Business Analyst Job Description (2026): Duties, Skills and Salary
A business analyst helps an organization change how it works, usually through new or improved systems and processes. They find out what the business actually needs, document requirements, map current and future processes, and make sure what gets delivered solves the original problem.
BAs sit between business stakeholders and delivery teams such as developers, vendors and project managers. Day to day that means workshops and interviews, user stories with acceptance criteria, process diagrams, data analysis in SQL or Excel, and user acceptance testing. In banking, insurance and the public sector, the role is often tied to ERP, CRM or regulatory change.
Business Analyst job description template
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Template · replace the [brackets]
Business Analyst
[Company] · [City and office days, or remote with the countries or time zones you hire in] · [Full-time]
About [Company]
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, who it serves and why this team matters now.]
About the role
We're hiring a business analyst to help [department] improve [process or system]. You'll work with stakeholders to understand their needs, turn them into clear requirements for [delivery team or vendor], and check that the result works in practice.
What you'll do
- Run workshops and interviews to understand business needs and pain points.
- Write requirements as user stories with acceptance criteria, or as functional specifications.
- Map current and future processes in BPMN or flowcharts, and find improvements.
- Analyze data with SQL and Excel to size problems and support decisions.
- Clarify requirements with developers, vendors and testers during delivery.
- Plan and coordinate user acceptance testing with business users.
- Prepare training materials, documentation and go-live readiness checks.
What you'll bring
- [X]+ years as a business analyst or in a similar role.
- Experience gathering requirements and writing user stories or specifications.
- Process mapping in BPMN or similar notation.
- SQL and Excel for data analysis.
- Experience in agile delivery teams [Jira, Confluence].
- Strong facilitation and stakeholder management.
Nice to have
- CBAP, CCBA or a similar business analysis certification.
- [Salesforce / SAP / ServiceNow / Workday] implementations.
- Domain knowledge in [banking, insurance, healthcare or the public sector].
- Power BI or Tableau for reporting.
What we offer
- [Pay range: e.g. $X–$Y base salary, plus bonus or equity if offered]
- [Certification costs covered, training budget, flexible hybrid working]
- [Health cover, retirement or pension plan, paid time off, parental leave]
- [Work authorization: whether you can sponsor a visa or hire through an employer of record]
[Our process: a recruiter call, an interview about a change you analyzed from start to finish, a short exercise writing user stories from a stakeholder brief, and a meeting with the delivery team.]
[Your equal opportunity statement, and how candidates can ask for adjustments during the process]
Put the pay range in the ad. Several US states, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington, require it in job postings, and the EU Pay Transparency Directive gives applicants the right to know the starting pay or its range before the interview.
What real business analyst job ads ask for
The skills named most often in the 487 newest business analyst job ads we analyzed (out of 1,615 live postings), as the share of ads that mention each. A skill most ads name is a fair must-have; one few ads name belongs under nice-to-have.
- 1Requirements gathering36%
- 2Agile34%
- 3SQL29%
- 4Process improvement23%
- 5Process mapping23%
- 6User stories23%
- 7Excel22%
- 8Jira21%
Certifications mentioned most: SAFe (6%). Degrees mentioned most: Bachelor's degree (38%), Computer Science (17%).
From live job ads · computed November 2, 2026 · refreshed daily
Business Analyst duties by seniority
What the job usually looks like at each level. Pitch the ad at one level and say which in the title.
Junior
- Documents requirements and processes with guidance.
- Supports workshops, takes notes and prepares materials.
- Runs test cases during user acceptance testing.
Mid-level
- Leads analysis for a project or business area.
- Facilitates workshops and resolves conflicting requirements.
- Recommends solutions backed by data and process analysis.
Senior
- Leads analysis across programs or enterprise-wide change.
- Shapes solution options with architects and leadership.
- Mentors analysts and sets analysis standards.
Business Analyst career path
- Junior Business Analyst
- Business Analyst
- Senior Business Analyst
- Lead BA, Product Owner or Business Architect
Business analysts often come from operations, finance, customer service or QA, where they learned how the business really works, or from consulting graduate programs. Later paths include product ownership and product management, project and program management, business architecture and consulting.
Advertised pay for business analyst jobs
Median advertised base salary in Business Analyst job ads in the United States: $111,300 (middle half: $99,700–$126,100), from 140 job ads with a published salary in the last 90 days.
This is advertised pay, not total compensation: bonuses, commission, equity and benefits aren't included, and many ads publish no pay at all.
- Business Analyst salary in the United States · median $111,300, 140 ads
- Remote Business Analyst salary · median $108,200, 62 ads
Similar roles
- Data Analyst job description
Works on data and reporting rather than requirements and processes.
- Project Manager job description
Manages delivery of the project the BA writes requirements for.
- Product Manager job description
Owns a product's strategy and outcomes; a common next step for BAs.
- Operations Manager job description
Runs the processes business analysts help redesign.
- QA Engineer job description
Tests the delivered system against the BA's acceptance criteria.
Business Analyst job description FAQ
What does a business analyst do?
Finds out what a business needs from a change, documents requirements and processes, works with delivery teams to build the right solution, and checks it works through testing and rollout, using data analysis to back up recommendations.
What's the difference between a business analyst and a data analyst?
A business analyst focuses on requirements, processes and solution design; a data analyst focuses on analyzing data and reporting. Business analysts use data to support their work, but it isn't their main output.
What should a business analyst job description mention?
The kind of change (systems, processes or regulation), the delivery method, the systems involved, the stakeholders and the documents you expect. Saying whether the BA works with an in-house team or with vendors helps candidates judge fit.