9 Power BI Jobs: Positions That Rely on Data Visualization

Business intelligence has become a critical concept for organizations of all types as the amount of data and information they ingest daily has grown. By leveraging business intelligence, companies can merge and organize their data sets, build reports and dashboards, and showcase key insights from them. Data visualization professionals have seen an increase in demand because they can make sense of the mass amounts of data a company collects. They do this by converting ingested information into various visualizations, such as graphs or charts, to uncover key trends and showcase important metrics.

To help professionals with business intelligence and creating data visualizations, they can use Power BI. Power BI is a popular business intelligence software that enables you to connect your data sets, generate immersive visualizations, and find key insights to share with stakeholders in your organizations. Power BI features an interactive user interface, direct integration capability to Microsoft Excel and other popular products, a Power Query feature, and capabilities to import and transform data from multiple sources.

Power BI enables you and your organization to discover impactful insights from your data to help you make key business decisions. Professionals in different types of careers find value in using Power BI, depending on their type of role and their goals for using the software. Different Power BI features or parts apply in varying contexts depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

To explore careers that involve business intelligence and generating data visualizations through Power BI, use this guide to learn more about the nine roles available today. Discover their average salaries, future job demands, the skills required for Power BI jobs, and a description of each job to help you determine your best career type. 

9 Power BI jobs to consider

Many job opportunities exist in a variety of roles that utilize Power BI. These advanced and entry-level Power BI jobs are all related to analytics and business intelligence, where Power BI is one of the most sought-after skills to have as a candidate. Learn more about the following roles to determine which career may be right for you.

1. Business analyst

Average annual US salary: $90,523 [1]

Job outlook: Projected 10 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is much faster than the average for all occupations in the US [2]

Requirements: Business analysts typically have a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, or another related topic. They also attain relevant experience and build their skills through working in related roles

As a business analyst, you typically work with professionals in your organization who are in information technology and on the management team to understand key insights and areas of improvement found by the technology team and turn them into solutions.

In this role, you commonly utilize data analytics to analyze important data and information in your company. Your analysis generates critical insights that inform important business decisions. Other duties and responsibilities as a business analyst include creating financial models, forecasting, budgeting, and working with Power BI to create compelling data visualizations from your findings. 

2. Business systems analyst

Average annual US salary: $105,079 [3]

Job outlook: Projected 10 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average for all occupations in the US [2].

Requirements: To succeed in this role, you must possess knowledge of information technology and business basics, as well as advanced analytical and communication skills. Business systems analysts commonly have degrees in both technology-related disciplines, such as information technology and computer science, and business disciplines, like finance, economics, or business administration.

Like business analysts, business systems analysts work between technology and business management teams. Your focus in this role is to identify the needs of the business and develop plans and a list of requirements for information technology professionals to create and implement on their end.

This role focuses on efficiency and often tests new solutions that may help a company’s operations. Other responsibilities for business systems analysts may include business process analysis, designing new systems and configuring software, building test plans, generating in-depth reports about relevant data, and serving as a trainer to teach other employees about updates or new processes. Similar titles for these roles are systems architects and computer systems analysts.

3. Data analyst

Average annual US salary: $83,501 [4]

Job outlook: Projected 35 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is much faster than the average for all occupations in the US [5]

Requirements: To become a data analyst, you typically need a bachelor’s degree in a related subject, such as statistics or computer science, among others. Common technical skills for this career include knowledge of databases and cloud computing, programming skills, and some relevant experience working with data visualization software like Power BI.

Data analysts are on the front lines of gathering data in their organization, cleansing and transforming it, and performing analysis to generate critical insights for their organization. Depending on your specific role as a data analyst, you may spend more of your day building new systems to collect data or coding to cleanse data sources in preparation for analysis.

As a data analyst, you focus on finding key trends within your organization’s data through various methods. To showcase your work and the insights generated from your analysis, you may use data visualization tools or software, such as Power BI, to create charts and graphs. Other common names for this role include business intelligence analyst, operations research analyst, and data strategist.

4. Data manager

Average annual US salary: $71,153 [6]

Job outlook: Projected 15 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is much faster than the average for all occupations in the US [7]

Requirements: Attaining a role as a data manager typically requires completing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, statistics, or another related field. You must also possess advanced analytical and mathematical abilities, computer skills related to software and databases, and the ability to handle complex statistical information.

In a data manager role, you'll focus on securing your organization's databases and analyzing your company's data needs through coding, statistics, mathematics, and data analysis. You'll be responsible for maintaining and organizing all critical data systems, data management policies, and data management protocols within your organization.

Because this role's main focus is protecting the information and data that your company stores and secures, you may have the duty of developing new, effective procedures, updating software and storage, and generating data management reports for management. Other common responsibilities as a data manager include identifying key trends and patterns, creating reports for key stakeholders, utilizing sampling techniques, and evaluating the usability of data sources through research and analysis, for which Power BI can be an effective tool.

5. Data visualization specialist

Average annual US salary: $87,963 [8]

Job outlook: Projected 35 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is much faster than the average for all occupations in the US [5]

Requirements: To land a role as a data visualization specialist, you typically need a degree in graphic design, computer science, or another related discipline. Learning critical skills with relevant software will also help to boost your resume, such as gaining experience with Power BI. Key concepts to know when pursuing a data visualization job include statistics, data analytics, and graphic design.

As a data visualization specialist, you lead all efforts to generate data visualizations from your organization’s analysis. The types of visualization you build come in various forms, such as graphs, charts, graphics, and maps. Your analysis and creation of visualizations help improve your organization's digital content and provide guidance by showcasing key insights.

Other duties you may have as a data visualization specialist include transforming data sets, communicating with other teams in your organization about your analysis and discoveries, and utilizing qualitative and quantitative analysis.

This type of role has applications in various industries for you to explore, such as technology, design, energy, education, media, and government. 

6. Epidemiologist

Average annual US salary: $82,136 [9]

Job outlook: Projected 27 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average for all occupations in the US [10].

Requirements: In most cases, you need a bachelor’s and master’s degree to qualify for epidemiologist positions. For both degrees, majoring in public health is often the most common choice, while other related disciplines, such as social science or public policy, also apply. Additionally, you can complete a relevant certification or an epidemiology-specific certificate program to help boost your resume and showcase your skill set to potential employers.

Epidemiologists focus on analyzing and understanding how new and existing diseases start and how they spread or outbreak. In this position, you are a public health professional tasked with locating the outbreak of various illnesses, performing experiments to see how they spread, and generating effective guidelines to improve outcomes.

Your work as an epidemiologist may also involve determining what groups of people are most at risk for a certain type of disease and what strategies you can use to stop an infection from spreading again. Other common responsibilities involve refining public health policies, leading information-collecting efforts, presenting your findings and recommendations to government and public officials using visualization tools like Power BI, and supervising other teams of professionals. Many different types of epidemiology exist across various focuses, such as chronic diseases, infectious diseases, environment, violence, and injury, among others.

7. Financial analyst

Average annual US salary: $79,269 [11]

Job outlook: Projected 8 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is faster than average for all occupations in the US [12]

Requirements: To become a financial analyst, you must complete a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as economics, finance, or others, and attain some level of experience in a similar position or internship.

As a financial analyst, you focus on evaluating the performance of your company's finances through data analytics and other types of analysis to evaluate strategies and generate suggestions for improvements. Depending on the type of company you work for, your role as a financial analyst may solely focus on performing analysis to identify profitable investment opportunities.

To effectively work as a financial analyst, you must have a strong understanding of the general financial markets and trends throughout economics and politics to help inform your analysis. Other financial analysts may focus primarily on evaluating risk and mitigating losses. Your day-to-day work as a financial analyst may also involve analyzing historical financial data and records, building models and spreadsheets, using statistical methods, such as regression analysis, and helping with budgeting and planning for your team. Power BI can be helpful in many of your duties as a financial analyst.

8. Marketing analyst

Average annual US salary: $75,396 [13]

Job outlook: Projected 6 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is faster than average for all occupations in the US [14]

Requirements: Although a formal education is not required for this role, it is common for marketing analysts to have a degree in data analytics or marketing. When pursuing these types of positions, relevant technical skills include general data analytics skills, such as modeling, forecasting, and research skills. You'll need storytelling abilities through effective communication and a curiosity to learn and seek new solutions and improvements for workplace skills.

Marketing analysts study an organization's marketing data to find key trends, patterns, and impactful insights that lead to company enhancements. In this role, you commonly analyze your competitors, target customers, and product mix. Your insights and efforts help inform what marketing strategies your organization should utilize and what new opportunities you can pursue.

Other common duties and responsibilities in this role include performing user research, querying databases, cleansing data sources, collaborating with other teams in your company to align on goals, leading in-depth market research efforts, interpreting data, generating data visualizations on Power BI, and presenting the insights generated from your analysis to management. Another common name for this position is marketing research analyst.

9. Power BI developer

Average annual US salary: $92,006 [15]

Job outlook: Projected 16 percent growth from 2022 to 2032, which is much faster than average for all occupations in the US [16]

Requirements: As a Power BI developer, you typically need a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as engineering, information systems, computer science, or others. Experience with other software and programming languages like SQL, Python, and R is commonly required to also attain this role.

In this role, you build, design, and maintain all Power BI processes and systems that function to gather, transform, and analyze the data and information in your company. With a focus on business intelligence, you work to understand the objectives of your organization through business intelligence and work to build dashboards, evaluate critical data, and create databases.

Power BI developers are experts on all Power BI-related work for their organizations, such as data visualizations, transformations, modeling, data analysis expressions (DAX) in Power BI, and advanced topics like predictive analytics. You must have a strong grasp of the technical side of your work and how the key insights you generate relate to your business.

Other responsibilities for Power BI developers may include validating data accuracy, maintaining data models, researching and identifying new business opportunities, troubleshooting any errors on Power BI, and presenting analysis to senior leadership in your organization.

Getting started on Coursera

To learn more about Power BI and take your first steps to attain the necessary skills to land a career in a role related to data visualization, completing a course or receiving a relevant certificate is a great place to start. On Coursera, you can enroll in some of the top courses in the world.

Check out the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. This eight-course series allows you to learn the most in-demand business intelligence skills to prepare you to land a job in this field, typically within five months. You can learn how to connect data sources, transform your data, and prepare Excel data for analysis.

Another relevant course worth checking out to further your learning on Power BI is Getting Started with Power BI Desktop by the Coursera Project Network. Taught at a beginner level, this course provides a brief, two-hour introduction to importing and transforming data on Power BI Desktop. A core feature is its focus on hands-on learning and tutorials on creating visualizations with your data.