Zarin Rafia, Product Manager in New York, NY, United States
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Zarin Rafia

Product Manager

New York, NY, United States

Toptal member since March 13, 2026

Bio

Zarin is a dedicated senior business analyst with over 5 years of experience specializing in digital transformation across insurance and banking. She has a proven track record of managing the full delivery lifecycle of complex platforms, such as Live Well Plus, where she bridges the gap between business needs and technical execution. Her expertise includes deep-dive data analysis using SQL and Python, process optimization through BPMN mapping, and ensuring system stability.

Project Highlights

Expertise

  • Azure SQL
  • Business Requirements Documentation (BRD)
  • Functional Requirements Documentation (FRD)
  • Kanban
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Word
  • Scrum
  • Software Requirements Specifications (SRS)

Work Experience

Senior Business Analyst

2020 - PRESENT
Afficiency
  • Managed the end-to-end documentation lifecycle by authoring comprehensive BRDs, FRDs, and user stories in Jira, ensuring a clear roadmap for the Live Well Plus insurance platform.
  • Leveraged advanced SQL to perform deep-dive gap analysis on legacy insurance data, streamlining the transition to a modern cloud-based architecture.
  • Engineered data flow contracts and integration maps for fraud detection, slashing fraud detection latency by 80% through proactive risk analysis.

Project History

Live Well Plus Insurance Platform Development

  • 80% — Regulatory Compliance for Digital Policy Delivery
  • 85% — Data Mismatches Resolved before Production Deployment
  • 89% — End-to-end System Behavior Maps Created for Alignment

It was required to translate business needs into precise SRS documentation for microservices, ensuring alignment between stakeholders and engineering. I enhanced system reliability by debugging complex API payloads and back-end logic to proactively resolve data mismatches pre-deployment.

I authored BRDs, FRDs, and SRSs to bridge business and technical gaps, aligning stakeholders with engineering. I also enhanced system reliability by debugging complex APIs and back-end logic pre-production, resolving data mismatches and optimizing data migration via gap analysis, improving visibility, reducing fraud latency, and accelerating delivery.

I achieved 100% compliance, eliminated production risks, and accelerated fraud detection. I guaranteed data integrity, boosted productivity, drove user adoption, enabled data-driven decisions, and aligned teams.

FinX Suite (Elevance Health)

  • 80% — Reduction in Fraud Detection Latency
  • 89% — Data Integrity Guaranteed During Cloud Migration
  • 90% — Increase in Sprint Velocity Achieved

I resolved high latency in legacy KYC/AML fraud detection modules and guaranteed data integrity during a large-scale cloud migration involving millions of records. I drove user adoption for new digital banking solutions post-launch, standardized documentation, and optimized backlog management to eliminate inconsistencies and accelerate sprint velocity.

I engineered data flow contracts for fraud detection, reducing latency by 80%. I also automated ETL consistency checks with SQL, ensuring 99.9% data integrity during cloud migration, and orchestrated UAT cycles and training programs, incorporating feedback to drive global adoption. In addition, I standardized project documentation (BRDs, FRDs, user stories) to streamline processes and improve team alignment.

I ensured 100% compliance, eliminated risks, and accelerated fraud detection, guaranteeing data integrity, boosting productivity, driving user adoption, enabling data-driven decisions, and aligning teams.

Digital Banking Transformation and Fraud Detection Overhaul

  • 85% — Data Integrity Achieved During Migration
  • 89% — Regulatory Compliance Achievement
  • 73% — Increase in User Adoption Rate
  • 50% — Boost in Sprint Velocity
  • 80% — Reduction in Fraud Detection Latency

A global digital bank faced fraud losses ($2+ million annually) from slow KYC/AML detection, data risks from migrating 10+ million records, and less than 30% user adoption of new apps due to poor UX. Internal misalignment and regulatory gaps (GDPR, PSD2) caused delays, driving customer attrition and stalling digital transformation.

A four-phase overhaul fixed critical banking failures, reducing fraud detection from hours to minutes, ensuring 99.9% data integrity, and standardizing documentation. UAT cycles, API integration, and training for 200+ employees boosted adoption, resolving compliance gaps and sprint delays while cutting annual fraud losses.

Fraud latency was cut by 80%, saving $1.5 million a year. Adoption increased by 45% and velocity by 40% with 100% compliance. We established zero incidents, scalable frameworks, and an effective data-driven culture.

Education

2018 - 2019

Master's Degrees in Computer Information Systems

Touro University Graduate School of Technology - New York, USA

Certifications

JANUARY 2021 - PRESENT

MySQL Database Infrastucture

Microsoft

JANUARY 2021 - PRESENT

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft

Skills

Tools

Microsoft Word, Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Jira, MySQL Workbench, MySQL Performance Tuning, Confluence

Paradigms

Scrum, Kanban, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), Agile

Other

SQL, Microsoft Excel, Azure SQL, Business Requirements Documentation (BRD), Functional Requirements Documentation (FRD), Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), APIs, Stakeholder Analysis, UX Process, Alterix, ETL Pipeline Monitoring, Locker, SQL Database Administration, MySQL, Lucidchart, Python, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Business Development, Microsoft SQL Server

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