Data Analyst
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The Data Analyst serves as an analytics specialist in the business, focusing on the management of data from various sources and providing data-driven insights to relevant departments. In this position, the Data Analyst gains exposure to almost all departments of the business, inclusive of data warehousing, product management, product development, marketing, account management, and IT among others. The Data Analyst aids by providing various departments with data analysis, reporting, and dashboard solutions that will enable the achievement of the business’s overall goals.
The role involves the definition of detailed requirements, the analysis of the business’s needs, and the validation of reporting solutions within the business. The role additionally entails working with internal applications such as Salesforce and NetSuite all in an effort to enable high-quality products/services for the business’s consumers leading to customer satisfaction and the ultimate achievement of goals.
Objectives and Responsibilities of the Data Analyst
Management/Support/Strategy: The Data Analyst plays a strategic and junior managerial role where he acts as the day-to-day contact for insights and analytics to departmental managers across the business. In this position, the Data Analyst manages deliverable schedules, project timelines, and shares concerns about deliverables, timelines, and other issues with departmental heads and managers. The Data Analyst develops expertise in the business departments he supports and works with these departments to review and collect reporting requirements through workshops, interviews, document analysis, surveys, use cases, business process descriptions, and workflow analysis.
He provides on-going analytical support through the utilization of data management, modeling, and technology. For example, he uses market mix modeling in an effort to address consumer issues concerning advertising and new products. In this capacity, the Data Analyst will also assist in the formulation of econometrics through the use of regression analysis models, inclusive of hierarchical or multi-level modeling.
Analytics: The Data Analyst as expected plays an extensive analytical role where he focuses on the analysis of business data in order to provide the business’s management, heads, and stakeholders with information that supports departmental as well as overall business objectives. The Data Analyst identifies, analyzes, and interprets trends and patterns in complex data sets, drawing insights that will aid the business in developing a suitable course of action.
The Data Analyst regularly audits system data in order to guarantee compliance, accuracy, and duplication management. He is additionally tasked with the designing of targeted reports and dashboards that will provide insight and enable sound business decision-making. In this capacity, the Data Analyst is responsible for developing presentations and presenting clear/understandable analytics insights to relevant departmental heads, management, and stakeholders.
Collaborating: The role of the Data Analyst is a functionally collaborative one. The Data Analyst works with data warehousing engineering and data scientists in order to clean and filter data and review reports, dashboards, and KPIs for the purpose of enabling the location and correction of issues within the business. He also works collaboratively with the IT department, ensuring that there is a thorough understanding of the business’s data needs and priorities, as well as the ongoing strategic initiatives where data collection, analysis, and migration is required.
In this capacity, the Data Analyst also works collaboratively with business analysts in an attempt to identify automating process opportunities and functions that will streamline current and future data management and reporting for the business. The Data Analyst additionally works with the assigned departmental heads, management, and stakeholders, providing these departments with data-driven insights and solutions as well as enabling informed strategy formulation, subsequently leading to the achievement of departmental and overall business objectives.
Knowledge and Opportunity: The Data Analyst will maintain a clear understanding of analytics, reporting, and technology and apply this knowledge to develop and recommend solutions that will further enhance the business’s competitive edge and place the business at an advantage over competition at all fronts in the market.
Other Duties: The Data Analyst will also performs other similar duties as he deems necessary for the proper execution of his duties and duties as delegated by the Senior Data Analyst, Head of Analytics, Director Analytics, Chief Data Officer, or the Employer.
Required Qualifications of the Data Analyst
Education: The Data Analyst has to have a bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Technology, Economics, Information Systems, Statistics, Applied Math, Business Administration, or any other related field. An equivalent of the same in working experience is also acceptable.
Experience: A candidate for this position must have had at least 2 years of relevant, data related business experience. The candidate must also have had a proven and successful understanding of how to interpret a business’s needs and how to draw these needs from analysis or raw information and data. A suitable candidate will demonstrate skill in SQL as well as proven skills and experience working with at least one other major databases platform for example, DB2, Server, Sybase, Oracle, Postgres, etc. A suitable candidate will also have substantial experience working with various data mining techniques and database structures.
Communication Skills: Both written and verbal communication skills are imperative for this position. The Data Analyst plays a highly collaborative position where he works closely with key personnel within the business, these are, departmental heads, managers, and stakeholders who depend on his insights to make informed decisions, formulate solutions, and departmental strategies.
Therefore, the communications conveyed by the Data Analyst must be clear and concise, which will greatly determine the performance and improvement within the assigned departments and, hence, determine the overall performance of the business. The Data Analyst will also need to be a clear communicator for the purpose of creating clear, understandable, and convincing reports and presentations for departmental heads, management, and stakeholders, being able to tailor complex messages and technical messages in a manner that resonates with the audience at hand.
Computer Skills/Ms Office/Software: A suitable candidate will display great computer skills and demonstrate proficiency in the use of Ms Word, Ms Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, which will be necessary for the creation of both visually and verbally engaging reports and presentations, for assigned departmental heads, management, as well as key stakeholders. He will further have skill and knowledge as to the workings of SQL server reporting services, analysis services, integration services, Domo, Salesforce, Tableau, or other data visualization tools.
Analytical Skills: The candidate for the Data Analyst position must have strong analytical skills and have an ability to manipulate and analyze raw information/data, come up with conclusions, and develop actionable solutions through the use of statistical and econometric modeling as well as technological techniques. The candidate will also have a firm understanding of digital data sources and metrics, for example, web, search, social, display, and so forth. He will also be intimately familiar with measurement analytics and quantitative analysis measures such as ROI and churn. The candidate will additionally have knowledge and skill in statistical measures such as sample sizing, correlations, and so forth.
Interpersonal Skills: A candidate for this position must be comfortable working in a group setting, be comfortable working with business top executives, be a creative and strategic thinker, have excellent and innovative problem solving skills, be self-motivated and proactive, have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, have a passion for data collection and organization, have high attention to detail, be able to work on multiple simultaneous tasks prioritize and meet deadlines, and have an ability to maintain composure in uncertain and stressful times.
People Skills: A candidate for this position must additionally have an ability to form strong and meaningful connections/relationships with other people. This will ensure that he earns the trust of the assigned departmental heads, managers, and stakeholders who will be inclined to give credit and consideration to his insights and judgments, hence, enabling the smooth execution of his duties as Data Analyst and simultaneously enabling performance improvement across the business.
