What is a business intelligence analyst? A key role for data-driven decisions

The business intelligence analyst role is highly analytical and requires a balance of IT, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Business intelligence (BI) analysts transform data into insights that drive business value. Through use of data analytics, data visualization, and data modeling techniques and technologies, BI analysts can identify trends that can help other departments, managers, and executives make business decisions to modernize and improve processes in the organization.

What does a business intelligence analyst do?

The role is becoming increasingly important as organizations move to capitalize on the volumes of data they collect through business intelligence strategies. BI analysts typically discover areas of revenue loss and identify where improvements can be made to save the company money or increase profits. This is done by mining complex data using BI software and tools, comparing data to competitors and industry trends, and creating visualizations that communicate findings to others in the organization.

Business intelligence analyst job requirements

BI analysts typically handle analysis and data modeling design using data collected in a centralized data warehouse or multiple databases throughout the organization. It’s a role that combines hard skills such as programming, data modeling, and statistics with soft skills such as communication, analytical thinking, and problem-solving. Candidates need a well-rounded background to balance the line between IT and the business, and usually a bachelor’s degree in computer science, business, mathematics, economics, statistics, management, accounting, or a related field. If you have a degree in an unrelated field but have completed courses in these subjects, that can suffice for an entry-level role in some organizations. Other senior positions may require an MBA, but there are plenty of BI jobs that require only an undergraduate degree.

Business intelligence analyst job description

A typical day for BI analysts includes collecting data from sources such as industry reports, public information, field reports, or purchased findings; analyzing data to identify trends; and sharing it with the proper stakeholders. Although job descriptions will vary by company, according to a sample BI analyst job description from Indeed, general responsibilities for the role include:

Review and validate customer data as it is collected

Oversee deployment of data to a data warehouse

Develop policies and procedures for the collection and analysis of data

Create or discover new data procurement and processing programs

Work with IT to deploy tools for leveraging big data

Implement new data analysis methodologies

Review customer files to ensure data integrity

Perform data profiling to identify anomalies

Business intelligence analyst skills

To succeed as a BI analyst, you’ll need a mix of analytical and soft skills, including the following:

Data processing

Data modeling

Data mining

Business intelligence

Data visualization

Data analysis

Market analysis

Web analytics

Critical-thinking

Problem-solving

Communication

You will also need a range of technical skills, which, depending on the company’s tech stack, could include several of the following technologies:

Apache Hadoop

Amazon Redshift

BusinessObjects

Hadoop, SQL, Python, and C#

Looker

Microsoft Power BI

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)

Snowflake Cloud data platform

Tableau

Business intelligence analyst salary

According to data from PayScale, the average salary for a BI analyst is $73,652 per year, with a reported salary range of $55,000 to $101,000.

Salary data on similar positions includes:

Job titleSalary rangeAverage salaryBusiness intelligence director$89,000 to $165,000$127,872Director of analytics$86,000 to $182,000$134,198Senior manager business analytics$103,000 to $169,000$132,403Business intelligence manager$78,000 to $141,000$108,068Senior business intelligence analyst$74,000 to $125,000$95,855Business intelligence consultant$61,000 to $124,000$82,727

PayScale also identifies cities where BI analysts earn salaries that are higher than the national average. These include San Francisco, (27.6%), Seattle (16.8%), and New York (16.2%).

High-paying business intelligence analyst jobs

According to ZipRecruiter, the best BI analyst jobs can pay up to $156,500 per year. Some of the highest-paying BI analyst jobs include:

SAP functional analyst: Up to $156,500

Tableau analyst: Up to $142,000

Business intelligence administrator: Up to $138,500

SAP business intelligence consultant: Up to $136,000

BI consultant: Up to 124,500

BI specialist: Up to $119,000

Business intelligence analyst certification

Certifications are not required to work in BI, but they can provide an edge. Some of the top BI certifications include:

Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP)

IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate

Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate

QlikView Business Analyst

SAP Certified Application Associate: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.3

SAS Certified Specialist: Visual Business Analytics

Tableau Certified Data Analyst

Tableau Desktop Specialist

Tableau Server Certified Associate

You can also choose to get certified in specific tools and programming languages used commonly for data analysis, such as Hadoop, Python, or R. If you notice a specific tool or framework is included on the job descriptions you’re interested in, it might be worth getting certified to improve your chances of landing an interview.

Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP)

Offered by Transforming Data with Intelligence (TDWI), the Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP) certification is currently one of the only professional certifications available that’s specifically tailored to BI analysts. You can be certified as a Practitioner, which is the designation awarded if you score above 50% on all three exams. This level demonstrates working knowledge of relevant BI concepts, techniques, and tools. If you score a 70% or higher on all three exams, you’ll be certified at the Mastery level, which demonstrates your ability to lead a team and mentor others, according to TDWI.

To earn your CBIP certification, you’ll need two or more years of full-time experience in CIS, data modeling, data planning, data definitions, metadata systems development, enterprise resource planning, systems analysis, application development, and programming or IT management. Candidates are also required to have at least a BA or MA in information systems, computer science, accounting, business administration, engineering, mathematics, sciences, or statistics.

Business intelligence analyst resume

Resume-writing is a unique experience, but you can help demystify the process by looking at sample resumes. JobHero offers assistance and guidance for writing a BI analyst resume, with different formats and templates for workers with varying seniority, experience and education. Another site, VelvetJobs offers guides to tailoring your resume, a resume builder, resume templates and examples of successful BI analyst resumes.

Business intelligence analyst interview questions

Before your next BI analyst interview, it’s worth searching online to get a sense for questions you will likely be asked. Glassdoor aggregates interview questions for specific job titles and some of the top interview questions and tasks for BI analysts include:

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