How to hire a data and reporting analyst

How to hire a data and reporting analyst, step by step

Here's a step-by-step data and reporting analyst hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a data and reporting analyst job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new data and reporting analyst
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a data and reporting analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a data and reporting analyst, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A data and reporting analyst's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, data and reporting analysts from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents data and reporting analyst salaries for various positions.

   Type of Data And Reporting Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Data And Reporting Analyst	Management analysts, often called management consultants, propose ways to improve the efficiency of an organization. They advise managers on how to make organizations more profitable through reduced costs and increased revenues.	$27-47
   Program Management Analyst	The job of a program management analyst involves optimizing business operations and analyzing organizational processes to increase productivity and maximize efficiency and profits. Program management analysts help track every company's schedule, budget, and delivery of goods and/or services... Show more	$26-54
   Business Operations Analyst	A business operations analyst is a professional who identifies and solves issues related to the performance of the business operations. Together with the management and engineering departments, business operations analysts must analyze and review a vast amount of data to identify business opportunities... Show more	$21-42

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Power Bi
   • Data Analysis
   • Dashboards
   • Visualization
   • BI
   • Data Collection
   • SQL Server
   • SAS
   • Data Quality
   • Analyze Data
   • Pivot Tables
   • Strong Analytical
   • Macro
   • HR

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Gather business requirements and deliver business analytics base solutions using structured/unstructure business data to help achieve measurable business outcomes for clients.
   • Prepare files and reports by performing ETL, data extraction, and data validation.
   • Report creation using PL/SQL, PROC/SQL, and T/SQL, and SAS programming language.
   • Extract customer information from databases and employ SAS to generate reports that meet business requirements.
   • Deliver performance KPIs and metrics in an accurate and timely manner via the executive dashboard and customer portal.
   • Create VBA programs to automatically create report from HPALM tool, update excel workbooks and execute external data queries.

   More data and reporting analyst duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the data and reporting analyst job description is a good way to get more applicants. A data and reporting analyst salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a data and reporting analyst in Kentucky may be lower than in Washington, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level data and reporting analyst. Additionally, a data and reporting analyst with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average data and reporting analyst salary

   $76,196yearly

   $36.63 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level data and reporting analyst salary

   $58,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 19, 2026

   Average data and reporting analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$99,423	$48
   2	California	$97,438	$47
   3	Oregon	$93,448	$45
   4	Massachusetts	$91,935	$44
   5	Nevada	$84,052	$40
   6	Connecticut	$83,764	$40
   7	District of Columbia	$81,794	$39
   8	New York	$79,704	$38
   9	Arizona	$79,606	$38
   10	North Carolina	$78,396	$38
   11	Pennsylvania	$77,628	$37
   12	Texas	$74,831	$36
   13	Illinois	$74,260	$36
   14	Maine	$73,991	$36
   15	Colorado	$72,261	$35
   16	Utah	$71,668	$34
   17	Missouri	$71,615	$34
   18	Minnesota	$70,878	$34
   19	Ohio	$70,525	$34
   20	Iowa	$69,839	$34

   Average data and reporting analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Apple	$126,407	$60.77	79
   2	Meta	$124,185	$59.70	459
   3	McKinsey & Company Inc	$108,283	$52.06	127
   4	First Republic Bank	$106,402	$51.15
   5	Citi	$100,227	$48.19	59
   6	Bayer	$100,057	$48.10	12
   7	The Vanguard Group	$99,256	$47.72	31
   8	Boehringer Ingelheim	$98,474	$47.34	4
   9	Natera	$98,226	$47.22
   10	AT&T	$97,592	$46.92	6
   11	MUFG EMEA	$97,527	$46.89
   12	Chewy	$97,320	$46.79	2
   13	California Resources	$94,320	$45.35
   14	Bank of the West	$94,224	$45.30
   15	Riverstone Holdings	$94,148	$45.26
   16	Nike	$93,323	$44.87	9
   17	WebMD	$91,968	$44.22	5
   18	Populus Group	$90,405	$43.46
   19	TEKsystems	$89,659	$43.11	181
   20	Data	$88,999	$42.79	9

4. Writing a data and reporting analyst job description

   A job description for a data and reporting analyst role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a data and reporting analyst job description:

   Data and reporting analyst job description example

   Data Reporter St. Louis, MO, USA Req #16364 Friday, October 7, 2022

   We are looking for a reporter who can use data to find and deliver great stories, and understands the impact that local news can have in a community. The reporter will join forces with beat reporters and editors to produce daily stories, enterprise, graphics and sophisticated data projects, and must be able to balance it all. Knowledge of public records laws and the ability to negotiate for data are essential.

   
   

   The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of statistics and data analysis and must have experience using spreadsheet software, SQL, and Python or R. Familiarity with QGIS or other mapping software is preferred.
   

   To apply, please submit a resume, cover letter explaining your approach to the job, and six stories that best show your abilities.

   Why Join Us?

   Lee Enterprises offers competitive wages in a dynamic, interesting work environment with career growth opportunities. We offer an extensive benefit program that can be personalized to your needs. Our benefit program includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, company provided life insurance and supplemental life insurance. In addition, we offer a 401K retirement plan with company match. We also offer generous paid time off to allow the flexibility to balance personal life and work. This includes paid parental leave for new parents.
   

   Lee Enterprises is a leading provider of high-quality local news, with 77 daily newspapers in 26 states that have print, digital and e-replica versions. Lee's newspapers have a combined circulation of more than 1.2 million daily. Our digital sites attract more than 44 million unique visits monthly. We also have a rapidly growing roster of digital products for consumers, and are committed to aggressive digital growth.
   

   Lee Enterprises is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to attracting and retaining a workforce whose diversity reflects the communities we serve. Lee embraces change, and we recognize that we must create and maintain a culture of fervent inclusion. For more information about Lee, check us out at .
   

   We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you are excited about this role but do not meet 100% of the qualifications above, we encourage you to apply.

   Other details

   • Job Family News
   • Pay Type Hourly

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right data and reporting analyst for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your data and reporting analyst job on Zippia to find and recruit data and reporting analyst candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting data and reporting analysts requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new data and reporting analyst

   Once you have selected a candidate for the data and reporting analyst position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new data and reporting analyst. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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