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Data analyst career path, levels and ladder
Updated
5 levels, from Junior Data Analyst to Principal Data Scientist / Analytics Lead. Each one is rated on the same 34 skills — what changes between the rungs is how good you have to be at each. A ladder from junior analyst to principal data scientist, covering data engineering, governance, statistics, ML and visualization.
- Level 1 of 5
Junior Data Analyst job description
Runs defined analyses and dashboards under close guidance.
Read the job description - Level 2 of 5
Data Analyst job description
Owns analyses and reporting for a domain with little oversight.
Read the job description - Level 3 of 5
Senior Data Analyst job description
Leads complex analyses and sets the standard other analysts follow.
Read the job description - Level 4 of 5
Lead Data Scientist job description
Sets modeling and experimentation direction across a team.
Read the job description - Level 5 of 5
Principal Data Scientist / Analytics Lead job description
Shapes the analytics and data science strategy org-wide.
Read the job description
Data analyst levels and job titles
Data analyst, product analyst and data scientist titles overlap. This table maps each level on this ladder to the titles you will commonly see elsewhere. For how these titles line up across departments, see the job title hierarchy.
| Level on this ladder | Common job titles |
|---|---|
| Junior Data Analyst | Junior Data Analyst, Associate Data Analyst, Data Analyst I |
| Data Analyst | Data Analyst, Data Analyst II, Product Analyst I, Data Scientist I |
| Senior Data Analyst | Senior Data Analyst, Data Analyst III, Senior Product Analyst, Senior Data Scientist |
| Lead Data Scientist | Lead Data Scientist, Staff Data Analyst, Staff Product Analyst, Analytics Lead |
| Principal Data Scientist / Analytics Lead | Principal Data Scientist, Principal Data Analyst, Principal Product Analyst, Distinguished Product Analyst |
Individual contributor or manager?
These are mostly individual contributor (IC) titles, but Lead can mean leading a team of analysts or leading the work as the most experienced analyst. Many companies also run a separate manager track, such as Analytics Manager and Head of Data, that branches off around Senior.
Skills matrix
34 skills and 2 certifications across 5 levels.
| Skill/Certification 36 | Junior Data Analyst | Data Analyst | Senior Data Analyst | Lead Data Scientist | Principal Data Scientist / Analytics Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Engineering5 | |||||
| BasicYou can write a multi-table join with window functions for totals and rankings, following the team's examples, and check it for duplicated rows. | ProficientYou can write efficient queries against large tables, choosing indexes and query shape to avoid a full scan, and explain a query plan to a colleague. | AdvancedYou can diagnose and rewrite a query that is timing out a production dashboard, and you set the SQL style and review standards your team follows. | AdvancedYou can diagnose and rewrite a query that is timing out a production dashboard, and you set the SQL style and review standards your team follows. | ExpertYou can set query and warehouse-cost standards across the organization and take on the most contested queries other teams escalate. | |
| NoviceYou can read an existing star schema and say which table holds a given fact or attribute. | BasicYou can add a new dimension attribute or a straightforward fact table to an existing model, following the conventions already in place. | AdvancedYou can redesign a model that has drifted from the business it describes, migrating its consumers without breaking their reports. | AdvancedYou can redesign a model that has drifted from the business it describes, migrating its consumers without breaking their reports. | ExpertYou can set the modeling standards for the warehouse and arbitrate between teams whose models disagree about what a shared entity means. | |
| NoviceYou can run and troubleshoot an existing pipeline job from its logs, following a runbook. | ProficientYou can build pipelines that handle late-arriving and out-of-order data, backfill history safely, and keep runs idempotent. | AdvancedYou can design the pipeline architecture for a new data domain, including how failures are surfaced and how a bad run is safely reversed. | AdvancedYou can design the pipeline architecture for a new data domain, including how failures are surfaced and how a bad run is safely reversed. | ExpertYou can set the pipeline platform and reliability standards for the organization, and lead diagnosis of cross-system pipeline failures whose cause is not obvious. | |
| NoviceYou can apply a documented cleaning rule, such as trimming a field or standardizing a date format, inside an existing transformation. | BasicYou can write a transformation step that joins and reshapes several sources into one model, documenting the assumptions you made. | ProficientYou can design a transformation layer for a new dataset, choosing what to compute once centrally versus leave to the query, and test it against known-good output. | AdvancedYou can rework a transformation layer that has accumulated silent assumptions, replacing them with tested, documented logic. | ExpertYou can set the transformation standards for the warehouse, including where logic belongs, and resolve disputes about which version of a number is correct. | |
| NoviceYou can explain the layers of the warehouse you work in and say which layer a given table lives in. | BasicYou can add a table to the correct layer, following existing partitioning and naming conventions. | ProficientYou can design the layering, partitioning and access pattern for a new subject area, balancing query speed against storage and compute cost. | AdvancedYou can re-architect a warehouse area that has become slow or expensive, and quantify the improvement before and after. | ExpertYou can set the warehouse architecture strategy for the organization, including platform choice, and defend it against both cost and performance pressure. | |
| Data Governance4 | |||||
| BasicYou can add a completeness, range or row-count check to a dataset using the team's pattern, and follow the runbook when its alert fires. | ProficientYou can design the checks and alert thresholds for a new dataset so they catch silent failures, and root-cause a recurring failure to its source system. | AdvancedYou can trace a failure through a chain of dependent pipelines to its source, and set which checks block a run and which only warn. | AdvancedYou can trace a failure through a chain of dependent pipelines to its source, and set which checks block a run and which only warn. | ExpertYou can set the quality standards and the checks a dataset must pass before publication across the organization, and tell a modeling gap from a source-system fault. | |
| NoviceYou can look up an existing metric definition and calculate it correctly for a simple request. | BasicYou can write a clear definition for a new, uncontested metric, including its calculation and known edge cases. | AdvancedYou can set the metric governance process for a domain, including how a new metric gets approved and where its single source of truth lives. | AdvancedYou can set the metric governance process for a domain, including how a new metric gets approved and where its single source of truth lives. | ExpertYou can own the metric governance framework for the organization and arbitrate the highest-stakes disputes about what a headline number means. | |
| NoviceYou can trace one field back to the table it came from with help, and write up what a dataset holds using the team template. You ask the owner when the meaning of a column is not obvious. | BasicYou can document the datasets you build to the standard the team expects and keep the lineage record current when you change a transformation. You do not leave the write-up until the end. | ProficientYou can map lineage across a full transformation chain and write documentation another analyst uses without coming back to you. You record who a dataset is for and what it should not be used for. | AdvancedYou can untangle the lineage of a messy legacy dataset nobody has documented, and design how lineage is captured so it stays accurate as pipelines change. You get other teams to document what they own. | AdvancedYou can untangle the lineage of a messy legacy dataset nobody has documented, and design how lineage is captured so it stays accurate as pipelines change. You get other teams to document what they own. | |
| BasicYou can classify a new dataset's sensitivity, apply the masking or access restriction it needs, and tell its owner when a planned use looks unfair to the people in the data. | ProficientYou can design roles and retention for a dataset so it holds only what its purpose needs, and answer a subject access or deletion request against it. | ProficientYou can design roles and retention for a dataset so it holds only what its purpose needs, and answer a subject access or deletion request against it. | AdvancedYou can design access for data of mixed sensitivity across several systems, and set the review for new data uses covering bias and appropriateness. | ExpertYou can set how the organization decides and evidences who gets access to which data, along with the ethics and privacy standards and how automated outputs are explained. | |
| Statistics & ML7 | |||||
| NoviceYou can calculate summary statistics such as mean, median and standard deviation, and describe what a simple distribution looks like. | BasicYou can run a standard hypothesis test or confidence interval for a straightforward comparison, and state what its result does and does not show. | AdvancedYou can design the statistical approach for a complex or contested analysis, and catch a misuse of statistics in someone else's work before it ships. | AdvancedYou can design the statistical approach for a complex or contested analysis, and catch a misuse of statistics in someone else's work before it ships. | ExpertYou can set the statistical standards the organization's analyses are held to, and are the final call when a result is genuinely disputed. | |
| NoviceYou can read an experiment results dashboard and say whether the change is winning, losing or inconclusive against its stated metric. | BasicYou can set up a straightforward A/B test with a clear hypothesis, a correctly sized sample and a pre-registered success metric. | AdvancedYou can set the experimentation standards for a product area, including guardrail metrics, and stop a launch being pushed through on a cherry-picked result. | AdvancedYou can set the experimentation standards for a product area, including guardrail metrics, and stop a launch being pushed through on a cherry-picked result. | ExpertYou can set experimentation strategy and standards for the organization, and decide when a question genuinely cannot be answered by an A/B test. | |
| NoviceYou can describe, in plain terms, the difference between a regression problem and a classification problem. | NoviceYou can describe, in plain terms, the difference between a regression problem and a classification problem. | ProficientYou can build, validate and compare models on structured or text data, using metrics that match the business decision. | AdvancedYou can take a model, including a pre-trained AI model, to production with tests on real cases and monitoring for drift. | AdvancedYou can take a model, including a pre-trained AI model, to production with tests on real cases and monitoring for drift. | |
| NoviceYou can build the features a colleague specified, such as a ratio, a lag or a bucketed field, and check the result against hand-calculated rows. | BasicYou can create the standard features a model needs from clean fields and explain what each one represents. You check for leakage and missing values instead of assuming the raw data is fit to use. | ProficientYou can decide which features a model needs from the data available, test whether they actually improve it, and drop the ones that do not earn their place. You keep them interpretable enough to explain to the business. | ProficientYou can decide which features a model needs from the data available, test whether they actually improve it, and drop the ones that do not earn their place. You keep them interpretable enough to explain to the business. | AdvancedYou can engineer features from messy or sparse data where the obvious fields do not work, and build them so training and production see the same values. You review what others build for leakage and drift. | |
| NoviceYou can produce a forecast using a method someone has chosen for you and plot it against what actually happened. You notice when the output looks obviously wrong and say so rather than passing it on. | BasicYou can fit standard forecasting models to a clean series, handle seasonality, and report a range rather than a single number. You go back and check the forecast against the outcome. | ProficientYou can pick and justify an approach for a series you have not forecast before, and state the uncertainty in terms a decision maker can use. You say when the history is too thin to forecast at all. | AdvancedYou can forecast through a launch, promotion or structural shift, and state what the model cannot predict before the forecast drives a commitment. | AdvancedYou can forecast through a launch, promotion or structural shift, and state what the model cannot predict before the forecast drives a commitment. | |
| NoviceYou can profile a dataset with the checks you were given, such as row counts, distributions and missing values, and report what you found. | BasicYou can cleanse a familiar dataset by fixing formats and missing values, and record each change you made in a log. | ProficientYou can link two or more sources, deduplicate the records and weight the sample, then state what the prepared data can and cannot support. | AdvancedYou can work out what the fields in a poorly documented dataset mean from the data itself, and build preparation that reruns to the same result. | AdvancedYou can work out what the fields in a poorly documented dataset mean from the data itself, and build preparation that reruns to the same result. | |
| BasicYou can write a short Python or R script that answers a simple question, following the team's template and having a reviewer check it. | ProficientYou can write tested, documented Python or R analysis code that a colleague can rerun to get the same results. | AdvancedYou can review shared analysis code and improve its tests, structure and documentation so other analysts can reuse it. | AdvancedYou can review shared analysis code and improve its tests, structure and documentation so other analysts can reuse it. | ExpertYou can set the coding, testing and reproducibility standards that analysis code must meet across the organization. | |
| Visualization4 | |||||
| BasicYou can build a small dashboard from a brief using the team's template, with chart types that suit each metric and labels a first-time viewer can read, then have a senior review it. | ProficientYou can design a dashboard for an ambiguous request by first working out what decision it needs to support, and cut features that do not serve that decision. | AdvancedYou can set the dashboard standards for a domain, covering performance, shared definitions and accessibility, and retire dashboards nobody uses. | AdvancedYou can set the dashboard standards for a domain, covering performance, shared definitions and accessibility, and retire dashboards nobody uses. | ExpertYou can set the reporting and self-serve analytics strategy for the organization, and judge when a dashboard is the wrong tool for the question being asked. | |
| NoviceYou can build a chart to a given specification using the agreed colors and labels. You label axes and units without being reminded, and you ask before choosing an encoding yourself. | BasicYou can choose a chart for a straightforward comparison that avoids distortions such as a truncated axis, and pick colors that readers with color-blindness can tell apart. | ProficientYou can choose encodings that make the real pattern visible without exaggerating it, and design a chart a reader reads correctly at first glance. You defend a plain chart over a striking one when the plain one is more honest. | AdvancedYou can present awkward data, such as many series, wide ranges or heavy uncertainty, so it stays readable and accurate. You review what others publish and can say precisely what a design overstates. | AdvancedYou can present awkward data, such as many series, wide ranges or heavy uncertainty, so it stays readable and accurate. You review what others publish and can say precisely what a design overstates. | |
| BasicYou can turn a vague request into a concrete analysis by working through the team's question template, then share the result after a senior has reviewed it. | ProficientYou can challenge a stakeholder's framing and agree a written problem statement that names the decision to be made and how the analysis will inform it. | AdvancedYou can agree a project plan with senior stakeholders, covering scope, milestones and what the data can and cannot tell them. | AdvancedYou can agree a project plan with senior stakeholders, covering scope, milestones and what the data can and cannot tell them. | ExpertYou can shape how leadership uses data in decisions, and tell them plainly when the data does not support their preferred answer. | |
| NoviceYou can write up an analysis in the team format, leading with the finding rather than the method. You get it reviewed before it reaches anyone outside the team. | BasicYou can present a result to a non-technical colleague, explaining what it means and how confident you are, without walking them through the query. You answer the follow-up rather than repeating the chart. | ProficientYou can structure a report so a busy reader gets the point in the first minute and can act on a stated recommendation. | AdvancedYou can take a difficult or unwelcome finding to senior stakeholders and keep the argument standing under challenge. You coach others to cut the detail that interests an analyst but changes no decision. | AdvancedYou can take a difficult or unwelcome finding to senior stakeholders and keep the argument standing under challenge. You coach others to cut the detail that interests an analyst but changes no decision. | |
| Certifications2 | |||||
| Not required | Not required | Required | Required | Required | |
| Not required | Required | Required | Required | Required | |
| Delivery4 | |||||
| NoviceYou can keep your own tasks and deadlines in a current to-do list, and tell your manager as soon as work you own will be late. | BasicYou can organize a small piece of work into steps, put them in a sensible order, and finish it by the date you agreed, raising problems before they cause a delay. | ProficientYou can coordinate a small team's work on a shared goal: who does what by when, what has to wait for what, and a revised plan when things change. | AdvancedYou can keep several people's work in step across teams, agree priorities and hand-offs with them, and keep one shared task list that all of them actually use. | ExpertYou can set the everyday habits for how work is organized and followed up across the organization, and teams you do not lead adopt the routines you introduce. | |
| NoviceYou can estimate how long a task will take once the approach is clear, and you say promptly when the estimate turns out to be wrong. | BasicYou can estimate your own work with reasonable accuracy and keep a steady enough pace that other people can plan around you. | ProficientYou can estimate a whole project including its risks and unknowns, split it into stages, and defend the estimate when it is challenged. | AdvancedYou can estimate work that spans several teams, name the assumptions behind each figure, and rework the plan when those assumptions break. | ExpertYou can forecast work and staffing quarters ahead, and set the estimating method other teams use. | |
| BasicYou can stay responsible after you hand work over: you check it did what it was meant to, fix your own mistakes, and give updates before anyone asks. | ProficientYou can pick up a problem that has no obvious owner and make yourself accountable for it, including the parts nobody enjoys. | AdvancedYou can hold accountability for outcomes delivered mostly by other people, taking the blame when it fails and passing on the credit when it works. | AdvancedYou can hold accountability for outcomes delivered mostly by other people, taking the blame when it fails and passing on the credit when it works. | ExpertYou can report the organization's most exposed outcomes to its leaders as they stand, including bad news, and answer for them. | |
| BasicYou can choose checks that suit the task in front of you, catch your own mistakes before anyone else sees them, and confirm the result works once people start using it. | ProficientYou can define what good enough means for a project, put checks in place to show it has been met, and hold work back when it falls short. | AdvancedYou can set how quality is checked on complex work shared by several teams, and you spot the problems that only appear where their pieces meet. | AdvancedYou can set how quality is checked on complex work shared by several teams, and you spot the problems that only appear where their pieces meet. | ExpertYou can raise the quality bar across the organization by building the tools and habits that make the careful way the easy way. | |
| Craft3 | |||||
| BasicYou can work out what is wrong in work you did not create, and you fix the underlying cause instead of working around the symptom. | ProficientYou can break a large, ambiguous problem into pieces and weigh the options for each against the evidence. | AdvancedYou can make the call on a problem outside your expertise and explain its cost, time and risk. | AdvancedYou can make the call on a problem outside your expertise and explain its cost, time and risk. | ExpertYou can crack problems the organization has repeatedly failed to solve, and your approach becomes how others tackle that whole kind of problem. | |
| NoviceYou can apply the basics of your field to the work you are given, and ask an expert when a task goes beyond what you have learned. | BasicYou can work confidently with the tools and methods your team uses daily, and you can explain how your work serves the team's goals. | ProficientYou can advise the team on your area and apply new developments in the field where they pay off. | AdvancedYou can bring in good practice from outside the organization and make it work here, and your judgment clearly improves the work you touch. | ExpertYou can influence how the field is practiced beyond this organization, and your expertise settles questions that have stood open for years. | |
| ProficientYou can pick up an unfamiliar area fast enough to be useful in it, and you turn what you learned into something others can reuse. | ProficientYou can pick up an unfamiliar area fast enough to be useful in it, and you turn what you learned into something others can reuse. | AdvancedYou can judge which new ideas are worth the team's time and which are not, and you make room for the people around you to learn too. | AdvancedYou can judge which new ideas are worth the team's time and which are not, and you make room for the people around you to learn too. | ExpertYou can set what the organization invests its learning time in, and the material and practice you create outlive your involvement. | |
| Communication4 | |||||
| BasicYou can explain your work so your team can act on it, and play a request back in your own words before you act on it. | ProficientYou can explain a complex topic to people with very different backgrounds, adjusting the detail to the audience without talking down to them. | AdvancedYou can bring disagreeing groups to agreement on the facts and the next steps, and help colleagues frame a difficult or sensitive message. | AdvancedYou can bring disagreeing groups to agreement on the facts and the next steps, and help colleagues frame a difficult or sensitive message. | ExpertYou can set how the organization communicates by creating the forums and norms that teams use to share information. | |
| BasicYou can work well with people in other roles, share context and credit, and take criticism of your work without defending territory. | ProficientYou can build working relationships beyond your own team and get things done through people who do not report to you. | AdvancedYou can align teams with competing priorities on a common goal, surfacing the conflict early instead of letting it harden into resentment. | AdvancedYou can align teams with competing priorities on a common goal, surfacing the conflict early instead of letting it harden into resentment. | ExpertYou can remove the barriers that stop teams working together by putting in place routines and forums they use across the organization. | |
| BasicYou can document your own work well enough for a colleague to follow it unaided, such as a how-to guide or a handover, and keep it current as things change. | ProficientYou can write for a defined audience, whether a proposal, a policy, a report, or a decision record, and make the reasoning as clear as the conclusion. | AdvancedYou can own the documents behind a large piece of work, coordinating contributions so that people who were not involved can carry it on. | AdvancedYou can own the documents behind a large piece of work, coordinating contributions so that people who were not involved can carry it on. | ExpertYou can set the writing standard the organization works to, and documents you wrote are still in use long after you have moved on. | |
| NoviceYou can keep your manager and immediate team informed of your progress, and you raise an issue before someone else discovers it. | BasicYou can identify who is affected by your work and keep them updated at a level of detail and a frequency that suits them. | ProficientYou can win support for a proposal, reset expectations when the plan changes, and turn down a request with a reason the other side accepts. | AdvancedYou can hold senior and external relationships, negotiate between competing demands, and deliver unwelcome news without losing trust. | ExpertYou can represent the organization in its most important relationships and set how it engages with everyone who depends on it. | |
| Leadership3 | |||||
| NoviceYou can act on direction well, seek feedback on how you work, and be open about what you need help with. | BasicYou can spot a problem and propose a way forward unprompted, and you take a small leading role such as running a working group. | ProficientYou can lead one piece of work shared by several people, on your own team and beyond, and make calls that they act on. | AdvancedYou can lead across team boundaries, build the credibility that makes people follow you by choice, and create room for others to lead. | ExpertYou can set direction for the whole organization, make hard calls under real uncertainty, and carry the decisions nobody else wants to own. | |
| NoviceYou can share what you have just learned with your peers and help a newer colleague find their way around. | BasicYou can help someone new settle into your team's work, answer their questions patiently, and give feedback specific enough to act on. | ProficientYou can mentor someone over months, tell them the uncomfortable thing they need to hear, and adapt how you teach to how they learn. | AdvancedYou can develop other mentors, coach people through career decisions rather than tasks, and lift the capability of a whole team. | ExpertYou can shape how the organization grows its people, and those you developed are themselves named by others as strong in their field. | |
| NoviceYou can explain why the work you were given matters and who it is for. | BasicYou can connect your team's work to its goals and question a task that does not appear to serve them. | ProficientYou can look a year ahead in your area, name what will matter by then, and turn that into work people can pick up now. | AdvancedYou can set direction for an area, choose deliberately what not to do, and defend that choice when it is challenged. | ExpertYou can shape the organization's strategy, and the bets you argued for are visible in where it ended up. | |
Use this ladder with your own team
For managers and HR teams: create a free account, then add data and analytics from Departments → Add from template in one click: all 34 skills, with the mastery expected at each of your 5 career levels.