How to hire a policy analyst

Policy analyst hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring policy analysts in the United States:

The median cost to hire a policy analyst is $1,633.
It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
Small businesses spend $1,105 per policy analyst on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
There are a total of 6,978 policy analysts in the US, and there are currently 69,173 job openings in this field.
Washington, DC, has the highest demand for policy analysts, with 69 job openings.

How to hire a policy analyst, step by step

To hire a policy analyst, you need to identify the specific skills and experience you want in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and advertise the job opening to attract potential candidates. To hire a policy analyst, you should follow these steps:

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

What does a policy analyst do?

Policy analysts are responsible for developing government policies and providing advice and briefing to senior management. These professionals work to influence both social and political decisions. They typically work in four key areas, including collecting information, analyzing policies, providing recommendations, and sharing information with government officials and the public. Additionally, they are also expected to consult with stakeholders to provide quantitative evidence supporting their policy. The rest of their time is spent on writing, reading, and analyzing information.

Learn more about the specifics of what a policy analyst does

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Identify your hiring needs

Before you post your policy analyst job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a policy analyst for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

Determine employee vs contractor status

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

Hiring the perfect policy analyst also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

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

Type of Policy Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
Policy 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.	$22-44
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
Workforce Management Analyst	A workforce management analyst's role is to oversee the workforce in a company while developing better management strategies. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting research and analysis to identify employees' needs, detect vulnerabilities in human resources, monitor staff performance and attendance, address issues and concerns, ensure schedule compliance, and coordinate with different departments within the company... Show more	$20-45

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common skills:
- Public Policy
- Policy Analysis
- Policy Issues
- Public Health
- Health Policy
- PowerPoint
- Policy Development
- Data Analysis
- Project Management
- Medicaid
- Policy Research
- Oversight
- DOD
- Data Collection
Check all skills
Responsibilities:
- Develop comprehensive consumer education material around the changes to behavioral health services in Medicaid manage care.
- Manage all issues relate to high quality survey administration including training and approval/certification, performance oversight and data collection.
- Process data using STATA statistical software to get it ready for regressions.
- Develop research and programmatic reports create in SAS to be used for analysis.
- Work to maintain, update, and correct SalesForce database for pertinent mailings.
- Develop PowerPoint presentations on trends for use with legislature, law enforcement, and the public.
More policy analyst duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your policy analyst job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A policy analyst salary can vary based on several factors:

Location. For example, policy analysts' average salary in arkansas is 46% less than in connecticut.
Seniority. Entry-level policy analysts earn 49% less than senior-level policy analysts.
Certifications. A policy analyst with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a policy analyst's salary.

Average policy analyst salary

$66,359yearly

$31.90 hourly rate

Entry-level policy analyst salary

$47,000 yearly salary

Updated January 22, 2026

Average policy analyst salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	Washington	$91,000	$44
2	District of Columbia	$87,636	$42
3	New York	$86,207	$41
4	Massachusetts	$85,324	$41
5	California	$82,757	$40
6	Virginia	$80,865	$39
7	Delaware	$78,564	$38
8	Oregon	$78,304	$38
9	Maryland	$77,344	$37
10	Arizona	$75,140	$36
11	Colorado	$73,039	$35
12	Pennsylvania	$71,322	$34
13	Minnesota	$70,642	$34
14	Illinois	$69,271	$33
15	North Carolina	$67,908	$33
16	Texas	$67,217	$32
17	Wisconsin	$63,369	$30
18	Georgia	$62,117	$30
19	Ohio	$61,569	$30
20	Nebraska	$60,867	$29

Average policy analyst salary by company

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
1	Apple	$119,600	$57.50	16
2	Google	$116,303	$55.91	17
3	Pacific Gas and Electric	$101,168	$48.64
4	First Republic Bank	$97,142	$46.70
5	Santander Private Banking International	$93,354	$44.88	2
6	Bloomberg	$92,421	$44.43	26
7	Visa	$90,850	$43.68	10
8	Southern California Edison	$90,830	$43.67
9	Santander Bank	$87,177	$41.91	3
10	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	$86,689	$41.68
11	Urban Institute	$86,301	$41.49
12	Earthjustice	$86,046	$41.37
13	M&T Bank	$85,740	$41.22	14
14	NRDC	$84,516	$40.63	3
15	Federal Reserve Bank	$84,467	$40.61
16	IIF	$84,355	$40.56
17	Food and Drug Law Institute	$83,728	$40.25
18	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	$83,486	$40.14	13
19	Booz Allen Hamilton	$82,851	$39.83	61
20	Warner Music Group	$82,161	$39.50	2

Writing a policy analyst job description
A job description for a policy 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 policy analyst job description:
Policy analyst job description example
Work Experience: 3+ years ; Model Governance, Project Management, Internal Control, or Internal Audit experience.
Ability to analyze risk and provide recommendations and/or resolutions to minimize risk.
Ability to build and foster internal relationships.
Ability to change direction as project demand dictates.
Ability to effectively and clearly communicate instructions to others, summarize and articulate issues, and document findings in a clear and concise manner.
Ability to stay abreast of industry best practices, procedures, and techniques.
Ability to summarize, document, and communicate information in a clear and concise manner.
Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively within a team environment.

At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce and strive to increase the diversity of our teams. We actively encourage everyone to apply.

Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Employer Rights:

This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate at any time for any reason.

Post your job

There are various strategies that you can use to find the right policy 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 policy analyst job on Zippia to find and recruit policy analyst candidates who meet your exact specifications.
Use field-specific websites.
Post a job on free websites.

Interview candidates

Recruiting policy 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.

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

Send a job offer and onboard your new policy analyst

Once you've decided on a perfect policy analyst 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 also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new policy 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.

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.)

How much does it cost to hire a policy analyst?

Hiring a policy analyst comes with both the one-time cost per hire and ongoing costs. The cost of recruiting policy analysts involves promoting the job and spending time conducting interviews. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider the cost of policy analyst recruiting as well the ongoing costs of maintaining the new employee.

Policy analysts earn a median yearly salary is $66,359 a year in the US. However, if you're looking to find policy analysts for hire on a contract or per-project basis, hourly rates typically range between $22 and $44.

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Hiring policy analysts FAQs

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Updated January 22, 2026

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How to hire a policy analyst