How to hire a principal business analyst

How to hire a principal business analyst, step by step

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

What does a principal business analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a principal business 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

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a principal business 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 principal business analyst that fits the bill.

   This list presents principal business analyst salaries for various positions.

   Type of Principal Business Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Principal Business 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.	$42-72
   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
   Business Analyst/Project Manager	A business analyst/project manager is responsible for developing project management procedures, analyzing processes, and ensuring the accuracy and efficiency of project deliverables, following clients' specifications and requirements to meet their highest satisfaction. Business analysts/project managers manage project resources, delegate tasks to project staff, setting deadlines, and coordinating with the clients for regular updates and suggest strategic adjustments as needed... Show more	$34-65

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Provide Management
   • Shared Services
   • Project Management
   • Business Analysis
   • Oversight
   • Business Process
   • SQL
   • Cloud
   • Data Analysis
   • Scrum
   • Process Improvement
   • User Stories
   • Principal Business
   • Business Cases

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage SharePoint for all the technical and correspondence contents.
   • Participate in and hold daily scrum meetings to perform iterative and incremental agile software development framework when managing product development.
   • Create and maintain Microsoft Sharepoint sites for programs design to enhance the customer experience.
   • Participate in and hold daily scrum meetings to perform iterative and incremental agile software development framework when managing product development.
   • Maintain and develop enhancements to the customer letter generation system written in Java, C++, RPG and Delphi.
   • Develop a solid business case and determine business and technical requirements base on ROI comparison of several vendors.

   More principal business analyst duties

3. Make a budget

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

   Average principal business analyst salary

   $115,081yearly

   $55.33 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level principal business analyst salary

   $88,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average principal business analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$143,821	$69
   2	California	$142,447	$68
   3	Massachusetts	$129,133	$62
   4	Connecticut	$127,066	$61
   5	New Jersey	$125,264	$60
   6	Rhode Island	$122,278	$59
   7	New York	$120,542	$58
   8	Illinois	$120,037	$58
   9	Minnesota	$119,087	$57
   10	Texas	$117,810	$57
   11	Delaware	$117,711	$57
   12	North Carolina	$116,905	$56
   13	Oregon	$116,814	$56
   14	Iowa	$116,675	$56
   15	Virginia	$115,543	$56
   16	Michigan	$113,299	$54
   17	Georgia	$111,784	$54
   18	Ohio	$107,635	$52
   19	Arizona	$103,159	$50
   20	Florida	$98,106	$47

   Average principal business analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Mayo Clinic	$152,324	$73.23	18
   2	Meta	$147,067	$70.71	168
   3	Genentech	$140,060	$67.34	49
   4	Google	$138,447	$66.56	109
   5	Palo Alto Networks	$135,841	$65.31	175
   6	SoCalGas	$134,707	$64.76
   7	Fortinet	$134,614	$64.72	7
   8	Thoughtworks	$134,472	$64.65
   9	Anaplan	$133,615	$64.24	1
   10	Boehringer Ingelheim	$130,557	$62.77	38
   11	American Tower	$130,188	$62.59
   12	BNP Paribas	$130,172	$62.58
   13	Capgemini	$129,711	$62.36	185
   14	Parexel International	$129,144	$62.09	7
   15	ViacomCBS	$128,628	$61.84
   16	Hoffmann-LA Roche Inc	$128,627	$61.84	5
   17	Nomura Securities	$127,603	$61.35	42
   18	Vertex Pharmaceuticals	$127,559	$61.33	12
   19	Amgen	$127,046	$61.08	18
   20	Moderna	$126,415	$60.78	2

4. Writing a principal business analyst job description

   A principal business analyst job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a principal business analyst job description:

   Principal business analyst job description example

   The driving force behind our success has always been the people of AspenTech. What drives us, is our aspiration, our desire and ambition to keep pushing the envelope, overcoming any hurdle, challenging the status quo to continually find a better way. You will experience these qualities of passion, pride and aspiration in many ways - from a rich set of career development programs to support of community service projects to social events that foster fun and relationship building across our global community.
   The Role
   AspenTech is seeking to hire a Principal Salesforce Business Analyst onto our CRM/Business Applications team in Bedford, Massachusetts. Our company CRM is Salesforce and therefore the Principal Salesforce Business Analyst will be an experienced Salesforce Admin and/or Salesforce Consultant with deep understanding of Salesforce and ability to bring the knowledge of Salesforce best practices to deliver strategic projects.
   
   As a Principal Salesforce Business Analyst, you will work alongside Solution Architects and Business Leads to design, develop, and deploy large-scale enterprise solutions. The ideal candidate will play a critical role in helping AspenTech drive the digitalization of various business processes across many areas of the organization.
   
   Your Impact
   Partner with business stakeholders to drive the digitalization of both customer-facing and internal business processes across the organization.Implement strategic large scale CRM initiatives to drive scalability and growth.Understand and document business needs, distinguish between needs and wants, identify gaps between current capabilities, design, and document future state solutions; provide detailed business requirements specifications in preparation for development.Work collaboratively with team members to design a solution that will meet a client's business requirements and fulfill user stories.Participate in key meetings with clients including requirement sessions, system demos, user acceptance testing, and end user training Lead projects and virtual project teams across the organization in support of process improvement and digitalization initiatives.Create and articulate compelling business cases to support changes to business systems and processes.Develop and maintain effective working relationships with a diverse group of business process owners to influence change.Serve as the liaison between the IS team and business stakeholders to understand current and future state business requirements for information technology systems and services.Work with both functional and technical development team resources throughout all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) including, design, development, testing and deployment.
   
   What You'll Need
   Bachelor's degree7-10+ years of experience with business process improvement, business analysis, and project management, preferably within an agile environment7-10+ years of experience working with Salesforce.com environment Proven experience of executing large scale application projects Experience with implementing CPQ and a deep knowledge of Quote-To-Cash process Experience with driving business process improvement initiatives via continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean Six SigmaSolid exposure and understanding of business processes and best practices in a variety of areas including master data management, quote-to-cash, and customer relationship management.Hands on experience configuring Salesforce including workflows, validation rules, and security controls Proven ability leveraging analytical and problem-solving skills in a fast paced and agile environment Detail-oriented individual with the ability to quickly ramp up on new clients, their business needs, and technologies Strong presentation, communication (written and verbal) skills, and interpersonal skills Ability to juggle and prioritize multiple tasks within a collaborative team environment Demonstrates flexibility and willingness to do what it takes to get the job done Drive and desire to learn and grow both technical and functional skill sets
   
   Preferred Experience and Skills
   Experience leveraging and configuring AppExchange products to develop a solution Experience with Sales Cloud, Revenue Cloud, Tableau CRM and CPQ/Quote-To-CashSalesforce Certification

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find principal business analysts for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

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

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with principal business analyst candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   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 principal business analyst

   Once you have selected a candidate for the principal business 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.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new principal business analyst. 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.)

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