Business Intelligence Analyst Job Description (2026): Duties, Skills and Salary
A business intelligence analyst builds the reporting layer a company runs on: data models, dashboards and self-service tools that let other teams answer their own questions. Compared to a data analyst who often does one-off analysis for a specific question, a BI analyst focuses more on durable infrastructure, like a well-modeled data warehouse and dashboards that stay accurate as the business changes.
BI analysts work closely with data engineers who build the underlying pipelines, and with business stakeholders who need consistent, trustworthy numbers. The job rewards people who like structure and naming conventions as much as analysis, since a dashboard used by fifty people needs to be right every time, not just once.
Business Intelligence Analyst job description template
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Business Intelligence 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
[Company] is hiring a business intelligence analyst to build the reporting [team] relies on. You'll model data in [warehouse], build dashboards in [Tableau / Power BI / Looker], and make sure the numbers stay consistent as the business grows.
What you'll do
- Design and maintain data models in [warehouse] that power company reporting.
- Build dashboards and self-service reports in [Tableau / Power BI / Looker] for [teams].
- Define and document business metrics so teams use consistent numbers.
- Partner with data engineering to improve pipelines feeding BI tools.
- Audit existing dashboards and reports for accuracy and retire outdated ones.
- Train business users to build their own simple reports from governed data sets.
- Investigate discrepancies between reports and resolve data quality issues.
- Present key metrics and trends to leadership on a regular cadence.
What you'll bring
- [X]+ years in business intelligence, analytics or data warehousing.
- Strong SQL, including data modeling concepts such as star schemas and dimensional modeling.
- Hands-on experience with a BI tool such as Tableau, Power BI or Looker.
- Experience defining and documenting business metrics for broad consistency.
- Clear communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Attention to detail and comfort auditing data for accuracy.
Nice to have
- Experience with dbt or another transformation tool.
- Python or R for more advanced analysis.
- Experience with data governance or metric layer tools such as a semantic layer.
- Knowledge of [domain, e.g. SaaS, retail or healthcare] metrics.
What we offer
- [Pay range: e.g. $X–$Y base salary, plus bonus or equity if offered]
- [Reimbursement for training and certification costs, flexible schedule]
- [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, a SQL and data modeling exercise, a case where you design a dashboard from a sample data set, and a meeting with the team you'd support.]
[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.
Business Intelligence 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
- Builds reports and dashboards from existing, well-modeled data.
- Maintains and lightly updates existing dashboards.
- Learns the company's metric definitions and data sources.
Mid-level
- Owns data models and dashboards for a business area.
- Defines new metrics and documents them for company-wide use.
- Audits and improves existing reporting for accuracy and performance.
Senior
- Sets data modeling and reporting standards across the company.
- Leads major BI initiatives such as a warehouse redesign or metric governance program.
- Mentors other analysts and partners with engineering leadership on data strategy.
Business Intelligence Analyst career path
- Junior BI Analyst
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Senior BI Analyst
- BI Lead or Analytics Manager
Business intelligence analyst is often reached from data analyst or reporting-heavy finance and operations roles, where the appeal of building durable dashboards over one-off analysis becomes clear. From here, people move into analytics engineering, BI leadership or broader data management roles.
Similar roles
- Data Analyst job description
Does more one-off analysis; BI analysts focus on durable reporting infrastructure.
- Business Analyst job description
Works on business requirements and process, using BI output to support them.
- Data Engineer job description
Builds the pipelines feeding the data models BI analysts design.
- Financial Analyst job description
Specializes in financial reporting, often using BI tools built by this role.
Business Intelligence Analyst job description FAQ
What does a business intelligence analyst do?
Builds the data models and dashboards a company relies on for reporting, defines consistent business metrics, and helps other teams self-serve answers from trustworthy data.
What skills should a business intelligence analyst job description require?
Strong SQL and data modeling skills, hands-on experience with a BI tool, and the ability to define and document metrics clearly. dbt and a scripting language like Python are useful additions for more technical roles.
How is a BI analyst different from a data analyst?
A BI analyst usually owns durable infrastructure, like data models and dashboards used company-wide, while a data analyst more often does one-off analysis for specific questions. Many companies use the titles interchangeably, so describe the actual balance of work.