Data Analyst job description in the United States
Duties, requirements, interview questions, and a ready-to-use template so you can post your job today.
Job summary
A data analyst turns the raw data a company already collects, such as sales, inventory, customers, and web traffic, into answers that managers can act on. The role extracts and cleans data, builds reports and dashboards, and explains what the numbers mean and what to do about them. For the business, a good analyst replaces gut feeling with evidence and spots problems and opportunities before they show up in the financial results.
Main duties
- Extract data from databases, spreadsheets, and business systems using SQL queries
- Clean and validate datasets by removing duplicates, fixing formats, and handling missing values
- Build and maintain dashboards in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker Studio for different teams
- Analyze trends in sales, costs, customer behavior, and operations to answer business questions
- Define key performance indicators together with managers and document how each is calculated
- Automate recurring reports to replace manual spreadsheet work
- Present findings and recommendations in clear language to non-technical audiences
- Run ad hoc analyses for pricing, promotions, forecasting, or customer segmentation
- Monitor data quality at the source and report inconsistencies to system owners
Typical requirements
- Bachelor's degree in statistics, economics, engineering, computer science, or a related field
- One or more years of experience in data analysis or business intelligence
- Strong SQL and advanced Excel, including pivot tables and lookup functions
- Experience building dashboards in Power BI, Tableau, or a similar tool
- Working knowledge of statistics: averages, distributions, correlation, and sampling
- Python or R for analysis is a plus
- A portfolio or examples of reports and analyses previously delivered
Key skills
Salary in the United States
Based on jobs posted on Saplic over the last 6 months. This is a market benchmark, not an official figure.
Job posting template ready to copy
Replace the fields in brackets with your company's details.
Market benchmark: $11,657 per month (median of the jobs posted on Saplic over the last 6 months).
Data Analyst — [Company name]
At [Company name], we are looking for a data analyst to join our team in [City]. The person in this role will turn our sales, operations, and customer data into reports and recommendations that help every department make better decisions, working directly with the people who use them.
Responsibilities
- Extract data from databases, spreadsheets, and business systems using SQL queries
- Clean and validate datasets by removing duplicates, fixing formats, and handling missing values
- Build and maintain dashboards in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker Studio for different teams
- Analyze trends in sales, costs, customer behavior, and operations to answer business questions
- Define key performance indicators together with managers and document how each is calculated
- Automate recurring reports to replace manual spreadsheet work
- Present findings and recommendations in clear language to non-technical audiences
- Run ad hoc analyses for pricing, promotions, forecasting, or customer segmentation
- Monitor data quality at the source and report inconsistencies to system owners
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in statistics, economics, engineering, computer science, or a related field
- One or more years of experience in data analysis or business intelligence
- Strong SQL and advanced Excel, including pivot tables and lookup functions
- Experience building dashboards in Power BI, Tableau, or a similar tool
- Working knowledge of statistics: averages, distributions, correlation, and sampling
- Python or R for analysis is a plus
- A portfolio or examples of reports and analyses previously delivered
What we offer
- Salary: [Salary]
- Benefits: [Benefits]
- Location: [City]
Interested in this job? Apply today.
How to hire a data analyst
Check that the data exists first
An analyst cannot analyze what was never recorded. Before hiring, it is worth reviewing which systems hold the data and how clean it is, and being honest with candidates about its state.
Give a small dataset to analyze
A spreadsheet with a few thousand rows and one open business question shows SQL or Excel skill, judgment about what matters, and the ability to explain a conclusion in a few sentences.
Do not confuse analyst with data scientist
Reporting and business analysis require SQL, visualization, and communication. Machine learning is a different profile at a different cost. Most small and midsize companies need the first one.
Value communication highly
An accurate analysis that nobody understands changes nothing. Asking the candidate to explain a past project to someone outside the field reveals whether insights will reach decision makers.
Define who the analyst reports to
Analysts buried under one department end up producing only that area's reports. A clear reporting line and a prioritized list of questions keep the role from becoming a report factory.
Interview questions for data analyst candidates
Could you describe an analysis you did that changed a business decision?
What to look for: A specific question, the method used, the recommendation, and what the company did as a result.
How did you handle a dataset with missing or inconsistent values?
What to look for: Investigating the cause first, documented cleaning rules, and awareness of how each choice affects results.
What would you do if two reports showed different totals for the same metric?
What to look for: Tracing definitions, filters, and sources until the difference is explained, then standardizing the definition.
How would you explain the difference between correlation and causation to a sales manager?
What to look for: A plain example without jargon and caution about drawing conclusions from a pattern alone.
How would you write a query to find the top customers by revenue in each region?
What to look for: Correct use of joins, grouping, and ranking or window functions, with reasoning explained out loud.
How did you decide which chart to use in a dashboard you built?
What to look for: Choice driven by the question and the audience, with simplicity over decoration.
What would you do if a manager asked you for numbers to support a conclusion already made?
What to look for: Integrity: presenting what the data shows, including contrary evidence, while remaining constructive.
How do you verify that your results are correct before sharing them?
What to look for: Sanity checks against known totals, peer review, and testing with a sample calculated by hand.
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Open data analyst jobs in the United States
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Frequently asked questions
How much does a data analyst make in the United States?
The median of the jobs posted on Saplic over the last 6 months is $11,657 per month, and the typical range runs from $10,530 to $13,792. This is a market benchmark, not an official figure.
What requirements are typical for a data analyst in the United States?
The most common ones in job postings are: bachelor's degree in statistics, economics, engineering, computer science, or a related field; one or more years of experience in data analysis or business intelligence; strong SQL and advanced Excel, including pivot tables and lookup functions.
When does a company need to hire a data analyst?
When managers spend hours each week assembling spreadsheets by hand, when different areas argue over whose numbers are right, or when important decisions are made without data that the company already has. An analyst pays off once there is enough recorded information and someone in management willing to act on it.
What tools should a data analyst candidate know?
SQL and advanced spreadsheets are the foundation, and one visualization tool such as Power BI or Tableau is expected. Python or R adds depth but is not essential for reporting roles. The specific tool matters less than the fundamentals, since a strong analyst moves between visualization platforms within a few weeks.
How much does it cost to post data analyst jobs on Saplic?
Nothing. Posting the job is free and no credit card is required. The recruiting system for organizing the people who apply is free too.