How to hire a data consultant

How to hire a data consultant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step data consultant 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 consultant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new data consultant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a data consultant do?

Post a data consultant job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the data consultant you need to hire. Certain data consultant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a data consultant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a data consultant that fits the bill.

   This list presents data consultant salaries for various positions.

   Type of Data Consultant	Description	Hourly rate
   Data Consultant	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.	$33-61
   Business Advisor	Business Advisors are consultants responsible for implementing business strategies to improve financial and operational efficiency. They are involved in preparing financial budgets, recommending a change in the operational process, identifying new business opportunities, evaluating a marketing strategy, and reviewing supplier and labor contracts... Show more	$32-66
   Data Scientist	A Data Scientist analyzes information from multiple sources in order to gain maximum insight that can give the company a competitive advantage. They work in different domains, including manufacturing, healthcare, education, and finance.	$36-71

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Analytics
   • Data Quality
   • Data Management
   • Data Governance
   • Informatica
   • Master Data
   • Visualization
   • Python
   • ETL
   • MDM
   • Prototyping
   • Power Bi
   • Hadoop
   • BI

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Used SSRS to create and manage a number of complex reports according to user specifications.
   • Analyze, document and manage all project requirements and changes to the requirements throughout the SDLC.
   • Design and manage postgres database schemas; configure postgres servers in Linux environments to meet business requirements.
   • Manage weapon system project websites via SharePoint, including troubleshooting technical issues and developing guidelines for public/private information and user permissions.
   • Implement data extraction, transformation and load processes in a parallel framework.
   • Compile a written report highlighting exploratory data analysis, visualization, and predictions.

   More data consultant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the data consultant job description is a good way to get more applicants. A data consultant 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 consultant in Maine may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level data consultant. Additionally, a data consultant with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average data consultant salary

   $94,945yearly

   $45.65 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level data consultant salary

   $70,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average data consultant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$123,696	$59
   2	District of Columbia	$108,972	$52
   3	New Jersey	$107,434	$52
   4	Maryland	$106,051	$51
   5	Massachusetts	$106,028	$51
   6	New York	$102,495	$49
   7	Washington	$98,096	$47
   8	Virginia	$96,699	$46
   9	Connecticut	$95,385	$46
   10	Texas	$92,311	$44
   11	Pennsylvania	$91,442	$44
   12	Colorado	$90,321	$43
   13	North Carolina	$89,748	$43
   14	Nebraska	$87,508	$42
   15	Illinois	$86,079	$41
   16	Arizona	$85,778	$41
   17	Georgia	$85,205	$41
   18	Minnesota	$84,749	$41
   19	Michigan	$82,154	$40
   20	Ohio	$82,009	$39

   Average data consultant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$136,118	$65.44	293
   2	MUFG EMEA	$127,789	$61.44
   3	Adobe	$127,595	$61.34	32
   4	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$127,144	$61.13	234
   5	Amazon	$123,825	$59.53	713
   6	Slalom	$122,879	$59.08	483
   7	Dell	$122,548	$58.92	14
   8	ZS	$121,829	$58.57	49
   9	McKinsey & Company Inc	$118,923	$57.17	49
   10	Workday	$118,198	$56.83	9
   11	Epicor	$118,052	$56.76	1
   12	Kaiser Permanente	$117,940	$56.70	45
   13	Eli Lilly and Company	$116,535	$56.03	5
   14	CoreLogic	$115,255	$55.41	1
   15	Medidata	$115,007	$55.29	8
   16	SiriusXM	$114,793	$55.19	3
   17	Veeva Systems	$113,093	$54.37	100
   18	Oracle	$111,093	$53.41	3,834
   19	Salesforce	$109,393	$52.59	25
   20	AlixPartners	$109,383	$52.59	5

4. Writing a data consultant job description

   A job description for a data consultant 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 consultant job description:

   Data consultant job description example

   With us, you'll do meaningful work from Day 1. Our collaborative culture is built on three core behaviors: We Play to Win, We Get Better Every Day & We Succeed Together. And we mean it - we want you to grow and make a difference at one of the world's leading digital banking and payments companies. We value what makes you unique so that you have an opportunity to shine.

   Come build your future, while being the reason millions of people find a brighter financial future with Discover.

   Job Description

   • Develops and codes solutions for metadata management, data quality, and sensitive data management activities.

   • Designs solutions for metadata management, data quality, and sensitive data management activities. Implements improvements in architecture, team processes, and functions.

   Minimum Qualifications

   At a minimum, here's what we need from you:

   • Bachelor's Degree in Business or Technology

   • 2+ years of experience in Information Technology

   • In lieu of a degree, 4+ years of experience in Information Technology

   Preferred Qualifications

   If we had our say, we'd also look for:

   • Experience using SQL and reporting and various reporting tools.

   #Remote
   #BI-Remote
   #LI-CM
   

   What are you waiting for? Apply today!

   What are you waiting for? Apply today!

   All Discover employees place our customers at the very the center of our work. To deliver on our promises to our customers, each of us contribute every day to a culture that values compliance and risk management.

   The same way we treat our employees is how we treat all applicants - with respect. Discover Financial Services is an equal opportunity employer (EEO is the law). We thrive on diversity & inclusion. You will be treated fairly throughout our recruiting process and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status in consideration for a career at Discover.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right data consultant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with data consultants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit data consultants who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

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

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit data consultants, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   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 consultant

   Once you've decided on a perfect data consultant candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your 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.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new data consultant. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

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.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a data consultant?