Hire Data Analysts who turn data into decisions

A data analyst turns business questions into answers people can act on. They pull the right data, check it, analyse it and explain what it means, in a dashboard, a short write-up or a conversation with the person making the decision.

In practice, a data analyst:

• Clarifies the decision first: what changes if this number moves?
• Writes SQL against your warehouse to get the right data at the right grain.
• Builds and maintains dashboards and reports that people actually use.
• Defines and defends metrics, so "active user" means one thing across the company.
• Explains findings, confidence and caveats in plain language to marketing, finance, product or ops.

You probably need a data analyst when:

• Leaders make decisions from gut feel because nobody has time to pull the numbers.
• Your team exports CSVs into spreadsheets every Monday to build the same report by hand.
• You have data in a warehouse or BI tool, but nobody owns the questions.
• A product launch, campaign or pricing change needs to be measured properly.
• Your engineers or data scientists spend their time answering ad-hoc reporting requests.

If your data is unreliable or scattered, a Data Engineer or Analytics Engineer may need to come first. If you need forecasting, experiments or models, look at a Data Scientist.

Business questions, not ticket queues. A strong data analyst clarifies the decision first. They negotiate scope, pick the right grain and refuse vanity charts nobody will use. They're not dashboard tourists.

SQL as the daily tool. Warehouse SQL is the craft. They join cleanly, filter honestly and leave queries another analyst can read. They write queries and models that hold up when definitions change, not one-off screenshots.

Metrics that survive a debate. They own or co-own metric definitions with analytics engineering and product. When "active user" means three things, they raise the conflict early, before the board pack. They push back kindly when the ask is fuzzy.

BI and visualisation with judgment. Looker, Power BI, Metabase, Tableau or spreadsheets: the tool is secondary and clarity comes first. That means the correct grain, labelled axes and a sentence that says what the chart means.

Stakeholder partnership. They sit with marketing, growth, finance or ops long enough to understand the decision. They don't throw a CSV over the wall and disappear.

Working style, assessed rather than claimed. Every vetted profile includes a working-style profile, built from 12 work scenarios. It shows how someone collaborates, communicates and owns outcomes, so you see more than a keyword list.

What to probe in interviews

• "Tell me about an analysis that changed a decision. What was the decision?"
• "Two teams report different numbers for the same metric. What do you do?"
• "Show me a dashboard you retired. Why did it stop being useful?"

Warning signs

• Lists of tools with no example of a decision their work changed.
• Charts without definitions, grain or caveats.
• Heavy reliance on one BI tool's defaults, with little SQL depth.

These are examples, not requirements. We match the stack in your brief.

• Query: SQL on Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, Postgres, SQL Server.
• BI: Power BI, Looker, Tableau, Metabase, Looker Studio.
• Spreadsheets: Excel and Google Sheets for fast loops.
• Deeper analysis: Python (pandas) or R; basic statistics for experiments and confidence intervals.
• Product and marketing analytics (when the role asks): GA4, Amplitude, Mixpanel.
• Modelling awareness: comfortable working on dbt models built by analytics engineers.

There are two ways to use carbon.talent. Both use the same profile.

Option 1: Post a role

1. Create your role. Title, stack, seniority, engagement type (full-time, contract or fractional), location and overlap hours. Posting is at no cost.
2. Match against Carbon’s talent. When you're ready, you compare the role with data analysts who have already been assessed on carbon.talent.
3. Review the profile. Vetted profiles come with a vetting report, a short video intro and a working-style profile. You also get an interview guide tailored to your role and the candidate.
4. Interview and hire. Interview fewer, better people. Agree the rate, draft the contract and sign on the platform.

Option 2: Test a candidate you found Already found a data analyst on LinkedIn, through your own network? Before you make an offer, send a SQL or Python skills test or the real-world data experience test, then review the report. The real-world data experience test is on every plan; SQL and Python tests are on paid plans. Add a working-style profile and a short video.

A CV is self-reported. Job titles mean different things at different companies, and remote hiring makes it harder to be sure who you are talking to. When a hiring process starts from CVs, your team does the checking in interviews, one expensive hour at a time.

carbon.talent profiles carry scenario-based vetting, a working-style profile and a video intro.

Monthly plans are priced per company. A once-off hire fee of 10% of first-year salary applies (7.5% for subscribers), due at the candidate's start date. For contract hires, 10% of the contract fee for up to 12 months. The real-world data experience test, working-style profile and video are included on every plan. Connect your AI assistant (MCP) on Team and Scale. SQL and Python skills tests are on paid plans. Webhooks and ID checks are on Team and Scale.

carbon.talent is a global hiring platform. Companies post roles from anywhere, and you choose where your hire is based and which hours they overlap with your team.

Hire where your work happens. Set the country, time zone overlap and currency on each role, and review people who fit.

• Engagement. Hire full-time, on contract or fractional through the same platform.

Hiring locally? The same process works for on-site and hybrid roles in any city. Location is a setting on your role, not a separate product.

Data analyst salaries vary widely by country, seniority, tools and sector. Analysts who own metrics and partner closely with leadership usually earn more than report builders. Benchmark against your own market before you set a budget. Salary is agreed between you and the professional, and it is separate from the carbon.talent platform.