Data analyst job description

What does a data analyst do? ​

Data is everywhere and in recent years, the amount of data being generated and collected by businesses has grown exponentially in recent years. The arrival of big data - large volumes of varied data generated at velocity - has created new opportunities for companies to generate valuable insights to inform their decision making. 

This in turn has resulted in a huge uplift in demand for skilled data analysts across the full spectrum of industries and professions. Data analysts and data scientists are highly sought after and frequently feature on lists of the most in-demand jobs and jobs of the future.

At a fundamental level, a data analyst gathers data from various sources and then reviews and interprets it using data analysis tools to provide meaningful information and insights to help businesses make better-informed decisions. This could be decisions about any aspect of business, for example investments, cost-savings, pricing, hiring, operations or scheduling - all of which can help to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Data analyst responsibilities

• Identifying data sources
• Collecting data
• Sourcing missing data
• Organising data in to usable formats
• Analysing data to find answers to specific questions
• Setting up data infrastructure
• Developing, implementing and maintaining databases
• Assessing quality of data and removing or cleaning data
• Generating information and insights from data sets and identifying trends and patterns
• Preparing reports for executive and project teams
• Creating visualisations of data