Example Job Description
Data Support Analyst
A data and support analyst who advances combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Data and Support Analyst
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, how would you turn an ambiguous request into a defensible analysis?
Strong response indicators: Defines the purpose, scope, governing requirement, timeline, responsible owners, dependencies, controls, communication, contingencies, and evidence of completion. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, describe how you would validate a new dataset before reporting from it.
Strong response indicators: Verifies authoritative information, protects the affected person and data, follows approved procedures, involves responsible owners, documents facts, and confirms resolution. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, how would you investigate an unexpected student-group trend?
Strong response indicators: Uses systematic diagnosis, representative evidence, root-cause analysis, controlled correction, reconciliation, documentation, and monitoring for recurrence. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, when should two results not be compared directly?
Strong response indicators: Applies least privilege, minimum necessary access, secure channels, appropriate approval, auditability, retention, and prompt escalation of uncertainty or risk. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, what makes a dashboard trustworthy and useful?
Strong response indicators: Communicates the evidence, affected population, operational consequence, uncertainty, available choices, recommended action, accountable owners, and follow-up without unnecessary jargon. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, how do you keep recurring analysis reproducible?
Strong response indicators: Builds sustainable ownership through clear definitions, role-specific training, useful quality reports, feedback loops, documentation, support, and verification that improvement persists. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, how would you explain uncertainty to a nontechnical audience?
Strong response indicators: Defines the purpose, scope, governing requirement, timeline, responsible owners, dependencies, controls, communication, contingencies, and evidence of completion. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, a leader requests identifiable data when aggregate information may suffice. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Verifies authoritative information, protects the affected person and data, follows approved procedures, involves responsible owners, documents facts, and confirms resolution. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, how would you detect and correct a misleading visualization?
Strong response indicators: Uses systematic diagnosis, representative evidence, root-cause analysis, controlled correction, reconciliation, documentation, and monitoring for recurrence. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, what review should a consequential analysis receive?
Strong response indicators: Applies least privilege, minimum necessary access, secure channels, appropriate approval, auditability, retention, and prompt escalation of uncertainty or risk. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, how would you prioritize competing requests?
Strong response indicators: Communicates the evidence, affected population, operational consequence, uncertainty, available choices, recommended action, accountable owners, and follow-up without unnecessary jargon. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- In the Data and Support Analyst role, what would you prioritize during your first 90 days?
Strong response indicators: Builds sustainable ownership through clear definitions, role-specific training, useful quality reports, feedback loops, documentation, support, and verification that improvement persists. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
Position Description
Under the direction of the appropriate district administrator, the Data and Support Analyst analyze and develop work supporting combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
The position applies educational data analysis, reporting, visualization, decision support, and reproducible analytics across student information, assessment, accountability, finance, human resources, survey, data warehouse, database, statistical, and visualization platforms. It establishes or follows clear ownership, validation, security, documentation, review, and escalation practices appropriate to the role’s assigned authority.
The Data and Support Analyst collaborates with educators, program leaders, researchers, assessment and accountability staff, data stewards, technology teams, executive leadership, schools, and community-facing staff. The role is accountable for requirements, complex analysis, reproducible methods, quality assurance, documentation, and decision support while protecting confidential information and keeping local decisions traceable.
Reports To
Insert your school district’s specific reporting relationship here.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in education, information systems, data management, public administration, business administration, statistics, computer science, or a closely related field. Additional qualifying experience may be substituted where permitted by district policy.
- Successful completion of all district-required employment clearances.
- Completion of role-required privacy, information-security, records, system, and program training within established timelines.
Preferred
- Graduate degree or advanced coursework in a field related to the position.
- Current professional learning or certification related to educational data analysis, reporting, visualization, decision support, and reproducible analytics.
- Relevant training in project management, data governance, privacy, accessibility, database, analytics, or information security.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Three or more years of progressively responsible experience in K-12 education, student information, data, technology, compliance, research, records, or a closely related function.
- Experience with combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management.
- Experience interpreting requirements, procedures, definitions, reports, system information, or technical documentation relevant to assigned work.
- Experience coordinating or completing deadline-driven work with careful documentation and quality control.
- Experience handling confidential information and communicating with users or stakeholders.
Desired Experience
- Experience with student information, assessment, accountability, finance, human resources, survey, data warehouse, database, statistical, and visualization platforms.
- Experience partnering with educators, program leaders, researchers, assessment and accountability staff, data stewards, technology teams, executive leadership, schools, and community-facing staff.
- Experience in requirements, complex analysis, reproducible methods, quality assurance, documentation, and decision support.
- Experience using SQL, advanced spreadsheets, scripting, workflow tools, APIs, secure file transfer, or visualization tools when relevant to assigned duties.
- Experience developing accessible training, technical documentation, process maps, data dictionaries, or continuity materials.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Planning, Operations, and Service Delivery
- Consult with requestors to define decision purpose, population, measures, comparison strategy, deliverable, timeline, and appropriate use.
- Prepare and validate analysis-ready data by applying documented joins, code mappings, business rules, effective dates, and exception handling.
- Develop recurring reports, dashboards, briefs, data files, visualizations, and ad hoc analyses for authorized audiences.
- Analyze trends, outcomes, participation, implementation, equity, and student-group patterns using methods appropriate to the question and data.
- Present findings clearly and distinguish evidence, interpretation, uncertainty, limitations, hypotheses, and recommendations.
Data Quality, Controls, and Documentation
- Reconcile source totals, profile missingness and outliers, test calculations, compare expected patterns, and obtain peer or subject-matter review.
- Use SQL, spreadsheets, statistical tools, scripting, visualization, and controlled automation appropriate to assigned work.
- Maintain versioned specifications, code, data dictionaries, lineage, validation logs, run histories, release notes, and reproducibility records.
- Apply privacy, suppression, minimum-necessary disclosure, secure storage and transfer, accessibility, and retention requirements.
- Prevent misleading rankings, unsupported causal claims, false precision, deficit framing, and decisions beyond the evidence’s intended use.
Data and Support Analyst-Specific Leadership and Support
- Own or support the assigned portfolio for combined analytical production, data-quality troubleshooting, user support, documentation, and request management, with responsibilities clearly matched to the position’s authority and classification.
- Develop role-specific calendars, service expectations, status reporting, support channels, and escalation paths.
- Coordinate decisions with responsible data owners, program leaders, technical custodians, reviewers, and approving officials.
- Provide accessible training, guidance, communications, and technical assistance tailored to user responsibilities.
- Analyze recurring errors, incidents, requests, and process delays and recommend sustainable improvements.
Security, Improvement, and Continuity
- Protect personally identifiable and confidential information in systems, files, reports, email, tickets, meetings, training, and support activity.
- Test consequential changes using representative cases, documented expectations, peer or owner review, and post-change validation.
- Use automation only with appropriate access, versioning, logging, exception handling, review, and recovery procedures.
- Maintain current standard operating procedures, cross-training, critical contacts, dependencies, backup coverage, and recovery steps.
- Perform other related duties consistent with the position’s purpose and classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Educational data analysis, reporting, visualization, decision support, and reproducible analytics.
- Student information, assessment, accountability, finance, human resources, survey, data warehouse, database, statistical, and visualization platforms.
- Data governance, source ownership, data quality, internal controls, change management, documentation, and continuous improvement.
- Student privacy, confidentiality, role-based access, secure transmission, records management, incident escalation, and responsible use.
- Project coordination, customer service, adult learning, accessible communication, and support practices appropriate to assigned work.
Ability to
- Interpret detailed requirements and translate them into accurate procedures, system actions, reports, guidance, or decisions.
- Trace discrepancies through source records, processes, configurations, mappings, transformations, and outputs.
- Manage competing priorities and fixed deadlines with transparent status, documentation, review, and escalation.
- Communicate clearly with technical, program, school, leadership, family, vendor, or agency audiences as appropriate.
- Exercise discretion, preserve confidentiality, recognize limits of authority, and escalate material risk promptly.
- Learn evolving requirements and technologies and improve processes without weakening controls or continuity.
Work Environment
- Work is performed primarily in district offices, schools, service locations, meetings, training environments, and other computer-based professional settings.
- The position requires sustained computer use and detailed review of records, systems, files, reports, requests, and technical or procedural documentation.
- Work involves frequent interaction with educators, program leaders, researchers, assessment and accountability staff, data stewards, technology teams, executive leadership, schools, and community-facing staff.
- Workload may increase substantially during annual cycles, reporting windows, implementations, releases, audits, incidents, school transitions, or other critical deadlines.
- The employee may encounter frequent interruptions, confidential matters, ambiguous records, failed processes, competing priorities, and urgent requests.
- The position requires secure handling of personally identifiable student, family, or staff information.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Complete annual mandated-reporter training and fulfill all legally applicable reporting responsibilities.
- Complete district-required cybersecurity, student-privacy, safety, nondiscrimination, records, and workplace training.
- Maintain professional confidentiality and comply with district policies governing records, information security, acceptable technology use, and data access.
- Travel between district offices, schools, service locations, meetings, and professional-development activities as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver’s license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function of the position.
- Occasionally work early-morning, evening, weekend, or extended hours during critical operational, reporting, testing, implementation, or incident periods.
- Regularly sit, stand, walk, speak, hear, read, and operate computers and standard office equipment.
- Use hands and fingers for keyboarding and handling documents; maintain visual attention while reviewing detailed records and computer displays.
- Occasionally lift, carry, or move records, devices, equipment, or supplies weighing up to 25 pounds.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.