6 templates for companies hiring their first or second analytics leader: standard, marketing, product, first analytics hire, business intelligence, and head of analytics. Download as DOCX.
The first analytics manager job description I ever wrote was wrong in a way I did not notice for four months. It described a team, a roadmap, and a seat in the leadership meeting. What the job actually consisted of was one exhausted analyst, a spreadsheet three departments each maintained differently, and a founder asking why two dashboards disagreed about revenue. The person we hired was excellent. They left in under a year.
That mismatch is the standard failure mode for this role at a small company. Analytics manager postings get copied from companies with fifty analysts and pasted into companies with none, and the gap between the posting and the week does the rest. The fix is not more polish. It is stating the team size, the hands-on load, and the authority honestly.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without a dedicated HR department, where the person writing the posting is usually the founder or the operations lead. The six below cover a standard analytics manager, marketing and product specializations, a first analytics hire, a business intelligence lead, and a head of analytics, each with the classification and screening notes that generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
An analytics manager owns the metric definitions a company runs on and the analysts who produce them. No BLS occupation carries that title, so benchmark against computer and information systems managers ($175,140 median) and data scientists ($120,230). The executive overtime exemption requires two or more full-time reports, which a solo manager does not have. Six templates below.
What an Analytics Manager Actually Owns
An analytics manager owns the numbers a business runs on and the people who produce them. That is the whole job in one sentence, and the two halves are inseparable: the definitions are worthless without a team to maintain them, and the team is directionless without agreed definitions.
The metric half is the part most postings skip. Somebody has to decide what an active customer means, what counts as churn, and which of the four revenue figures in circulation is the real one. That authority is the difference between an analytics function and a report queue.
The people half is what makes it a management job. Reviewing work before it reaches leadership, refusing low-value requests, planning headcount, and having the performance conversation nobody enjoys are all part of the role, and none of them appear in a senior analyst description.
Write the Ownership Sentence Before Anything Else
Before you touch a template, write one sentence naming what this person will own that nobody currently owns. If you cannot finish that sentence, you are hiring for throughput rather than direction, and a senior analyst is the cheaper and better hire. If the sentence writes itself, you have both the opening line of the posting and the argument you will use to defend the pay range.
Four Different Roles Share This Title
The title analytics manager covers at least four distinct jobs, and they differ in pay, in classification, and in the kind of candidate who succeeds. Picking the wrong one is how a good hire ends up in the wrong job.
A real people manager
Two or more analysts reporting in
The classic version: the manager sets priorities, reviews work, runs one-on-ones, and owns hiring. Their own hands-on output drops as the team grows. This is the only version where the executive overtime exemption fits cleanly.
A player-coach with no reports
The first analytics hire
Common at small companies. The title is a manager title, the day is an analyst day, and the team is a plan rather than a fact. Classification has to be argued on different grounds, and the posting has to be honest about the hands-on load.
A function owner without the headcount
Owns the reporting surface
Manages the dashboard estate, the metric definitions, and the vendors, but coordinates rather than manages people. Closer to a business intelligence lead. Say so in the posting so senior candidates are not surprised in week one.
A leader of leaders
Head of analytics in all but name
Managers report to this person, the budget is theirs, and the job is org design and executive persuasion. If that is your role, the title on the posting is holding you back and the pay band is probably too low.
The player-coach version is the most common at companies under a hundred people and the one most likely to be described dishonestly. If the team is a plan rather than a fact, say so in the posting. Candidates who want to build a function will self-select in, and the ones who want to inherit one will save you both a quarter.
Analytics Manager vs Analyst vs Data Manager
The dividing line is authority over other people's time and over metric definitions, not technical depth. A senior analyst can be the strongest technologist in the building and still not be doing a manager's job, because the manager's job includes prioritization, hiring, and refusal.
Role
Primary ownership
Hire this one when
Data analyst
Answering assigned questions accurately
You have more questions than capacity and the priorities are already clear
Senior analyst
Hard analyses and informal mentoring
The work is getting harder but nobody is arguing about definitions
Analytics manager
Metric definitions, roadmap, and the analysts
Departments disagree about the numbers and nobody can settle it
BI or reporting manager
The semantic layer and the dashboard estate
You have too many dashboards and too little trust in them
Data manager
Data quality, access, governance, and storage
The problem is the state of the data itself, not the analysis of it
Head of analytics
The function: budget, org design, and strategy
You have managers to manage and a seat to fill in leadership
If the pain is that reports are wrong at the source rather than misinterpreted, start with our data manager templates instead. If it is that dashboards multiply without governance, the business intelligence analyst templates describe the individual contributor version of that fix.
What Belongs in an Analytics Manager Posting
A good posting for this role does four jobs: it tells a senior candidate whether the job is real, it filters out senior analysts applying for a title, it records the facts your classification decision rests on, and it closes the hire. Most postings do only the last.
The parts strong candidates read first
Team size today and the hiring plan
The current data stack, named
Who the role reports to
What decisions the analytics actually drive
The parts that filter applicants
Years managing analysts, stated as a number
Hands-on expectation as a percentage of the week
Required tools versus preferred tools
Whether the role owns metric definitions or inherits them
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification decided before posting
Direct report count written down
Essential functions in plain language
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that close the hire
A real pay range, not a placeholder
Bonus, equity, and review cadence
Budget authority and tool decision rights
A named person and a real timeline
The two omissions that cause the most damage are the direct report count and the hands-on percentage. Both are trivial to state and both determine whether the person you hire is still there in a year. Our general guide to writing a job description covers the underlying structure, and every posting in our hiring template library follows it.
6 Analytics Manager Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required and preferred qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Analytics Manager Job Description Templates
Standard, marketing, product, first analytics hire, business intelligence, and head of analytics. All in one download.
Analytics Manager
The standard version
A team of analysts, ownership of the metric layer, and a roadmap tied to company priorities. Start here and cut what does not apply.
Marketing Analytics Manager
Attribution and spend efficiency
For measuring acquisition: attribution, cost per customer, payback, and the incrementality tests that keep channel reporting honest.
Product Analytics Manager
Event taxonomy and experiments
For product measurement: instrumentation standards, activation and retention definitions, and the experimentation program.
First Analytics Hire
Player-coach, building from zero
For a small company with no analytics function, with the hands-on reality and the misclassification risk both stated plainly.
BI / Reporting Manager
Semantic layer and dashboards
For consolidating a sprawling dashboard estate, owning certified definitions, and setting access rules with security.
Head of Analytics
Leader of leaders
For a function-level role with budget, org design, and a seat in leadership meetings. A different job, not a bigger version of the same one.
Template 1: Analytics Manager (Standard)
The general version: a team of analysts, ownership of the metric layer, and a roadmap tied to company priorities. Start here and cut what does not apply to you.
Analytics Manager Job Description (Standard)
ANALYTICS MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [VP of Data / CTO / COO / Head of Finance]
Direct reports: [number] analysts
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (see classification note before you post)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [industry] company in [City, State] with [team size]
employees. Our data stack is [warehouse, ingestion tool, BI tool], and we
currently run [number] recurring reports plus ad hoc requests from [teams].
We are hiring an Analytics Manager to own that surface and the team behind it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Analytics Manager leads our analytics team, owns the definitions behind our
core business metrics, sets the analytics roadmap against company priorities,
and makes sure the numbers leadership acts on are correct, timely, and
understood.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Manage, coach, and develop a team of [number] analysts, including one-on-ones,
goal setting, and performance reviews
•Own the definitions of our core metrics and keep a single documented source of
truth for each one
•Set and defend the analytics roadmap: intake, prioritization, and saying no to
low-value requests
•Review analytical work before it reaches leadership and take responsibility
for its accuracy
•Translate business questions from [sales, marketing, finance, operations] into
answerable analyses
•Present findings and recommendations to [leadership team / board] in language
a non-analyst can act on
•Partner with [engineering / data platform] on data quality, pipeline
reliability, and instrumentation
•Maintain reporting standards, code review practices, and documentation for the
team
•Plan headcount, take part in hiring, and onboard new analysts
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in analytics, with at least [number] years managing or leading
analysts
•Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience
•Strong SQL and hands-on experience with [warehouse: Snowflake, BigQuery,
Redshift, Postgres]
•Working knowledge of [BI tool] and of at least one scripting language for
analysis
•Track record of defining metrics and getting an organization to agree on them
•Clear written communication: memos and summaries, not just charts
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Experience in [our industry] or with [our business model]
•Experience building an analytics function from a small team
•Familiarity with experimentation and statistical testing
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
Most analytics managers are exempt, but the title alone does not decide it. The
executive exemption requires a salary at or above the federal threshold, a
primary duty of managing a recognized department, customary and regular
direction of the work of two or more full-time employees or their equivalent,
and real weight given to the manager's hiring and firing recommendations. A
manager with no direct reports has to qualify some other way, usually under the
administrative exemption. State salary thresholds can sit above the federal one.
Confirm both before you classify. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus], [equity], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on a
metric definition you changed and why.
Template 2: Marketing Analytics Manager
For measuring acquisition: attribution, cost per customer, payback period, and the incrementality tests that keep channel reporting honest. The individual contributor version is covered in our marketing analyst templates.
Marketing Analytics Manager Job Description
MARKETING ANALYTICS MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [VP of Marketing / CMO / Head of Growth]
Direct reports: [number] analysts
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] spends $_ per [month / quarter] across [paid search, paid
social, affiliate, email, events]. We need one person who owns whether that
spend is working, who can prove it with numbers our finance team accepts, and
who leads the analysts producing the reporting.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Marketing Analytics Manager owns measurement across every acquisition
For product measurement: the event taxonomy, activation and retention definitions, the experimentation program, and analysts embedded with product squads.
Product Analytics Manager Job Description
PRODUCT ANALYTICS MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [VP of Product / Head of Data / CPO]
Direct reports: [number] analysts
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] ships [product] to [customer type]. Product decisions here are
currently made on [opinion / partial data / a dashboard nobody trusts]. We are
hiring a Product Analytics Manager to fix the measurement layer and lead the
analysts who work with our product teams.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Product Analytics Manager owns how we measure product usage and outcomes:
the event taxonomy, the activation and retention definitions, the experiment
program, and the analysts embedded with product squads.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the event taxonomy and the instrumentation standard new features must meet
•Define and maintain activation, engagement, retention, and churn metrics
•Manage [number] product analysts and their assignment across squads
•Run the experimentation program: design, sample size, guardrail metrics, and
readouts
•Build self-serve reporting so product managers stop queueing for basic numbers
•Investigate retention and funnel drops and write up the cause, not just the
chart
•Partner with engineering on tracking quality and on the data model behind it
•Present product performance to [leadership] on a [monthly / quarterly] cadence
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in product analytics, including [number] years managing analysts
•Strong SQL and experience with [product analytics tool]
•Practical experimentation background: you can explain why a test was
underpowered
•Experience designing an event taxonomy that survived more than one product
rewrite
•Ability to push back on a product decision with evidence
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Experience with [our product model: self-serve, sales-led, marketplace]
•Familiarity with causal inference methods beyond A/B testing
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Assess the exemption on duties and salary. Managing two or more full-time
analysts and owning their hiring and performance decisions points to the
executive exemption. A hands-on analyst with a manager title and no reports
generally has to qualify under the administrative exemption, which turns on
whether the primary duty involves discretion and independent judgment on matters
of significance. Where product analytics touches user-level data, confirm what
your privacy notice and consent flows permit. This is general information, not
legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus], [equity], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on an
experiment whose result changed your mind.
Template 4: Analytics Manager, First Analytics Hire
For a small company building the function from zero, with the player-coach reality and the misclassification risk both stated plainly. This is the variant that most needs an honest hands-on percentage.
Analytics Manager, First Analytics Hire (Small Business) Job Description
Direct reports: none at first, [number] planned within [timeframe]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Assess before posting (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE (READ THIS FIRST)
[Company Name] is a [industry] business with [team size] employees. We do not
have an analytics team. Reporting today lives in [spreadsheets / the billing
system / three disconnected tools], and it takes [time] to answer a question
that should take minutes. This role builds the function from zero. It is a
player-coach job: you will write the queries yourself for the first
[timeframe], then hire and lead the people who take them over.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Analytics Manager sets up our reporting from the ground up, defines the
metrics the business runs on, answers the questions leadership asks today, and
builds the team and the standards that outlast the first year.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Audit our current data sources and document what exists, what is trustworthy,
and what is missing
•Choose and stand up a reporting stack appropriate to our size and budget
•Define our core business metrics in writing and get [leadership] to agree
•Build the first set of recurring reports for [finance, sales, operations]
•Answer ad hoc questions from [owner / leadership] with a documented method
•Set intake and prioritization so analytics does not become a request inbox
•Hire and manage [number] analysts within [timeframe] and set their standards
•Train the rest of the company to read a report correctly
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in analytics with a record of building rather than maintaining
•Strong SQL and comfort working without a data engineering team behind you
•Experience choosing tools on a real budget instead of an enterprise one
•Willingness to do the hands-on work before the team exists
•Plain-language communication with people who are not analysts
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Prior experience as a first analytics hire at a company of our size
•Experience in [our industry]
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (IMPORTANT FOR THIS VARIANT)
This is the variant most likely to be misclassified. A manager with no direct
reports cannot rely on the executive exemption, which requires customarily and
regularly directing the work of two or more full-time employees or their
equivalent. The role may still be exempt under the administrative exemption if
the primary duty is office work directly related to management or general
business operations and includes the exercise of discretion and independent
judgment on matters of significance, and if the salary clears the federal
threshold. Several states set higher salary thresholds and stricter duties
tests. Decide before you post, and revisit the classification when the first
reports arrive. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a note on the first
thing you would measure at a company like ours.
Template 5: Business Intelligence / Reporting Manager
For consolidating a sprawling dashboard estate, owning certified metric definitions in the reporting tool, and setting access rules alongside security.
Business Intelligence / Reporting Manager Job Description
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE / REPORTING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [Head of Data / CTO / CFO]
Direct reports: [number] BI analysts and developers
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] runs [number] dashboards across [BI tool], and the same number
appears three different ways depending on which one you open. We are hiring a BI
and Reporting Manager to consolidate that surface, own the semantic layer, and
lead the team that maintains it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Business Intelligence Manager owns the reporting layer end to end: the
semantic model, the dashboard estate, the refresh reliability, the access rules,
and the analysts and developers who build it.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the semantic layer and the certified metric definitions inside [BI tool]
•Consolidate duplicate dashboards and retire reports nobody opens
•Manage [number] BI analysts and developers, including review and standards
•Guarantee refresh reliability and publish an availability standard
•Set row-level security and access rules with [IT / security]
•Build self-serve reporting and train business users to use it correctly
•Partner with [data engineering] on models, tests, and pipeline changes
•Maintain documentation so a new hire can find the right report in a day
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in business intelligence, including [number] leading a team
•Deep experience with [BI tool] including its modeling layer, not only its charts
•Strong SQL and dimensional modeling fundamentals
•Track record of consolidating a sprawling dashboard estate
•Governance instincts: naming, certification, ownership, and deprecation
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Experience migrating between BI platforms
•Familiarity with a transformation framework and version-controlled models
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A BI manager leading two or more full-time employees, with genuine authority
over hiring and performance decisions, generally meets the executive exemption
once the salary test is satisfied. Reporting access rules often carry compliance
weight of their own: if your dashboards expose payroll, health, or personal
data, restrict access by role and document who approved each grant. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a note on a
dashboard you deleted and what replaced it.
Template 6: Senior Analytics Manager / Head of Analytics
For a function-level role with budget, org design, and a seat in leadership meetings. If you are hiring at this level, compare it against the individual contributor ceiling in our senior analyst templates before you set the band.
Senior Analytics Manager / Head of Analytics Job Description
SENIOR ANALYTICS MANAGER / HEAD OF ANALYTICS JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [CEO / COO / CTO]
Direct reports: [number] managers and senior analysts
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, plus [bonus] and [equity]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] has [number] analysts spread across [teams] with no shared
standard and no single owner. We are hiring a Head of Analytics to bring them
under one function, set the strategy, and sit at the table where the decisions
those analysts inform are actually made.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Head of Analytics owns the analytics function: its strategy, its structure,
its budget, its standards, and its relationship with the leadership team. This
is a leader-of-leaders role, not a senior individual contributor role.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Set the analytics strategy and tie it to company objectives each [quarter]
•Manage [number] managers and senior analysts and own the org design
•Own the analytics budget, tool selection, and vendor relationships
•Define company-wide metric governance and resolve definition disputes
•Serve as the analytics voice in [leadership team / board] meetings
•Build the hiring plan, the leveling framework, and the career paths
•Set data quality standards jointly with [engineering / security]
•Decide what the function will not do, and communicate that decision clearly
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in analytics, including [number] years managing managers
•Experience owning a function budget and a multi-year roadmap
•Record of building an analytics team through at least one stage of growth
•Executive presence: you can hold a position in a room full of stronger opinions
•Deep technical grounding, even though you will rarely write the query yourself
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Experience in [our industry] at [our stage]
•Experience consolidating scattered analysts into a central function
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A role at this level virtually always meets the executive exemption: primary
duty of managing a recognized department, direction of the work of two or more
full-time employees, and hiring authority. Salary at this level also typically
clears the highly compensated employee threshold, which relaxes the duties test.
Where the role includes access to compensation, health, or personal data,
document the access approvals. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus], [equity], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a note on the
analytics function you built and what you would do differently.
Overtime Classification for an Analytics Manager
Most analytics managers are exempt from overtime, but the title does not decide it and neither does the salary alone. Classification rests on the duties actually performed, tested against a specific set of federal elements and any stricter state rule.
The federal executive exemption regulation requires four elements together: a salary basis at not less than $684 per week, a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a customarily recognized department, customary and regular direction of the work of two or more full-time employees or their equivalent, and hiring and firing authority or recommendations given particular weight. The Department of Labor sets out the same elements in Fact Sheet 17B, which also confirms that job titles never determine exempt status.
The executive exemption needs two or more reports
Under the federal executive exemption, an employee must be paid on a salary basis at not less than $684 per week, have a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a customarily recognized department, customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent, and have real authority over hiring and firing or recommendations that carry particular weight. All four apply together. The two-employee element is the one small companies trip over: an analytics manager of one, or of zero, does not satisfy it no matter how senior the work feels. Two half-time analysts count as one full-time equivalent, so a manager with two part-timers is at the edge rather than safely over it. Write the direct report count into the job description so the classification decision has a written basis. This is general information, not legal advice.
A manager with no team can still be exempt, just not as an executive
The administrative exemption is the usual home for a solo analytics manager. It requires the same salary basis and threshold, a primary duty of office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. An analytics lead who chooses the metric definitions the company runs on, selects the tooling, and advises leadership on decisions with real consequences generally clears that bar. An analyst who executes a fixed request queue, however senior the title, generally does not. The test is what the person decides, not what they are called. Document the reasoning when you make the call, because the file you write at hiring time is the file you will want if the classification is ever questioned. This is general information, not legal advice.
State thresholds sit above the federal one in several states
The federal salary threshold is a floor, not a national standard. Several states set their own white-collar salary thresholds higher, and some apply stricter duties tests that give less weight to the job title and more to how the hours are actually spent. Where a state rule is more protective of the employee, it governs. For an analytics manager this matters most at the junior end of the band, where a first-line manager salary can clear the federal threshold and still fall under a state one. Check your state labor agency for the current figure before you set the salary, and check it again in any state you hire remotely into, because the employee's work location generally drives which rule applies. This is general information, not legal advice.
Highly compensated employees get a shorter test, not an automatic pass
The federal rules include a highly compensated employee route with a total annual compensation threshold of $107,432, which relaxes the duties test rather than removing it. A highly compensated employee still has to customarily and regularly perform at least one of the exempt duties of an executive, administrative, or professional employee, and still has to receive at least the standard weekly salary on a salary basis. A senior analytics manager or head of analytics normally clears this comfortably. A first-line manager typically does not, so do not reach for the shortcut at the level where the classification question is actually hard. When in doubt at any level, treat the role as non-exempt, track hours, and pay overtime, which is far cheaper than a back-pay finding. This is general information, not legal advice.
Anyone who falls outside every exemption needs hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week. If the call is close, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through each test in order. Write your reasoning down at hiring time rather than reconstructing it later.
The Solo Manager Is the Misclassification Risk
The riskiest posting on this page is the first analytics hire. It carries a manager title, a manager salary, and zero direct reports, which means the executive exemption is unavailable from day one. Companies default to exempt anyway because the title says manager, and the exposure accumulates quietly at time and a half for every hour past forty. Decide the classification in writing before the offer, base it on the administrative exemption if it applies, and revisit it the day the first analyst starts.
What to Pay an Analytics Manager
No Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation is titled analytics manager, so any single national figure you see for the title is an estimate rather than an official statistic. The honest approach is to benchmark against the nearest official classifications and pick the one that matches your version of the role.
Nearest Official Benchmarks, National Medians
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), median annual wages were $175,140 for computer and information systems managers, $166,790 for marketing managers, $120,230 for data scientists, $105,650 for statisticians, $101,860 for management analysts, and $88,940 for operations research analysts (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates). None of these is an analytics manager, and the spread between them is the reason a title-based salary search misleads.
Benchmark occupation (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
25th percentile
Median
75th percentile
Use it for
Computer and information systems managers
$138,060
$175,140
$220,730
Head of analytics, or an analytics manager inside a technology organization
Marketing managers
$123,020
$166,790
$216,410
A marketing analytics manager sitting inside the marketing organization
Data scientists
$85,660
$120,230
$158,880
A first-line analytics manager at a small company
Statisticians
$82,220
$105,650
$141,490
A methods-heavy analytics lead in research or healthcare
Management analysts
$77,950
$101,860
$133,370
A business analytics lead in a non-technical organization
Operations research analysts
$68,360
$88,940
$125,990
A floor reference for an entry-level analytics lead
For a first analytics hire at a company of thirty people, the data scientist band is usually the closest reference: a median of $120,230, with the 25th percentile at $85,660 and the 10th at $67,240. For a head of analytics, the manager band applies, where the 25th percentile alone is $138,060 and the 90th reaches $297,510. Demand supports the upper end: BLS projects employment of computer and information systems managers to grow 15 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 55,600 openings a year. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply.
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The hardest part of this hire is that senior analysts and real managers interview almost identically until you ask about the unpleasant parts of management. Both have led projects, both answer technical questions well, and both will use the word team.
Five questions separate them reliably, and none of them requires you to be technical. Ask what they stopped doing when they became a manager. Ask how a metric definition dispute between two departments ended. Ask who they decided not to hire and why. Ask what they did about an analyst who was not performing. Ask what they said no to last quarter and what happened afterward.
Question
Senior analyst answer
Manager answer
What did you stop doing when you became a manager?
Nothing much changed
Names a specific loss and how they adjusted
How did a metric definition dispute end?
Describes the correct methodology
Describes a decision, who was unhappy, and how it was documented
Who did you decide not to hire?
Talks about screening criteria in general
Names a real candidate and the trade-off they weighed
What did you do about an underperformer?
Offered to help with the analysis
Describes a conversation, a plan, and an outcome
What did you say no to last quarter?
Rarely says no to stakeholders
Names the request, the reason, and the fallout
Then run a practical exercise: hand the candidate one of your real reports, with the numbers changed if you need to, and ask what they would change, what they would delete, and what they would need before they trusted it. Structure the whole loop with the same questions and a written scorecard for every candidate, which is the same discipline described in our guide to the hiring process.
Hiring an Analytics Manager Without an HR Department
This hire fails in three predictable places at small companies: the posting promises a team that does not exist, the interview cannot distinguish a manager from a senior analyst, and the first ninety days drift because nobody set them. Each has a fix that costs nothing.
You are hiring a manager for a team that does not exist yet
Most small companies write an analytics manager posting when they have one overloaded analyst, or none. The posting then promises a team, and the first six months deliver a request queue. Strong managers spot the gap in the first interview and withdraw, while candidates who do not spot it leave in year one. The honest version works better: say the team is one person today, name the number you plan to hire and the timeframe, and state what share of the week is hands-on for now. That posting attracts the specific person who wants to build a function rather than inherit one, which is a different and rarer candidate. It also gives you a defensible classification, because you have written down what the job actually is.
You cannot tell a real manager from a senior analyst in an interview
Both candidates answer technical questions well, and both have led projects. The difference shows up only when you ask about the parts of management that are unpleasant. Ask what they stopped doing when they became a manager, and listen for a real loss. Ask about a metric definition dispute between two departments and how it ended. Ask who they decided not to hire and why, and what they did about an analyst who was not performing. Ask what they said no to last quarter and what happened next. A senior analyst gives you good project stories. A manager gives you people stories with consequences attached, including one that went badly. Run this as a structured interview with the same questions for every candidate, and score against a written rubric.
The offer is signed and then the first ninety days drift
Analytics managers arrive into a mess by definition, which is why you hired one, and without a structure they spend the first quarter reacting to whoever asks loudest. Set the first ninety days in writing before the start date: an audit of what exists, a documented set of metric definitions, an intake process, and one report leadership agrees to trust. FirstHR was built for the part around that. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, e-signature covers the offer, the confidentiality agreement, and the data access acknowledgments this role needs, document management keeps signed policies and access approvals against the employee profile, and training modules cover data handling before the first query. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable onboarding checklist. This role needs more of it than most, because an analytics manager touches payroll, customer, and personnel data in their first week, and the access approvals for all three should exist in writing before the first query runs. If you want the function pointed at your own people data eventually, our overview of HR analytics covers what that looks like.
Key Takeaways
An analytics manager owns both the metric definitions a company runs on and the analysts who produce them, and neither half works without the other.
Four different jobs share this title: a people manager with reports, a player-coach first hire, a function owner without headcount, and a leader of leaders. Name yours in the posting.
The federal executive exemption requires two or more full-time direct reports, so a solo analytics manager has to qualify under the administrative exemption instead or be classified as non-exempt.
No BLS occupation is titled analytics manager, so benchmark against computer and information systems managers ($175,140 median) for senior roles and data scientists ($120,230) for first-line ones.
State the direct report count and the hands-on share of the week in the posting: both omissions are the leading causes of an early departure in this role.
Screen with management questions about disputes, hiring decisions, underperformance, and refused requests, because senior analysts and real managers are indistinguishable on technical questions alone.
An analytics manager arrives with more access requests than almost any other hire. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and the confidentiality agreement, document storage for signed data access approvals, and training modules for data handling before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an analytics manager do?
An analytics manager owns two things at once: the numbers a company runs on and the people who produce them. On the data side that means defining the core business metrics, keeping a documented source of truth for each one, setting the analytics roadmap against company priorities, and taking personal responsibility for the accuracy of anything that reaches leadership. On the people side it means managing analysts, reviewing their work, running one-on-ones, planning headcount, and deciding which requests the team will not take. The role is a translation job in both directions: business questions become answerable analyses, and analyses become recommendations a non-analyst can act on. At a small company the same person also chooses the tooling and does a large share of the hands-on work, which is why the posting has to state the hands-on expectation explicitly.
What should an analytics manager job description include?
It should include eight things: the current team size and the hiring plan, the data stack named by product, who the role reports to, the metric ownership scope, the hands-on expectation as a share of the week, the required years of management experience as a number, the FLSA classification, and a real pay range. The two most commonly omitted are the hands-on percentage and the direct report count, and both cause bad hires. A candidate who expects to manage and instead writes queries all week leaves quickly, and a classification decision made without a written report count is hard to defend later. Add the equal opportunity statement, name a real person to apply to, and give a decision timeline. The six templates on this page follow that structure so you only rewrite the company-specific parts.
Is an analytics manager exempt from overtime?
Usually, but the title alone does not decide it. The federal executive exemption requires all four elements together: payment on a salary basis at not less than $684 per week, a primary duty of managing a recognized department, customary and regular direction of the work of two or more full-time employees or their equivalent, and genuine weight given to the manager's hiring and firing recommendations. An analytics manager with no direct reports fails the two-employee element and cannot use it. That person may still be exempt under the administrative exemption if the primary duty involves discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, such as owning metric definitions and advising leadership. Several states set higher salary thresholds and stricter duties tests, and the more protective rule governs. When the answer is genuinely unclear, classify as non-exempt and pay overtime. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does an analytics manager make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation titled analytics manager, so any single national figure for the title is an estimate rather than an official statistic. The nearest official classifications give a defensible band. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $175,140 for computer and information systems managers, $166,790 for marketing managers, $120,230 for data scientists, $105,650 for statisticians, and $101,860 for management analysts. For a first-line analytics manager at a small company, the data scientist band is usually the closer reference, with a median of $120,230 and a 25th percentile of $85,660. For a head of analytics, the computer and information systems manager band applies, where the 25th percentile alone is $138,060. Adjust for your metro and publish a good-faith range where pay transparency rules require one.
What is the difference between an analytics manager and a data analyst?
The difference is ownership and people, not seniority. A data analyst answers questions: they pull the data, run the analysis, build the report, and hand over the result. An analytics manager decides which questions get answered, defines what the metrics in those answers mean, reviews the work before it goes out, and manages the analysts doing it. A senior data analyst may be more technically capable than the manager and still not be doing the manager's job, because the manager's job includes prioritization, hiring, performance conversations, and refusing requests. The practical test for a job description is whether the role has authority over other people's time. If it does not, you are writing a senior analyst posting with a manager title, which sets the wrong expectations and creates a classification problem at the same time.
How do I interview for an analytics manager without a data background?
Split the interview into two tracks and bring in help for only one of them. The management track is yours: ask what they stopped doing when they became a manager, how a metric definition dispute between two departments ended, who they decided not to hire and why, what they did about an underperforming analyst, and what they said no to last quarter. Those answers do not require technical judgment to evaluate, and they separate a manager from a senior analyst faster than any technical question. For the technical track, borrow a trusted engineer, a fractional data lead, or an advisor for one ninety-minute session, and give them a written scorecard rather than an unstructured conversation. Finish with a practical exercise: hand the candidate one of your real reports and ask what they would change and what they would delete.
Do I need an analytics manager or just a senior analyst?
Hire a senior analyst if the constraint is throughput and a manager if the constraint is direction. The signal for a manager is disagreement rather than backlog: two departments reporting different revenue numbers, dashboards nobody trusts, leadership asking the same question three ways, and no one empowered to decide what a metric means. A senior analyst can clear a queue but cannot settle a definitional argument between two department heads, because that requires authority the role does not carry. The other signal is headcount: if you plan to hire two or more analysts within the year, hire the manager first so they build the team to their own standard rather than inheriting one. If neither signal is present, a senior analyst is the cheaper and better hire, and you can revisit the question when the second analyst arrives. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
