Data Analyst
Also advertised as: Business Intelligence Analyst, Data Analyst, data analysts, data storage analyst, Data Technician, data warehouse analyst
Turns raw data into dashboards and answers that guide business decisions.
What the job involves
Data analysts collect, clean and interrogate data, then present findings people can act on. SQL, spreadsheets and a visualisation tool cover most of the job. It is one of the most achievable career changes for anyone already producing reports at work.
Typical responsibilities
- Extract and clean data with SQL
- Build dashboards and regular reports
- Investigate business questions with data
- Present findings to non-technical colleagues
- Improve data quality and definitions
Common employers
- Retailers
- NHS
- Banks
- Councils
- Technology firms
Pay, hours and working environment
Typical pay
£26,000 – £32,000 a year
With experience
£40,000 – £55,000 a year
Typical hours
37.5 hours
Working environment
Office or remote
Remote working
remote
Demand for this work
high
Pay ranges are indicative guidance drawn from advertised UK vacancies and published careers information. They are not an offer, and actual pay varies by employer, location and experience.
Skills and qualifications
Core skills
- SQL
- Data visualisation
- Spreadsheet modelling
- Statistics basics
- Storytelling with data
Transferable skills you may already have
- Reporting on team performance
- Spreadsheet work
- Spotting trends
Requirements employers ask for
- SQL
- Data visualisation
- Spreadsheet modelling
- Statistics basics
- Storytelling with data
- No formal qualification required
- documentation types
- business intelligence
- perform data mining
- analyse big data
- normalise data
- statistics
- data models
- establish data processes
- information extraction
- information structure
- information categorisation
- visual presentation techniques
Useful but not essential
- Reporting on team performance
- Spreadsheet work
- Spotting trends
- Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship
- Microsoft or Google data certificates
- information architecture
- online analytical processing
- web analytics
- data storage
- create data models
- report analysis results
- gather data for forensic purposes
- LINQ
Helpful qualifications
- Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship
- Microsoft or Google data certificates
Ways into this career
A degree is only one route. Where an apprenticeship, work-experience or qualification route exists, it is listed here alongside the academic option.
Apprenticeships and work-based routes
- Data Analyst (Level 4)
- Data Technician (Level 3)
- Experience route — Build evidence in a related role, then move across using your recorded achievements.
- Apprenticeship route — An apprenticeship lets you earn while you train towards this role.
- Study route — A relevant degree, college qualification or short course can speed up entry.
Degree and college routes
- Related subject: Data science
- Related subject: Maths
- Related subject: Economics
- Related subject: Computing
- Related subject: Geography
Where this career can lead
next
Senior Data Analyst
next
Analytics Manager
next
Data Scientist
The good parts and the hard parts
What people enjoy
- Strong remote availability
- Self-study route is realistic
- Applies in every sector
What people find hard
- Data cleaning is unglamorous
- Stakeholders want answers yesterday
Common questions
- Do you need a degree to become a data analyst?
- No. As well as degree routes, this career can be entered through an apprenticeship or by building experience and qualifications on the job. not_required
- How much does a data analyst earn in the UK?
- Typical advertised pay runs from £26,000 to £32,000 a year, rising towards £55,000 with experience. Figures are indicative guidance rather than an offer.
- What skills transfer into this career?
- Skills that transfer well include Reporting on team performance, Spreadsheet work, Spotting trends.
Related careers
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Data Scientist
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Data Engineer
Builds the pipelines that move and prepare data for analysis.
Machine Learning Engineer
Builds and deploys machine learning models into production systems.
Business Intelligence Analyst
Builds dashboards and reports that help a business make decisions.
Analytics Engineer
Transforms raw data into clean, tested datasets ready for analysis.
Where this information comes from
- National Careers Service
- Institute for Apprenticeships
Last reviewed 14 September 2026.
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