How to hire a Senior Business Analyst

How to hire a senior business analyst, step by step

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

What does a Senior Business Analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The senior business analyst hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine Employee vs Contractor Status

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

   Yes

   No

   A senior business analyst's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior business analysts from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents senior business analyst salaries for various positions.

   Type Of Senior Business Analyst	Description	Hourly Rate
   Senior Business Analyst	A Senior Business Analyst provides strategic business analysis services to business partners. They analyze business processes, identify alternative solutions, and recommend new approaches.	$34-62
   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/Quality Analyst	A business analyst/quality analyst is responsible for evaluating business outputs and operational processes to ensure that everything adheres to the quality standards and business regulations. Business analysts/quality analysts support senior management in determining solutions to improve the company's services and provide the highest satisfaction for the customers and clients... Show More	$27-46

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common Skills:

   • Project Management
   • Business Analysis
   • Data Analysis
   • Business Process
   • User Stories
   • Business Stakeholders
   • Scrum
   • Strong Analytical
   • User Acceptance
   • Power Bi
   • UAT
   • Test Cases
   • Business Analysts
   • SDLC

   Check All Skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Create UNIX shell scripts to accomplish the full testing process and results.
   • Manage loyalty customer information using ETL to gain further knowledge for demographics and marketing initiatives.
   • Lead enterprise level customer data mapping initiatives as well as ETL process development and data conversion/integration.
   • Manage multiple aspects of product design and end user analysis objectives medical practice management & HIPAA compliance applications.
   • Assist QA team in test planning and UAT planning, review test cases to make sure all requirements are addressed.
   • Lead teams of BSA and QA resources locate in multiple offices including offshore contract resources.

   More Senior Business Analyst duties

3. Make a budget

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

   • Location. For example, senior business analysts' average salary in alabama is 35% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior business analysts earn 44% less than senior-level senior business analysts.
   • Certifications. A senior business 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 senior business analyst's salary.

   Average senior business analyst salary

   $96,844yearly

   $46.56 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior business analyst salary

   $72,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 13, 2025

   Average senior business analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
   1	California	$124,616	$60
   2	Washington	$105,333	$51
   3	New Jersey	$103,380	$50
   4	New York	$100,994	$49
   5	District of Columbia	$98,716	$47
   6	Maryland	$97,298	$47
   7	Virginia	$92,975	$45
   8	Delaware	$91,393	$44
   9	North Carolina	$91,290	$44
   10	Pennsylvania	$90,497	$44
   11	Connecticut	$89,907	$43
   12	Massachusetts	$88,157	$42
   13	Illinois	$87,633	$42
   14	Arizona	$86,732	$42
   15	Minnesota	$85,657	$41
   16	Texas	$85,369	$41
   17	Ohio	$84,587	$41
   18	Wisconsin	$84,087	$40
   19	Georgia	$83,609	$40
   20	Indiana	$80,650	$39

   Average senior business analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
   1	Meta	$154,697	$74.37	62
   2	DLA Piper	$151,533	$72.85	76
   3	Airbnb	$149,573	$71.91	3
   4	Pacific Investment Management Company LLC	$147,969	$71.14	1
   5	Mayo Clinic	$147,302	$70.82	34
   6	Apple	$145,705	$70.05	42
   7	Rivian	$144,121	$69.29	5
   8	Flexion Therapeutics	$143,914	$69.19
   9	Pure Storage	$143,163	$68.83	4
   10	ORIX USA	$143,150	$68.82	2
   11	NerdWallet	$142,711	$68.61
   12	Atlassian	$142,499	$68.51	9
   13	Fundbox	$142,312	$68.42
   14	Shearman & Sterling	$141,988	$68.26
   15	Karma Automotive	$141,648	$68.10
   16	GoldenTree Asset Management	$140,841	$67.71
   17	Chegg	$140,756	$67.67
   18	First Republic Bank	$140,668	$67.63
   19	NVIDIA	$140,261	$67.43	8
   20	Vista Equity Partners	$140,145	$67.38	2

4. Writing a Senior Business Analyst Job Description

   A job description for a senior business 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 senior business analyst job description:

   Senior Business Analyst job description example

   Do you want to make a large impact in your next role? Join CVS Health, a Fortune 5 company as a Financial Analytics Senior Consultant of Client and Network Pricing Operations. This position is responsible for contributing to the effort of managing client guarantee performance, reviewing contract language and collaborating with multiple internal partners such as Underwriting, Networks, Sales/Account Management, Finance, Accounting, Audit and Legal.The Pricing Operations Senior Analyst will review guarantee performance by client on a monthly basis, prepare financial performance reporting, provide reporting and information for audit requests, and partner with Underwriting, Networks, Sales/Account Management, Audit and Legal, to review contract terms and provide recommendations for pricing strategy.Primary responsibilities include: - Perform monthly data pulls for assigned guarantee clients. Review performance results, drug mix and utilization to identify opportunities to mitigate financial risk to the organization. - Collaborate with underwriting, finance and accounting partners to understand and improve gaps and overlaps in processes and gain further understanding of the multiple components and factors that impact a client's financial performance.- Perform lookback analysis to review underwriting assumptions to contract language and actual results, in an effort to provide future recommendations to senior leadership.The successful candidate will have analytical, programming, and interpersonal skills, be able to manage both long- and short- term projects and assignments effectively, and work collaboratively in inter-departmental settings to accomplish tasks and goals. You will have the opportunity to develop reporting packages and presentations to management, create best-practices, and draw conclusions from the information to provide input to critical business decisions. Key interactions are with Underwriting, Networks, Sales/Account Management, Finance, Accounting, Audit and Legal.
   Pay Range
   
   The typical pay range for this role is:
   
   Minimum: 43,700
   
   Maximum: 97,400
   
   Please keep in mind that this range represents the pay range for all positions in the job grade within which this position falls. The actual salary offer will take into account a wide range of factors, including location.
   
   Required Qualifications
   
   Required Qualifications :- 5 years pricing, financial or data analysis experience required- Experience with creating financial models and working with large data sets and in a database environment.
   
   COVID Requirements
   
   COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement
   
   CVS Health requires certain colleagues to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (including any booster shots if required), where allowable under the law, unless they are approved for a reasonable accommodation based on disability, medical condition, religious belief, or other legally recognized reasons that prevents them from being vaccinated.
   
   You are required to have received at least one COVID-19 shot prior to your first day of employment and to provide proof of your vaccination status or apply for a reasonable accommodation within the first 10 days of your employment. Please note that in some states and roles, you may be required to provide proof of full vaccination or an approved reasonable accommodation before you can begin to actively work.
   
   Preferred Qualifications
   
   Preferred Qualifications :- 2+ years' experience with PBM- Knowledge of health insurance, managed care, or pharmaceutical industry preferred- Analytical expertise and experience, SAS, SQL, Access, and Excel.
   
   Education
   
   Education :- Bachelor's Degree required or relevant work experience may be considered.- Masters Degree preferred
   
   Business Overview
   
   Bring your heart to CVS HealthEvery one of us at CVS Health shares a single, clear purpose: Bringing our heart to every moment of your health. This purpose guides our commitment to deliver enhanced human-centric health care for a rapidly changing world. Anchored in our brand - with heart at its center - our purpose sends a personal message that how we deliver our services is just as important as what we deliver.Our Heart At Work Behaviors™ support this purpose. We want everyone who works at CVS Health to feel empowered by the role they play in transforming our culture and accelerating our ability to innovate and deliver solutions to make health care more personal, convenient and affordable. We strive to promote and sustain a culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging every day. CVS Health is an affirmative action employer, and is an equal opportunity employer, as are the physician-owned businesses for which CVS Health provides management services. We do not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, promotion, or any other personnel action based on race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex/gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

   Copy This Example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find senior 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 senior business analyst job on Zippia to find and recruit senior 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 senior 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.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a senior business analyst applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • 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 senior business analyst

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior business 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 equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new senior 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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