How to Become a Senior Business Analyst

It takes five to seven years to become a senior analyst. Depending on the company and your educational level, the time it takes to become a senior analyst can be ten to 12 years.

The minimum educational requirement for a senior analyst is typically a bachelor's degree. Around 68% of senior analysts have a bachelor's degree, and 23% have a master's degree. Interestingly, approximately 6% of senior analysts have just an associate's degree.

The most important training for working as a senior analyst is experience working in the field. A senior analyst is generally required to have five years' worth of experience and multiple projects under their belt.

One reason for this is that a senior analyst must identify and correct operational, financial, and technological risks. This task includes maintaining, testing, and improving business and systems operations. A senior analyst must evaluate the performance of various teams to ensure that targets and deadlines are met.

A senior business analyst makes $104,319 a year. However, this can range from as low as $74,000 a year to as high as $150,000 a year. Factors such as the location of the job, company size, and some years of experience can all impact earning potential.

Highest Paying Cities For Senior Business Analysts:

• Sunnyvale, CA - $124,537 a year ($59.87 an hour)

• Santa Cruz, CA - $123,386 a year ($59.32 an hour)

• Santa Rosa, CA - $120,605 a year ($57.98 an hour)

• Livermore, CA - $120,457 a year ($57.91 an hour)

• Williston, ND - $118,175 a year ($56.81 an hour)

High Paying Senior Business Analyst Job Titles Include:

• Senior Curam Business Analyst - $158,415 a year ($76.16 an hour)

• Senior Business Analyst Manager - $117,033 a year ($56.27 an hour)

• Senior Business Analyst IV - $114,266 a year ($54.94 an hour)

• Senior Information Security Business Analyst - $111,086 a year ($53.41 an hour)

• Senior Agile Business Analyst - $110,946 a year ($53.34 an hour)

A business architect comes after a senior business analyst. However, that's not the only path forward. There are other advances that senior business analysts can make.

A senior business analyst may become a technology architect or an enterprise architect, then advance to senior leadership positions in those roles. In other cases, senior business analysts go on to become chief technology officers (CTO). Different paths of advancement could be management consultant, product owner, or systems analyst.

It largely depends on what works best based on your experience and interests. Overall, a senior business analyst position offers many opportunities to advance in different directions within the company.

The qualifications needed to become a business analyst include a college degree and some work experience. It's not impossible to be a business analyst without a college degree, but it requires many years of work experience.

It's essential to have a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, or Accounting. You'll also want to learn some computer programming.

Depending on the business analyst role, it will require different levels of technical proficiency, but the better developed your programming skills, the better you will look as a candidate. The IIBA's Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) reference book is a crucial resource to begin understanding the tasks and techniques of a business analyst.

Finally, you will need to gain work experience. You can gain experience in a volunteer role with a small company first or take advantage of summer internship opportunities. If you are already working with a company in a different position, offer to work on the kind of projects that business analysts undertake.