Data Analyst Job Description (India): Roles, Responsibilities, Skills and Sample JD

Short answer: a data analyst collects, cleans, and analyses data to answer business questions, then shares the findings through reports and dashboards. Most Indian data analyst job descriptions ask for SQL, Excel, a BI tool such as Power BI or Tableau, and often Python, plus the ability to explain findings to non-technical teams.

What does a data analyst do?

A data analyst turns raw data into decisions. On a typical week that means:

Pulling data from databases with SQL
Cleaning and joining data in Excel, SQL, or Python
Building and maintaining dashboards and recurring reports (often called MIS in India)
Answering ad hoc questions from sales, operations, finance, or product teams
Spotting trends and problems, and recommending what to do about them

Analysts usually sit in a business team (sales, marketing, finance, operations, product) or a central analytics team.

Data analyst roles and responsibilities

Responsibilities that appear most often in job descriptions:

Write SQL queries to extract and combine data from multiple sources
Clean, validate, and prepare data for analysis
Build dashboards and reports in Power BI, Tableau, Looker, or Excel
Track business KPIs and explain changes week to week
Analyse experiments and campaigns (A/B tests, promotions, launches)
Automate recurring reports to reduce manual work
Present findings and recommendations to stakeholders
Maintain documentation of data sources, definitions, and metrics

Skills in data analyst job descriptions

We looked at 25 recent data analyst postings from 15 companies in India in the Resumaxx job catalog (August–September 2026). The share of companies asking for each skill:

Skill	Companies asking
SQL	73%
Python	60%
Data visualization	47%
Excel	40%
Power BI	40%
Tableau	33%
Machine learning	20%
R	20%
Looker	20%

This is a small sample, so treat it as direction rather than a market-wide figure. It lines up with what we see in resumes, though: in our India Resume Report 2026, only about a third of data analyst resumes mention SQL, even though it tops the list above. The full, regularly updated breakdown is on the data analyst skills page.

Soft skills that show up repeatedly: attention to detail, analytical thinking, communication, and stakeholder management.

Education: almost every posting asks for a bachelor's degree. Engineering, statistics, mathematics, economics, and commerce are all common backgrounds.

Sample data analyst job description

Employers can adapt this template; job seekers can use it to see what a typical JD asks for.

Data Analyst Location: Bengaluru (office) · Experience: 1–3 years

About the role We're looking for a data analyst to help our business teams make decisions with data. You'll own recurring reporting, build dashboards, and dig into questions about growth, customers, and operations.

What you'll do

Write SQL to pull and combine data from our product and finance databases

Build and maintain Power BI dashboards for sales and operations leadership

Track weekly KPIs and explain what changed and why

Analyse campaigns and experiments and recommend next steps

Automate manual Excel reports

What we're looking for

1–3 years in a data analyst, MIS, or business analyst role (or strong projects for freshers)

Strong SQL and Excel

Experience with Power BI or Tableau

Python (Pandas) for data cleaning is a plus

Clear written and verbal communication

Nice to have

Experience with A/B testing or basic statistics

Domain experience in e-commerce, fintech, or SaaS

Data analyst vs business analyst

The titles overlap, and companies use them differently:

Data analyst: focused on data: querying, cleaning, analysis, dashboards. Heavier on SQL, Python, and BI tools.
Business analyst: focused on requirements and processes: gathering needs from stakeholders, writing requirement documents, supporting implementations. May use SQL and dashboards, but often less deeply.

Read the responsibilities, not just the title, before you apply. See our business analyst resume example for comparison.

How to tailor your resume to a data analyst JD

Mirror the tools. If the posting says Power BI and SQL, make sure both appear in bullets about real work, not only in your skills list.
Show the question and the result. "Built a churn dashboard" is weaker than "built a churn dashboard that helped the retention team cut monthly churn by 1.8 points".
Name the domain if you have it (fintech, e-commerce, healthcare).
Freshers: one complete project (question → data → analysis → dashboard → finding) is worth more than a list of courses.

See a full data analyst resume example, or paste a real data analyst job description into the free resume vs job description match to see which requirements your resume is missing.