Technology disruption is changing the job market faster than we could imagine. Some jobs would be simply wiped out whereas demand for others would start growing. According to the world economic forum report, one of the job that will become more and more important by 2020 is data analyst or data scientist. One of the additional important point about this demand is that the demand would be from all industries and not from specific ones. Making sense from the large data gathered is one of the crucial skills industries are looking for. This seems to have fueled this demand for data analytics. It is no surprise that many Online Distance Education programs are designed focused on data analytics. The programs are given different names. One of such program is Online Distance Education in AI and ML.
In the domain of data science or data analytics job roles are given many different names. Let us study some of the peculiar job description on job sites to really understand what the market demand is. So that it would be clear if pursuing Online Distance Education in AI and ML makes sense.
Junior Data Analyst
- Identify and Evaluate different tools and external services for data validation
- Implement services and tools for data cleaning and transformation
- Create and track Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
- Create various reports and write queries for fetching data
- Develop and support processer for reporting
- Monitor the data quality
Senior Business Analyst (Data Analytics)
- Analyzing Demographics & Business related data at all geographical levels like state, zone, region, district to generate meaningful insights
- Understand key performance indicators and trends for on-going projects Recommend actions based on KPI tracking to the stakeholders to make sure projects are driven efficiently
- Create effective tracking mechanism by developing databases, metrics, various reports and dashboards
- Set up scalable automated processes for data analysis, models development and validation for large data set
- Produce regular reports and analysis
- Write systems queries to gather data, clean and analyze
- Perform data mining and analysis using tools including MS Excel, OBIEE, MySQL, SQL, Oracle Observe trends, visualization and develop forecasts using tools like Power BI / QlikView and Cognos etc.
- Identify various opportunities for cost savings and quality improvements across businesses
- Monitor critical projects to improve business performance
- Track project issues, concerns, deliverables, and acceptance criteria
- Provide analysis support on Project, new initiatives, and strategic decisions
- Collaborate with business, product and technology teams to implement projects
- Acquire knowledge on continuous basis of emerging industry trends and best practices
- Participate in industry and other professional networks
- Should have an relevant experience of 3-5 years in the field of analytics / data science, designing & implementing statistical models, quality assurance & reporting systems using automation tools
- Proficiency in MS Office (Advance Excel, PowerPoint), Macros, Power BI/QlikView &coding on VBA, and SQL/MySQL/T-SQL/R is must
- Strong experience business analysis
- Experience of communicating with all levels of management from staff working on ground to business leaders
- Can work independently and also lead teams and provide directions when requirements are not clearly known.
- Experience in data analysis and visualization techniques and tools to draw effective conclusions and insights in the context of business
Senior Analyst
- Work with the team to identify need for data collection, processing, reporting and business intelligence in alignment with company’s growth objectives
- Help drive key business decisions by participating in design of dashboards and metrics
- Involve actively in the design, development, and maintenance reports & dashboards
- Do research related to areas of business problems and help in creation of data models to analyze and predict
- Need Strong analytical skills and data-driven thinking
- Work experience of at least 2-3 years in an analytics role
- Must have – Hands-on experience in Excel, SQL, R/Python
- Good to have – Hands-on experience in data visualization tools like Tableau.
Data Analyst
- 4+ years in a data analyst role
- Hands-on experience with BI tools and reporting software (e.g. Qlik, Tableau, Pentaho, MS Power BI, MS Excel)
- Background working on Data Modelling and Segmentation projects
- Ability to collaborate effectively and work as part of a team
- Building statistical methods to analyze data
- Use data to create statistical models for trends to track customer behavior across multiple relevant parameters
- Work with various stakeholders to understand and outline the specific data capture and analysis needs for various projects on data analytics/ machine learning
- Provide support for implementation of data analysis for projects undertaken in various lines of business
- Generates ad hoc reports and regular datasets or report information using system tools and database or data warehouse queries.
- Work with internal and external teams in order to determine data requirements, business data implementation approaches
- Capture and adopt best practices for advanced data manipulation, storage and analysis strategies.
Data scientist
- Be an Individual Contributor in the Analytics Research and Development team
- Acquire knowledge of cutting-edge capabilities and emerging technologies in data science, analytics / machine learning
- Provide assistance to large delivery teams as a data analytics expert
- Deliver advanced Data Science capabilities by successful suggesting and implementing proof-of-concept
- Hand holding of project teams from the proof-of-concept to production implementation.
- Use big data analytics platforms and tools like Hadoop, R, Python, HIVE, SPARK
- Create White Papers and articles to evangelize new ideas in analytics
Manager -Data Science
- Work with the Project Lead (PL) to design the analytical solution/framework.
- Translate the client’s objectives into deliverables with priorities and constraints
- Organize data, clean it and perform checks to ensure quality of the data gathered so that analysis can be done on it
- Explore and implement various statistical tools and method like machine learning, linear/non-linear Regression, Decision Trees, time series, random forest, neural networks etc.
- Creation of Weekly/Monthly and Quarterly dashboards
- Doing ad-hoc analysis if needed
In Conclusion
There are three types of jobs role in data science or analytics. First one is more related to preparation of data so that analysis can be done. Second is actual work of analytics and to find insights. The third one is managerial role to oversee one or both of these processes end-to-end.
All of these require expertise and skills in data processing, data analysis, Microsoft excel, some exposure to programming in R or Python, ability of create good management reports to aid decision making, managerial level understanding of all these technologies and tools so that one can manage the project well to deliver the desired outcomes.
By covering many of these aspects, Online Distance Education in AI and ML would become a stepping stone for one who want to pursue career in data analytics.