How To Become A Process Improvement Analyst: What It Is and Career Path

What is a process improvement analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Erik Johnson Ph.D.

A process improvement analyst's role is to understand the details of organizational processes and find ways to optimize and improve them. These analysts study various stages of a project by breaking them down into individual steps and developing suitable metrics for each one.

Process improvement analysts perform data gathering, root cause analysis, and identify trends while studying processes. They may also collaborate with other employees like subject matter experts for a better understanding.

After identifying inefficient processes, these analysts develop, prioritize and implement changes based on the business' goals and needs. They may also work with teams and assist them in the implementation.

Process improvement analysts need skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, and attention to detail to do their jobs. Since they often work with other teams, they also need teamwork, communication, and listening skills. To become a process improvement analyst, you'll need a bachelor's degree in business administration, information technology, or similar fields.

What general advice would you give to a process improvement analyst?

Erik Johnson Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Carthage College

Economics gives you a set of tools to analyze a variety of policy and business problems. However, determining which tools to apply in which situation requires that you learn the industry, you are working from top to bottom. When you begin a new job in a new field, be sure to do everything you can to understand how the organization and the industry work to understand the primary incentives that everyone faces. One right way to do this is to make as many connections within the company you are working for as possible, and always be on the lookout for new opportunities within the company and how they can help you learn more. Moreover, do your best to ensure that a significant portion of your job involves some creative endeavors, such as economic modeling or building tools for yourself or others to use. As computing power continues to become cheaper, and artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, relatively repetitive tasks become more comfortable and easier to automate. Therefore, you will have less job security. Creative tasks, such as modeling and tool building, are difficult to automate and are more likely to provide you with more satisfaction.

ScoreProcess Improvement AnalystUS Average

Salary

5.7

Avg. Salary $72,770

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 12.84%

Black or African American 8.06%

Hispanic or Latino 8.89%

Unknown 4.50%

White 65.55%

Gender

female 45.18%

male 54.82%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.2

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a process improvement analyst

Explore process improvement analyst education requirements

Most common process improvement analyst degrees

Bachelor's

72.1 %

Master's

17.3 %

Associate

6.9 %

Start to develop specific process improvement analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Lean Six Sigma	11.72%
Continuous Improvement	10.99%
Sigma	9.48%
Project Management	8.88%
Process Improvement	4.41%

Complete relevant process improvement analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New process improvement analysts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a process improvement analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real process improvement analyst resumes.

Research process improvement analyst duties and responsibilities

Participate in and hold daily scrum meetings to perform iterative and incremental agile software development framework when managing product development.
Publish KPIs results and elaborate reports to identify possible issues and recommend actions to keep improving.
Interview I2TS stakeholders and facilitate working sessions to document their current state and future state processes in Visio.
Collaborate with project team in the creation of a new SharePoint site to record and track customer feedback.

Prepare your process improvement analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your process improvement analyst resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a process improvement analyst resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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