How to hire a lead operations analyst

How to hire a lead operations analyst, step by step

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

What does a lead operations analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the lead operations analyst you need to hire. Certain lead operations analyst 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 lead operations analyst 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 lead operations analyst that fits the bill.

   The following list breaks down different types of lead operations analysts and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Lead Operations Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Lead Operations Analyst	Operations research analysts use advanced mathematical and analytical methods to help organizations investigate complex issues, identify and solve problems, and make better decisions.	$25-50
   Analyst Lead	The duties of an analyst lead depend on one's line of work or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis, coordinating with different departments to gather leads and data, reviewing findings, and producing reports and presentations for the stakeholders and other higher-ranking officials... Show more	$35-58
   Analyst	Analysts are employees or individual contributors with a vast experience in a particular field that help the organization address challenges. They help the organization improve processes, policies, and other operations protocol by studying the current processes in place and determining the effectiveness of those processes... Show more	$25-47

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Data Analysis
   • Mainframe
   • Business Processes
   • Linux
   • Process Improvement
   • Incident Management
   • Unix
   • Reconciliations
   • GAAP
   • Financial Analysis
   • Financial Data
   • SQL Server
   • Hyperion
   • Securities

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Implement and manage QA process for newly deploy case management system.
   • Manage and deploy PC hardware and software in support OSD's mission.
   • Manage mutual fund dividend distributions, reconciliations, ACATS, manual transfers, and trading.
   • Manage all logistics and supply chain operations that facilitate sales delivery with minimal disruption to distribution, following all compliance standards.
   • Experience with basic setup in Websphere, Unix printer issue, JIRA as QA management tool.
   • Administer the team's sharepoint website.

   More lead operations analyst duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your lead operations analyst job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A lead operations analyst can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, lead operations analysts' average salary in arkansas is 55% less than in district of columbia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level lead operations analysts 49% less than senior-level lead operations analysts.
   • Certifications. A lead operations analyst with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a lead operations analyst's salary.

   Average lead operations analyst salary

   $74,913yearly

   $36.02 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level lead operations analyst salary

   $53,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average lead operations analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$95,859	$46
   2	Maryland	$91,708	$44
   3	Virginia	$89,994	$43
   4	New York	$87,204	$42
   5	Washington	$86,660	$42
   6	Massachusetts	$84,739	$41
   7	North Carolina	$84,302	$41
   8	Illinois	$79,612	$38
   9	Minnesota	$76,935	$37
   10	Connecticut	$76,572	$37
   11	Pennsylvania	$73,757	$35
   12	Texas	$70,798	$34
   13	Arizona	$65,007	$31
   14	Ohio	$64,634	$31
   15	Oklahoma	$61,725	$30
   16	Colorado	$61,710	$30
   17	Missouri	$61,542	$30
   18	Utah	$58,223	$28
   19	Iowa	$54,946	$26
   20	Florida	$50,594	$24

   Average lead operations analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	BNY Mellon	$95,680	$46.00	19
   2	Barclays	$88,755	$42.67	1
   3	Kaiser Permanente	$85,624	$41.17	5
   4	The United Illuminating Company	$81,325	$39.10
   5	The University of Vermont Health Network	$75,393	$36.25
   6	Discover	$75,369	$36.24	1
   7	Alliance Data	$74,838	$35.98
   8	General Dynamics Mission Systems	$72,898	$35.05
   9	Retalix	$72,893	$35.04
   10	General Electric	$72,340	$34.78	44
   11	Fellowes Brands	$70,951	$34.11
   12	Motorola Solutions	$69,966	$33.64	10
   13	CenturyLink	$69,561	$33.44
   14	KeyBank	$69,335	$33.33	6
   15	Highmark	$68,332	$32.85	294
   16	NANA	$67,334	$32.37	10
   17	WestRock	$67,151	$32.28	5
   18	Wells Fargo	$66,348	$31.90	18
   19	Limelight Networks	$65,019	$31.26
   20	Nes Holdings	$64,729	$31.12

4. Writing a lead operations analyst job description

   A job description for a lead operations 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 lead operations analyst job description:

   Lead operations analyst 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

   What You'll Do

   • Implement strategies and systems improvements to support business operations.

   • Utilize data to identify opportunities to enhance efficiencies, foster collaboration, and problem-solve issues.

   How You'll Do It

   • Assess root causes and solutions for issues that arise.

   • Lead performance improvement implementations.

   • Partner with internal teams and external partners to define implementation requirements and timelines.

   • Ensure operational readiness for all implementations, technology, and process changes.

   • Identify opportunities to improve operations by analyzing data, listening to customer calls, interviewing staff, and observing workflows.

   • Document processes and process flows.

   • Drive the development and enhancement of reporting metrics.

   Qualifications You'll Need

   The Basics:

   • Bachelor's degree in business, arts and sciences, or related field

   • 4+ years of experience in customer service or financial services operations

   • In lieu of a degree, 6+ years of experience in customer service or financial services operations

   Bonus Points If You Have:

   • Master's degree in business, arts and sciences, or related field

   • 4+ years of experience in applicable line of business (deposits, personal loans, student loans), or related field

   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 lead operations analyst 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 lead operations analysts they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit lead operations analysts 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 lead operations analyst job on Zippia to find and recruit lead operations analyst candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting lead operations 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.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   Sometimes, it's not enough to interview lead operations analyst candidates, so you can ask them to do a test project. If you are not a technical person and don't know what a test project should be, you can use these websites:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   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 lead operations analyst

   Once you've found the lead operations analyst candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is 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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