of quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Position Qualifications:

Required Skills and Experience

Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Analytics, Business Analytics, or a related field; equivalent work experience considered.

6+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: Data Quality Analysis

Data Warehousing

Business Systems Analysis

Data Governance

Quality Assurance

Data Testing

Business Process Validation

Insurance industry experience (P&C and/or Life Insurance).

Experience supporting enterprise data warehouse environments.

Demonstrated Expertise In

Data quality management principles and methodologies

End-to-end business process testing

Data warehouse validation and reporting verification

Data reconciliation and data profiling techniques

SQL querying and data analysis

Root cause analysis and problem-solving methodologies

Test planning, test design, and test execution

Regression testing and release validation

Requirements analysis and requirements traceability

Data governance and data stewardship practices

Regulatory, compliance, and audit-related data validation

Production incident investigation and resolution support

Data lineage, metadata, and data quality controls

Relational database concepts and data modeling

Validation of ETL/ELT processes and enterprise data pipelines

Technical Skills

Advanced SQL development and data analysis

Experience working with Snowflake, Oracle, SQL Server, or similar database platforms

Familiarity with Informatica, IICS, or enterprise data integration platforms

Experience using reporting and analytics tools such as Power BI

Experience working with XML, JSON, and API-based integrations

Familiarity with Python or other scripting languages for data analysis and automation

Experience with Azure, AWS, or cloud-based data platforms

Professional Competencies

Strong analytical and critical thinking skills

Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities

Ability to work independently with minimal supervision

Strong documentation and organizational skills

High attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy

Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment

Strong intellectual curiosity and continuous improvement mindset

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with data quality, observability, or governance tools.

Familiarity with CI/CD practices and automated testing frameworks.

Experience with DataOps, DevOps, or Agile delivery methodologies.

Exposure to large-scale cloud data platforms and distributed data ecosystems.

Experience with AI-assisted testing, validation, and data quality monitoring tools.

Knowledge of data lineage, metadata management, and master data management concepts.

Experience supporting enterprise audit and regulatory compliance initiatives.

The position can be worked hybrid out of a local Kemper office or remotely for a non-local candidate.

The range for this position is $89,000 to $148,100. When determining candidate offers, we consider experience, skills, education, certifications, and geographic location among other factors.  This job is eligible for an annual discretionary bonus and Kemper benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, 401k, etc.)

Kemper is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, disability status or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We are committed to supporting diversity and equality across our organization and we work diligently to maintain a workplace free from discrimination.

Kemper does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies. All unsolicited resumes will be considered the property of Kemper and Kemper will not be obligated to pay a placement fee.

Kemper will never request personal information, such as your social security number or banking information, via text or email. Additionally, Kemper does not use external messaging applications like WireApp or Skype to communicate with candidates. If you receive such a message, delete it.

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