Data Analyst CV: Template, Skills & Example (2026)

Key skills for a Data Analyst CV

Sample professional summary

Data analyst with 4+ years turning messy data into decisions. Built SQL pipelines and Power BI dashboards that cut reporting time 70% and surfaced a churn driver worth $400k/year. Strong in SQL, Python, and statistics, with a habit of tying every analysis to a business outcome.

What recruiters look for

First, the technical stack: SQL almost always, then Python or R, a BI tool (Power BI/Tableau), and Excel. List these exactly as the posting words them — the ATS matches strings.

Then, business impact. Anyone can pull a number; what counts is the decision it changed. Lead bullets with the insight and the result, not the query.

Write impact-focused bullets

Use the pattern: analysis + tool + decision + measurable result. "Built a cohort analysis in SQL and Tableau that identified a 12% drop-off, informing a fix that lifted retention 9%" beats "Created dashboards."

Quantify with percentages, dollars, hours saved, or accuracy improvements — analysts are expected to bring numbers to their own CV.

Show projects and a portfolio

For juniors and career-changers, a Projects section is powerful: 2–3 analyses with the question, your method, the tools, and a link to the dashboard or notebook. A public portfolio or GitHub repo is strong proof you can do the work.

Pair technical with communication

The best analysts translate data for non-technical stakeholders. Show it: a bullet about a report that changed a decision, or a dashboard a whole team now uses, proves you communicate insight — not just compute it.