Business intelligence (BI) is a catch-all term that refers to activities related to gathering, storing, and analyzing data. Many jobs fall under the umbrella of business intelligence, and given the focus on Big Data right now, most of them are highly in demand — so if you are looking for a career in data science, now is a great time to job search. Here are seven business intelligence jobs that you should check out:
Jump to:
- Data Analyst
- Business Analyst
- Data Scientist
- Data Engineer
- Business Intelligence Consultant
- Business Intelligence Manager
- Director of Analytics
*Note that all annual salary data has been taken from Payscale.com
Data Analyst
Average annual salary: $61,841
If you are a college student looking for an entry level career in business intelligence, then you should definitely look into becoming a data analyst. Data analysts design and maintain both data systems and databases, helping organizations to collect, sort, and analyze data. Proper data mining and hygiene are essential to this role. Data analysts must also be skilled at verbally and visually communicating their findings via PowerPoint, PDF reports, and other means. Structured Query Language (SQL), R or Python programming, and other technical knowledge is usually required in this role.
Business Analyst
Average annual salary: $69,984
A business analyst is another entry level position in the data science field. While the business analyst title is similar to that of a data analyst job, the two roles’ duties are slightly different. Instead of spending their days creating and maintaining data systems and databases, business analysts focus on evaluating business processes with an eye on performance improvement. They mine the data to look for ways to increase efficiency, reduce cost, and make other positive changes. They must be able to persuasively present their recommendations to stakeholders and back up their proposal with numbers. However, they generally need less technical skills than data analysts, as they rarely do any actual programming.
Data Scientist
Average annual salary: $96,551
Data scientists create data strategies, work with data engineers to secure the data they need, and analyze data to generate insights. Data scientists are often skilled in both statistical modeling and machine learning, two critical tools that help them mine data for analysis. They also communicate their findings to key stakeholders through displays, dashboards, presentations, and other means. Data scientists continually monitor the data over time, seeing how the company’s metrics change and whether or not their recommendations are having the intended effect.
Data Engineer
Average annual salary: $92,632
Data engineers work closely with data scientists — in fact, in smaller companies, they may actually perform the jobs of both a data scientist and a data engineer all at once. However, larger companies usually split these duties into two roles since they require distinct skills.
Basically, a data scientist figures out what data they need and why, and a data engineer figures out how to build the infrastructure to get that data. Once the infrastructure is built, data engineers are also responsible for maintaining it and troubleshooting any problems that arise. Data engineer jobs are usually more technical than data scientist jobs, requiring knowledge of SQL, NoSQL, R, Python, Java, and more.
Business Intelligence Consultant
Average annual salary: $81,421
If you like the idea of working in business intelligence, but don’t want to be tied to one company, then a career as a business intelligence consultant might be for you. BI consultants work with a wide variety of clients to review the data they currently collect and analyze, identify opportunities for improvement, create new data collection and processing programs, monitor results, and more. Because the consultants’ duties vary by client, no two days or weeks are the same, and many people enjoy the constant flux of their job.
Business Intelligence Manager
Average annual salary: $102,805
Someone has to manage all these data scientists and engineers, and that person is usually a business intelligence manager. They act as a buffer layer between the data people and the upper management, communicating the data team’s findings in a way that management can understand, while translating management’s directives into concrete requests that the data team can turn into databases and analysis. Business managers usually work their way up through the department, so they have a keen understanding of what data scientists and engineers do and what tools they employ. They also have a big picture, strategic view of company goals and help their data team break that down into manageable tasks.
Director of Analytics
Average annual salary: $129,434
A director of analytics is pretty much the top position that you can get in business intelligence; they oversee a company’s entire department of data analytics and data warehousing. This role may go by slightly different titles depending on the industry, including director of risk analytics and policy, director of web analytics and optimization, director of business intelligence analytics, director of health analytics, and director of reporting. They are a member of the company’s senior leadership team and oversee all data analytics projects, making sure that they are aligned with the business’s strategic goals.
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