Putting Your Knowledge to Use
Now that you have a basic understanding of Power BI and Business Intelligence (BI) as a field, it is time to put that knowledge to use by finding a job or growing your career!
This chapter focuses on the overall business intelligence and data analytics market, citing industry reports on current value and expected growth. In addition, this chapter covers the various types of jobs and career paths you can find working within the business intelligence and data analytics market. We also cover various search strategies for finding a job in business intelligence as well as interviewing and compensation negotiation tips. Finally, we provide a wealth of resources to help you continue your journey of learning and discovery!
The following topics are covered in this chapter:
- Understanding the business intelligence opportunity
- Growing your job and career
- Continuing your journey
Technical requirements
There are no technical requirements for this chapter.
Understanding the business intelligence opportunity
The business intelligence market is a vast and fragmented space with at least 20 different companies making Gartner’s list for their Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. Market reports generally place the total global market for business intelligence solutions and services at around USD 25–30 billion in 2021/2022 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 10%–11%, reaching USD 40 billion by 2025–2026. That’s a lot of numbers, but the important thing to realize is that the business intelligence market is growing because business intelligence is important to all types of organizations, which are becoming increasingly reliant on business intelligence in order to make informed business decisions about how to operate more efficiently, effectively, and profitably.
The data analytics and business intelligence space has seen explosive growth over the last few years, and everything indicates that this exponential growth will continue for years to come. Power BI is at the forefront of the market, one of the fastest-growing, most capable, and most heavily used business intelligence tools on the planet. As of 2021, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms placed Microsoft furthest to the right for completeness of vision and furthest up in the ability to execute for three years in a row.
But the business intelligence market is even bigger than just Power BI. There are many other tools and systems such as Tableau, Qlik, and others that comprise the software component of the business intelligence market. In addition, the business intelligence market consists of the services provided in conjunction with business intelligence software. This services component is provided by a variety of different jobs and roles within organizations. The upcoming sections explore these types of jobs and roles that comprise this services aspect of the business intelligence market.
Understanding the types of business intelligence jobs and roles
The kinds of jobs available in the business intelligence space are quite varied and diverse. While the exact roles, responsibilities, and requirements vary between organizations, here we cover the more common types of jobs and roles available in the business intelligence sector, including typical responsibilities and requirements. This information is helpful to determine the type of job and career best suited to your particular skills and also helps you determine the skills you need to foster and learn in order to succeed in the growing business intelligence market and get the job you truly desire.
Business intelligence analysts
Business intelligence analysts, or simply analysts, are a diverse and popular job in the business intelligence space. In many ways, business analysts are a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to the business intelligence space. Part-requirements gathering, part-data analysis, part-data modeler, and part-report developer, business analysts often form the bridge between the business side and the technical side of an organization.
Analysts collect the needs and requirements from the business or organization and then attempt to use data to answer questions posed by the business or fulfill the particular business need or requirement. What kinds of problems is the business trying to solve? What kinds of key performance indicators and other metrics are important for the business to track? Exactly what is important to any particular business or organization can be extremely diverse. For more detailed information on requirement gathering, refer to Chapter 2, Planning Projects with Power BI. Analysts are often involved early in the process to help plan and coordinate business intelligence projects as well as throughout such projects to ensure that the voice of the business is being heard.
Business intelligence analysts often utilize data to project business and market trends in order to enable organizations to operate more efficiently, effectively, and profitably. Analysts collect the required data in numerous ways, such as using software like Power
BI to mine corporate data sources as well as data from industry trends and competitors. Analysts evaluate the data, including looking at current conditions and past trends. Again, Power BI can be an important and effective tool in this process. Once analysts effectively analyze the data, they communicate their findings with business managers, often at the highest levels of the organization.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for a business intelligence analyst include the following:
- Gather requirements from business stakeholders.
- Work with all levels of the organization to turn requirements into valuable insights and deliverables.
- Assist with the development of internal and external self-service reporting/ dashboarding capabilities and products.
- Contribute to the development of advanced algorithms and metric definitions.
- Present solutions to a wide variety of audiences and senior leadership.
- Explore new tools and technologies and make recommendations for improvements and strategic direction for business intelligence.
- Research business problems and create models that help analyze historical trending and options for solutions.
- Assist with data quality efforts, documentation, and socialization of terms and metrics.
- Enhance organizational data with external sources of information when needed.
- Improve data collection procedures to enhance information with relevant information.
- Assist in the evaluation of existing reporting channels, focusing on the strategic consolidation and the enhancement of existing sources and models.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for a business intelligence analyst include the following:
- Bachelor’s degree in statistics, economics, business, information science, or similar.
- 2+ years of experience using SQL, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, or a similar database system.
- 2+ years of experience with BI visualization tools, data blending, and advanced statistical model generation.
- 2+ years of experience with Microsoft Office.
- Experience with R, Python, or similar languages a plus.
- Be a self-starter that is resourceful and creative in their solutioning.
- Good, applied statistics skills, such as distributions, statistical testing, regression, and so on.
- Have the vision, intellectual curiosity, and business acumen to generate new metrics and insights that assist in driving key decisions and outcomes.
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills.
Typical salaries
Average salaries for business intelligence analysts vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States, expect an average salary of about
$85,000 per year, ranging between $55,000 and $120,000.
Business intelligence developers
The role of the business intelligence developer, or simply developer, can also be quite diverse and varied. In larger organizations, there are generally three distinct types of business intelligence developers: report developers, data transformation developers for Extract, Transform, Load (ETL), and data modelers. Report developers are responsible for constructing the final reports viewed by the business. In Power BI, this is the combining of visualizations supported by the underlying data model. Data transformation developers are responsible for ingesting and cleansing data from various sources in order to support the development of a data model. Data modelers take the ingested and cleansed data and create the underlying data model that supports the development of reports.
These three specific types of developer roles can be combined in different ways within organizations. Small organizations just starting their business intelligence journey often combine all three of these types of developers into a single role while also combining the developer role with the analyst role. In this book, you have learned all of the essential skills for performing the business intelligence developer role using Power BI, including report development, data transformation development, and data modelling.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for business intelligence developers include the following:
- Development of data transformation jobs to extract data from source systems.
- Development of data models to support self-service reporting and dashboarding.
- Development of internal and external self-service reporting/dashboarding capabilities and products.
- Create custom database queries, stored procedures, and tables to enhance data insights and accessibility.
- Leverage existing business intelligence assets such as data warehouses to develop insightful reports, analysis, and dashboards, using a combination of Excel, SQL, Power BI, and other analytics tools.
- Maintain and analyze data feeds to ensure accuracy of data.
- Integrate datasets from disparate sources, stored using various technologies to provide unified views and practical outcomes of the data.
- Work cross-functionally within the organization to research, develop, and implement data solutions to business challenges.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for business intelligence developers include the following:
- Bachelor’s degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, finance, information science, or similar
- 3+ years of experience using SQL, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, or similar database system
- 3+ years of experience with BI visualization tools, data blending, and advanced statistical model generation
- 3+ years of experience working with data transformation technologies, such as SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Power Query or Alteryx
- Proficiency in SQL, DAX, Power Query (M), or similar coding languages
- Experience with R, Python, or similar languages a plus
Typical salaries
Average salaries for business intelligence developers vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States, expect an average salary of about
$95,000 per year, ranging between $70,000 and $130,000.
Business intelligence administrators
Business intelligence administrators, or just administrators, are responsible for the overall management, governance, and security of business intelligence systems within organizations and often assist with the deployment of business intelligence assets, such as datasets, reports, and dashboards. Within organizations using Power BI, administrators are responsible for Power BI tenant settings, the creation of workspaces, assignment of workspace owners, and the creation and management of deployment pipelines.
Within larger organizations, there are often multiple administrators that manage the various different systems that comprise the entirety of an organization’s business
intelligence infrastructure or systems. This might include administration of underlying source data systems, such as SQL and Oracle databases, or even data warehouses built on technologies such as Azure Synapse and Snowflake. Smaller organizations may combine this role with the business analyst or developer roles.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for business intelligence administrators include the following:
- Maintain, set up, configure, and secure BI-related software.
- Maintain and patch software and hardware for BI-related applications and systems.
- Proactively monitor the health and performance of business intelligence systems and infrastructure.
- Document existing and future business intelligence systems’ architecture and technology portfolio.
- Assist in developing strategy, standards, and best practices, and ensure compliance with applicable government and industry regulations and standards.
- Enact governance controls to optimize the usage of business intelligence systems.
- Assist in the deployment of business intelligence assets.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for business intelligence administrators include the following:
- Bachelor’s degree in information technology or a related field
- 5+ years of related experience
- Experience with SQL servers or other database and business intelligence platforms
- Experience in building enterprise data warehouses
- Experience in maintaining and monitoring business intelligence environments
- Experience in working with development teams and end users to resolve issues
Typical salaries
Average salaries for business intelligence administrators vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States, expect an average salary of about $90,000 per year, ranging between $60,000 and $140,000.
Business intelligence project managers
Business intelligence project managers, or simply project managers, work with other professionals to establish plans for projects that define the requirements, schedule, and resources required for business intelligence projects. Project managers monitor the progress of business intelligence projects and implement and manage necessary changes, monitor risks, and report on the progress of projects. Project managers help ensure that that business intelligence solutions are implemented within an agreed-upon time frame and meet the specified requirements. In addition, project managers assist in ensuring that solutions are cost-effective and are completed within a specified budget. Project managers regularly communicate with business stakeholders and other business professionals throughout the duration of projects.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for project managers include the following:
- Assist in gathering requirements from business stakeholders.
- Assist in documenting business intelligence requirements, including complex business logic and key metrics.
- Work with all levels of the organization to turn requirements into valuable insights and deliverables.
- Create business intelligence project plans and manage the project throughout the full development life cycle.
- Track and report on key project tasks, including technical development items and key milestones within the business.
- Identify key risks, issues, and dependencies that may impact the project.
- Prepare mitigation strategies to alleviate and resolve risks and issues.
- Work closely with the technical teams to design dashboard prototypes and iterate toward deliverables.
- Coordinate with the internal testing team to identify key test cases and success criteria.
- Perform a high-level data quality and dashboard review.
- Provide a demo of prototypes and deliverables to key business stakeholders and senior leadership.
- Coordinate user acceptance testing and provide end user training.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for project managers include the following:
- 3+ years of relevant experience in technical project management and/or business intelligence projects
- Experience with project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Confluence, or similar tools
- Knowledge of business intelligence and analytics, with some experience in the specific technology being a huge plus
- Project Management Institute (PMI) certifications highly desirable
- Business analytics experience
- Must work well in a highly collaborative, matrixed, and team-oriented environment
- Superior verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences
Typical salaries
Average salaries for business intelligence project managers vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States, expect an average salary of about $85,000 per year, ranging between $60,000 and $135,000.
Data warehouse architects
Within larger enterprises, the data warehouse is often at the center of business intelligence systems. Raw data, metadata, and other data assets from source transactional business systems are ingested into a data warehouse, which in turn provides an organized and verified data structure that is then used by business intelligence and reporting solutions. Data warehouses are often built on top of database systems, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle databases, as well as in the cloud, using systems such as Azure Synapse and Snowflake.
Data warehouse architects, or simply architects, are responsible for designing data warehouse solutions and working with and implementing data warehousing technologies that support an organization’s overall business objectives. Architects seek to understand the overall business intelligence goals of an organization and then develop a specific architecture or plan that can achieve those goals.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for data warehouse architects include the following:
- Work with various business departments to help develop the organization’s data warehouse.
- Responsible for the conception, design, development, and deployment of data architecture and data models.
- Development of physical and logical data models.
- Translation of business needs into feasible and acceptable data-centric semantic layer designs.
- Document and present relationships between business entities using Kimball, Inmon, and other modern frameworks.
- Assist in prioritizing and balancing the technical and business needs of the conceptual and logical data warehouse.
- Architect and document the normalized data warehouse models.
- Architect and document the de-normalized dimensional presentation layer of the data warehouse.
- Improvement of existing models to ensure compliance with standard methodologies around Master Data Management (MDM) and data architectures across technology platforms.
- Design, develop, document, and advocate the enterprise data warehouse and/or data lake architecture.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for data warehouse architects include the following:
- 5+ years of experience in data architecture design and development
- Experience designing data warehouses, including the structure of how data is stored and retrieved
- Proficient with Microsoft SQL Server or other database technologies, such as Oracle, DB2, Snowflake, Azure Synapse, Azure Data Lake, Azure Analysis Services, and so on
- Proficient with ETL tools, such as SSIS, Azure Data Factory, Alteryx, and so on
- Experience with data pipeline development, orchestration, monitoring, and ETL processing
- Understanding of tabular modeling and other warehousing modeling techniques
- Expertise in data query technologies, such as SQL, Power Query, and so on
Typical salaries
Average salaries for data warehouse architects vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States, expect an average salary of about
$125,000 per year, ranging between $90,000 and $170,000.
Business intelligence managers
Business intelligence managers, or simply managers, oversee particular aspects of an organization’s business intelligence systems and teams. For example, an enterprise may have individual managers who are responsible for data warehousing, master data
management, and reporting. Managers coordinate teams of business intelligence analysts, project managers, and developers, and may also supervise additional support staff and serve as a liaison for external contractors and service providers. Managers are responsible for the overall efforts related to the design, implementation, and operation of their slice of the business intelligence systems within an organization and take a lead role in driving and executing the overall business intelligence strategy.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for business intelligence managers include the following:
- Design and implement data strategies and systems.
- Lead, motivate, and manage technical teams of business intelligence professionals.
- Extensive knowledge of business intelligence systems.
- Assist in the collection, storage, management, governance, and quality of data within the enterprise.
- Assist in the implementation of data privacy policies and compliance with applicable government and industry regulations.
- Have a breadth and depth of knowledge regarding relevant business intelligence applications, data solutions, and tools.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for business intelligence managers include the following:
- Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, statistics, information technology, data science, or related field
- 5+ years of experience in senior business intelligence roles
- Strong leadership, management, and project management experience
- Excellent multitasking skills, with the ability to complete milestones and work toward multiple deadlines simultaneously
- Superior verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences
Typical salaries
Average salaries for business intelligence administrators vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States, expect an average salary of about $120,000 per year, ranging between $80,000 and $170,000.
Business intelligence directors or chief data officers
Within mid to large-sized organizations, there is often a vice president or director assigned to lead the overall strategy for business intelligence within the organization. This position typically reports directly to a C-level position within the organization, such as the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Operations Officer (COO), or Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Within very large enterprises, this position is sometimes elevated to a
-
level position, the Chief Data Officer (CDO). The relatively recent advent of the CDO is an indication of just how increasingly critical business intelligence is to the success of organizations.
Business intelligence directors, or simply directors, are in charge of the overall strategy for business intelligence within an organization and lead the design and development of business intelligence activities within that organization. Directors work to understand the overall goals and objectives of an organization and then create strategies around how
business intelligence can help the organization reach those goals and objectives. Directors strive to make the organization as a whole more efficient, effective, and profitable.
Directors provide leadership to a variety of other business intelligence professionals and conduct and supervise training activities. Directors often participate in meetings with the business side of an organization in order to recommend ideas and modifications for future business intelligence solutions.
Typical responsibilities
Typical job responsibilities for business intelligence directors or chief data officers include the following:
- Thoroughly understand the overall business, including goals, objectives, and data strategy.
- Design and implement data strategies and systems.
- Lead, motivate, and manage large technical teams of business intelligence professionals.
- Extensive knowledge of business intelligence systems.
- Oversee the collection, storage, management, governance, and quality of data within the enterprise.
- Oversee the implementation of data privacy policies and compliance with applicable government and industry regulations.
- Assist in improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability of the organization through insights gleaned from data analysis.
- Effectively communicate the importance, value, and status of organizational data to executive leadership.
- Have a breadth and depth of knowledge regarding relevant business intelligence applications, data solutions, and tools.
Typical requirements
Typical requirements for business intelligence managers or chief data officers include the following:
- Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, statistics, information technology, data science, or related field, with a preference for a master’s degree
- 5–10 years of experience in a senior-level data management role
- Strong leadership, management, and project management experience
- Excellent multitasking skills, with the ability to complete milestones and work toward multiple deadlines simultaneously
- Superior verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills with both technical and non-technical audience
- The ability to make decisions and communicate choices in clear, non-technical language
- The ability to compile analytics and business intelligence information, organize that information, and clearly present it to leadership teams
Typical salaries
Average salaries for business intelligence directors vary by source, as well as by years of experience and exact location, but in the United States expect an average salary of about
$145,000 per year, ranging between $110,000 and $200,000. For organizations that are large enough to have a CDO, salaries are even larger, with an average salary of $190,000, ranging between $110,000 and $325,000.
Now that you understand the opportunities available in business intelligence, let’s next explore how you can grow your job and career in the business intelligence space.
Growing your job and career
As covered in the Understanding the business intelligence opportunity section, there
