Data Analyst Job Description (2026): Duties, Skills and Salary
A data analyst turns data into answers. They pull data with SQL, clean and analyze it, build dashboards and reports, and explain what the numbers mean for the business: why sales dipped, which marketing channel works, where customers drop out of a funnel.
Data analysts work in finance, marketing, product, operations and healthcare, so the subject changes more than the toolkit: SQL, a spreadsheet tool, a BI tool such as Tableau, Power BI or Looker, and often Python or R. The best analysts ask what decision a request is for before they start.
Data Analyst job description template
Copy it, replace everything in [brackets] and cut what doesn't apply. Keep the requirements to what the job really needs.
Template · replace the [brackets]
Data 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 data analyst to help [team] understand performance and make better decisions. You'll answer questions with SQL, build the dashboards [team] uses every week, and turn analysis into clear recommendations.
What you'll do
- Write SQL to pull and combine data from [warehouse] for analysis and reporting.
- Build and maintain dashboards in [Tableau / Power BI / Looker] for [teams].
- Analyze trends, funnels and segments to explain why key metrics change.
- Present findings to stakeholders in plain language, ending with a recommendation.
- Check data quality, and work with data engineers to fix gaps at the source.
- Automate recurring reports so your time goes to analysis rather than copy-paste.
- Support A/B test analysis and the definitions of business metrics.
What you'll bring
- [X]+ years in a data or analytics role.
- Strong SQL: joins, aggregations and window functions.
- Experience with a BI tool, and with Excel or Google Sheets for quick analysis.
- Descriptive statistics, and an eye for the traps in averages and correlations.
- Clear written and spoken explanations of numbers for non-specialists.
- Curiosity, and the habit of sanity-checking results before sharing them.
Nice to have
- Python or R for analysis and automation.
- dbt or another transformation tool.
- Knowledge of [domain, e.g. e-commerce, marketing attribution or healthcare data].
- Product analytics tools such as Amplitude or Mixpanel.
What we offer
- [Pay range: e.g. $X–$Y base salary, plus bonus or equity if offered]
- [Budget for courses and certifications, flexible hours]
- [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 exercise on sample data, a short case where you analyze a dataset and present a recommendation, 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.
What real data analyst job ads ask for
The skills named most often in the 490 newest data analyst job ads we analyzed (out of 1,421 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.
- 1SQL75%
- 2Python59%
- 3Power BI45%
- 4Tableau41%
- 5Excel34%
- 6Data quality34%
- 7Statistics33%
- 8Data visualization31%
Degrees mentioned most: Bachelor's degree (43%), Computer Science (24%), Master's degree (14%).
From live job ads · computed November 2, 2026 · refreshed daily
Data 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 runs well-defined queries, with review.
- Maintains existing dashboards and data checks.
- Learns the business metrics and where the data comes from.
Mid-level
- Owns analysis for a team or business area.
- Scopes vague questions into analyses and recommends actions.
- Designs dashboards and metric definitions others reuse.
Senior
- Leads analytics for a function and agrees priorities with its leaders.
- Defines company-wide metrics and reviews other analysts' work.
- Mentors analysts and improves tooling and data quality with engineering.
Data Analyst career path
- Junior Data Analyst
- Data Analyst
- Senior Data Analyst
- Lead Analyst or Analytics Manager
Data analyst is one of the most common ways into a data career, reached from degrees in economics, business, statistics or science, or from operations and finance jobs that involved a lot of Excel. Later moves include data science, analytics engineering, product management and analytics leadership.
Advertised pay for data analyst jobs
Median advertised base salary in Data Analyst job ads in the United States: $120,000 (middle half: $97,000–$148,500), from 209 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.
- Data Analyst salary in the United States · median $120,000, 209 ads
- Remote Data Analyst salary · median $115,000, 133 ads
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- Financial Analyst job description
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- Operations Manager job description
Uses analysis to run and improve day-to-day operations.
Data Analyst job description FAQ
What does a data analyst do?
Collects, cleans and analyzes data to answer business questions, builds dashboards and reports, and explains the findings so teams can make decisions. SQL, spreadsheets and a BI tool are the core toolkit.
What skills should a data analyst job description require?
SQL, a BI tool such as Tableau, Power BI or Looker, spreadsheet skills, basic statistics and clear communication. Python or R and domain knowledge are useful extras, better listed as nice-to-have for most roles.
Is data analyst an entry-level job?
It can be. Junior data analyst roles are a common first data job, while senior analysts lead analysis for whole departments. State the level and the experience you expect clearly, so applicants can judge their own fit.