Senior Sonata SME Analyst

Our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions. 

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.

Through telling it like it is, owning it now, and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

The Senior Sonata SME serves as a vital link between subject matter expertise and design-led thinking. This hybrid role is responsible for leveraging deep expertise to guide enhancements on the Sonata platform, including strategic initiatives, while ensuring that any impacts are communicated clearly, effectively, and with a user-centric focus. The position will also involve close collaboration with our partner Bravura and other stakeholders in the Business and the Studio, including feature teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform thorough analysis and design, delivering precise and comprehensive requirements for enhancements to the Sonata Platform.
• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams—including Business Analysts, Product Owners, Development, and Run teams—to gain insights and communicate necessary changes.
• Provide support to the QA team through testing activities related to modifications on the Sonata Platform.
• Engage with stakeholders throughout the business, such as Finance and Change teams, to assess and support downstream impacts of proposed changes.
• Configure jobs, batches, and new products within the platform as well as write scripts for including in the SOT. Performing these activities in the non-production environments and ensuring detailed handover to run team for execution in production.
• Coordinate with Bravura to communicate changes, understand and challenge estimates, collaborate on and implement innovative solutions.
• Pursue continuous process improvement by identifying opportunities for enhancement.
• Support the SME community by fostering talent development and facilitating knowledge sharing by documenting processes, standards and best practices.
• Peer review the work of other Sonata SMEs, ensuring adherence to standards and best practices fostering high quality outputs.
• Primary point of contact for any technical questions or issues related to Sonata.
• Support the Tower Lead by actively participating in technical communities and forums.
• Collate monthly metrics using the same framework as the other Tech SMEs.

Technical Competencies

• Sonata subject matter expertise
• Knowledge of Sonata batch processes
• Understanding of Sonata workflows
• Understanding of Sonata Business Services (SBS)
• Understanding of Sonata scripting
• Integration of Sonata with other systems
• Knowledge of downstream data flow from Sonata to other systems and processes

​Other Competencies

• Strong written and verbal communication, able to simplify complex requirements into clear tasks.
• Experienced in cross-functional teams and stakeholder management across business and technology.
• Skilled at aligning system changes with strategy and enhancing organisational design.
• Knowledgeable in Agile methods and product development cycles.

What we offer:

At M&G, we’re committed to helping you thrive and supporting your wellbeing, both at work and beyond. Our benefits are designed to help you balance your professional and personal life, while planning confidently for your future. Our UK benefits include:

• As a savings and Investments firm we are proud to offer a valuable pension scheme of 18%, with 13% made up of Employer Contributions and 5% Employee Contributions. We also offer Share Save and our Share Incentive Plan, together with access to financial wellbeing and support services - to help give you real confidence to put your money to work.

• Enjoy 38 days annual leave including bank holidays, with the opportunity to purchase up to 5 extra days and additional flexibility through our Time Off When You Need It policy – to balance your work and personal commitments.  

• Our market leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave covering maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity leave - as supporting families is a core aspect of our inclusive culture.

• Health & Protection cover including Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance for you, with family options - for peace of mind.

To explore more about life at M&G and our full benefits offering, visit Life at M&G

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G, underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities, advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability or long term condition, we are looking to attract, promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.

M&G is also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader, and we welcome applications from candidates with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or neuro-divergent conditions. 

If you need assistance or an alternative means of applying for a role due to a disability or additional need, please let us know by contacting us at: [email protected]