Key skills of a successful business intelligence director: a powerhouse in the enterprise - Pyramid Analytics

This article is part of a series that explores the role of a BI owner/BI program director/BI practice director. Topics included in this series over the coming weeks are:

1. 1.Skills that are in demand for this role
2. 2.Pain points that BI owners commonly face
3. 3.Career advancement for BI owners
4. 4.Common examples of BI organization charts
5. 5.Budgeting for expenses such as headcount, consulting, services, and tools

Inviting your participation! In the coming weeks, a survey will be conducted to gather additional information related to a career as a BI director, common pain points, and other topics. For those who participate, the results will be published, along with a report and other related resources.

Recently, there have been numerous articles about the surging demand for qualified data scientists, how universities are responding to the shortage with new programs in data science, and the high salaries that data scientists can receive. Data scientists are so in demand that recruiting techniques on social media, like crowd-sourcing and competitions based on an assigned task, are among the tactics used to find the necessary talent beyond the traditional resume and interview.

However, it’s not just the task of finding data scientists that is challenging these days. It’s also difficult to find well-qualified, well-rounded BI owners/directors who must possess the creativity and problem-solving skills to address and manage a host of challenges. (In the second article of this series, the challenges and pain points will be examined more closely.)

In this article, the focus is on the role of the BI director, specifically the skills, experience, and educational background that are currently trending as highly important for this role. This information is based on research of numerous job descriptions recently posted on LinkedIn.

Breakdown of Desired Skills and Experience

What are the top skills and experience listed for BI owners in recent job descriptions? On the flip side, what skills and experience might be desired, but appear less frequently?

Strategic Ability (80%)

• ​80% of job descriptions for BI directors call for strategic ability. A BI director must be able to craft a compelling vision and then carry it out in a well-developed strategy. This may include developing a game plan for optimizing the BI platform, determining how best to use existing data analytics, architecture, and technology, and where to make improvements. The BI director could also be in charge of establishing best practices for BI, data warehousing, and data governance.

Leadership Capabilities and Experience (58%)

• ​More than half of the job descriptions explicitly require leadership capabilities and experience. This could involve leading the implementation and delivery of effective BI solutions, coaching a team on analytics and data modeling, providing mentorship, and offering thought leadership to partners and stakeholders. The ability to influence the organization and partners, and to push back where necessary, is also important.

Communication Skills (56%)

• ​Communication skills are called out in 56% of cases. This includes presenting information effectively to management/executives, conveying technical information to non-technical audiences, and communicating needs with business sponsors and IT/technical organizations. For example, a BI director might need to convey the ROI of BI to management or explain the impact of complex analysis on key performance indicators (KPIs) to non-technical users.

Ability to Deliver Results and Analytical/Problem-Solving Skills (50%)

• ​The ability to deliver results from gathered insights and analytical/problem-solving skills both occur in 50% of the job descriptions examined.

Data Warehousing, Design, and Implementation (44%)

• ​Data warehousing, data warehouse design, and data warehouse implementation appear in 44% of the listings. Skills include assessing, managing, and optimizing the design and delivery of data warehousing, strong conceptual knowledge of data warehousing, BI systems, processes, and ETL (extract, transform, load).

Data Modeling and Process Modeling (40%)

• ​Experience with data modeling and process modeling appears 40% of the time. This may involve managing large data sets from multiple sources, developing BI applications and data models, and mentoring the development of data modeling in the enterprise.

Knowledge of SQL Server (38%)

• ​Knowledge of SQL Server is listed in 38% of job descriptions. This includes intermediate to advanced skills in SQL query language, data development skills with SQL, and experience with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). The ability to incorporate SQL data sources within Microsoft Office products is also mentioned.

Ability to Build Relationships (34%)

• ​The ability to build relationships appears in 34% of job descriptions. This is key to the role, as it involves interacting with partners, stakeholders, vendors, and teams both externally and internally. Building cross-functional bridges and collaborating with both business and IT is essential.

Knowledge of ETL (30%)

• ​Knowledge of ETL is essential in many cases. The director might be involved in ETL design and development, manage or provide thought leadership to a team of ETL developers, or supervise a BI analyst who assists in maintaining ETL scripts.

Data Governance (30%)

• ​Data governance appears in 30% of job descriptions. This includes providing guidance on best practices, establishing and enforcing corporate policies, and building a foundation for a Center of Excellence for data governance and data management.

BI Implementation (30%)

• ​Skills and experience with BI implementation are listed in 30% of descriptions. This includes managing front-end BI tools, building reports, strong knowledge of BI platforms, and the ability to implement business intelligence solutions.

Knowledge of Visualization (30%)

• ​Knowledge of visualization is often important, with some descriptions calling for experience using third-party visualization packages.

Breakdown of Desired Educational Background

When it comes to desired educational background:

• ​Analytics tops the list, appearing in 78% of the job descriptions researched.
• ​Followed by computer science, engineering, statistics, math, marketing/product development, and economics.
• ​When engineering is mentioned, it often occurs in a combination such as “engineering, computer sciences, statistics, math, or a related field.”
• ​18% of the job descriptions mention having a master’s degree, but in two-thirds of these cases, it is preferred rather than required; in most cases, a bachelor’s degree is sufficient.

A Powerhouse Role in the Enterprise

Finding well-qualified, well-rounded BI owners/directors isn’t easy. It’s a challenge that yields large rewards in an ever-expanding industry. With the right skills, experience, and educational background, the BI owner has an exciting opportunity to shape, monitor, and readjust the BI and analytics program or practice of an enterprise. This person can aspire to—and inspire teams to—become a BI and Analytics Center of Excellence, with governed, quality data that’s used in gathering and acting upon intelligent insights, and delivering tangible results and value.

It’s a position of noteworthy influence and scope where specific skills, strategies, actions, creativity, and curiosity can empower an entire team, organization, or enterprise, resulting in significant ROI to the BI efforts of an enterprise.