Headhunting product and data analysts

At the same time, we think it's important to share the accumulated expertise of the NEWHR recruiting agency on what is happening with the profession in the labour market, so we are bringing back the hunting analytics format, in which we cover:

• what it costs today to hire a specialist;
• what raises or lowers their price;
• what else, besides money, improves your chances of attracting a candidate.

Who we are talking about

In this review we write about product and data analysts. We'll cover heads of analytics in the next piece.

First and foremost, we talk about Russian-speaking analysts from product and technology companies, living both in Russia and outside it. We did not take into account analysts working in non-IT/Tech industries, even though those industries may already have large established analytics practices (industry, oil production, logistics, pharma, manufacturing, etc.).

Most of the experienced analysts we assessed are not actively looking for a job but are open to interesting offers. Such candidates are usually ready for work that is interesting in terms of professional growth and other prospects. We did not include in our assessment candidates who are looking for a job extremely urgently and are therefore potentially willing to accept anything the market offers.

How analysts' income is structured

Judging by the results of our large market research, in 2024 analysts' salaries grew by 10−30% on average.

Most of an analyst's salary is fixed. Bonuses are most often within 10%-20% of the base salary. At the same time, the higher an analyst's grade, the larger the share of bonuses in their total income.

It's hard to assess an analyst's cost in isolation from a specific project. Each candidate is assessed individually, depending on the specific company's needs.

The general rule: the more your experience and background match the business's needs, the more the company will be willing to pay you.

Nevertheless, there are several factors that almost certainly affect candidates' cost. More on them below.

Product analyst

Tasks:

• Finding business insights in data
• Formulating hypotheses based on research
• Working with key metrics
• Data visualisation
• A/B tests

Salary range:

Data analyst

Tasks and specifics:

• Collecting and processing data from various sources
• Turning raw data into information that is clear and useful for the business
• A data analyst's scope may be similar to that of a product analyst. The key difference: less business expertise, more technical expertise
• As a rule, as they gain experience, data analysts move either into product analytics or into data engineering

Salary range:

Relevant for all analysts

What raises a candidate's price:

• Experience building analytics from scratch.
• A strong personal brand.
• The ability to generate non-obvious hypotheses and to work not only with analytical factors but also with economic, logistical, political and other factors.
• Senior salaries can go far beyond any upper limit and exceed the range of the grade itself. This is due to the expert nature of the role and the impact of the tasks they solve on business efficiency.

100% remote work from any location lowers the cost of hiring for companies, especially on the international market.

Industry specifics

Analysts' salary expectations differ by industry:

• They are at the top of the range in startups (companies partly build the risks associated with raising investment into compensation) and in FinTech (hedge funds, trading, crypto).
• The median of the range usually covers companies for which hiring analysts is an ongoing task, so they closely monitor the salary market (including competitors' salaries) and track fluctuations.
• Median values will also be found at companies that meet various interests of analyst candidates (remote work, the option to be paid in foreign currency, an established analytics culture), i.e. there is no point in overpaying and hedging risks.
• The least is paid by companies for which analytics is not a core product, where data is not the basis for business decisions, and analytics is more of a supporting function. As a rule, the range of analysts' tasks at such companies is much narrower.

How to hunt a strong analyst?

First and foremost, analysts are attracted by:

When hunting experienced specialists, we recommend that Russian companies also look at those who are in neighbouring countries (primarily Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan). Today analysts in this "buffer zone" are more willing to talk to employers from Russia than in 2022 and 2023.

Where does this data come from?

At NEWHR we have been researching the analyst market since 2018 and see important market trends as they develop. We supplement expert data with quantitative research (you can explore our latest market research here).