Business intelligence (BI) is about working through data to derive meaningful insights and conclusions that are important for a business. It helps businesses to derive knowledge, insights, and conclusions out of the huge data sets collected both from within and without an organization, cleaning and analyzing the relevant data, preparing reports, and presenting them to the management, stakeholders, and all related tires of a company quickly and efficiently. The concept of Power BI started in 2011 (it was called Project Crescent then) when it was first launched with SQL Server. 2013 saw its renaming as Power BI for Office 365. Power BI is a part of the Microsoft Business Intelligence (MSBI) suite, offering plenty of services, products, and applications.
Finally, after adding more features, including enterprise-level data connectivity and security options apart from its original Excel features like Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power View it was released as a standalone product. Microsoft now regularly updates Power BI applications with new features and improvements every month, and users can download the latest edition from the Power BI site.
Who’s a Power BI Developer?
A Power BI developer is a professional who, with the Power BI training has gained an in-depth understanding of the Power BI tools and is responsible for the development and administration of BI tools along with complete knowledge of the BI system. With the help of these skills, a Power BI developer converts raw data into meaningful insights with the help of interactive and easy-to-understand dashboards and reports.
The roles and responsibilities of a Power BI developer differ from company to company, though the typical responsibility includes designing and developing BI reports, building data models, analyzing databases, and providing insights to improve decision-making among others. Here is a short list covering the duties of a Power BI developer.
Power BI Developer Responsibilities
- Comprehending the business requirements in the radar of business intelligence, designing data models to transform raw data into meaningful insights.
- Identifying the key performance indicators (KPIs) with clear objectives and constant monitoring of the same.
- Turning business requirements to technical specifications with timelines attached.
- Data analysis, chart, and report preparation.
- Preparing tabular and multidimensional data models with data.
- Data documentation capturing all the algorithms, parameters, models, and relations.
- Creating dashboards and interactive visual project reports with Power BI tools.
- Developing a data warehouse.
- Designing, developing, testing, and deploying Power BI scripts, developing detailed analytics.
This list is not exclusive. Power BI developer duties include many more technical aspects which are beyond the limits of the topic of the present article. In a nutshell, the responsibility covers handling the entire BI system and focusing on leveraging Power BI for smart and real-time decisions.
Having covered the duties, it is important to understand the skills that are required for a Power BI developer to perform them.
Proficiencies Needed to Become a Power BI developer
It goes without saying that a Power BI developer must be proficient in data science, business intelligence, and data analytics with knowledge of data integration, data warehousing, modeling, business intelligence, and presentation. Here is a run-down of the skill sets needed to become a proficient Power BI developer. Of course, these can be developed by doing some Business Intelligence courses.
Technical skills needed by a Power BI developer
1. Data Analytics proficiency
The most basic skill of BI developers. This includes the ability to drill down data, visualize the big picture and communicate the same in terms of non-technical, jargon-free language to all concerned within the organization.
2. BI Tools expertise
Experience in BI tools and systems like Power Bi, Tableau, SAP, and others is a must. A Power BI developer will also need experience in creating data-rich dashboards, writing DAX expressions, implementing row-level security in Power BI, developing custom BI products that require knowledge of scripting languages and programming languages like R and Python, and finally the ability to convert data into stories that help establish data-driven decision-making process.
3. Data-specific roles
A minimum of 2 or 3 years of experience with BI tools or any data-specific roles, experience of database management, SQL querying, data modeling, data warehousing, business intelligence, and OLAP(Online Analytical Processing) as well.
4. BI Stack knowledge
Complete knowledge and experience both with Microsoft Business Intelligence stacks such as Power Pivot, SSRS, SSIS, and SSAS will be needed as many large-scale companies in the domain of data warehousing, data management, analytics, reporting, and business intelligence use these.
5. Ability to develop custom BI solutions
It is expected of an efficient Power BI developer to know how to develop a custom BI solution. Hence the person must have the knowledge about the needed technical aspects as well as the software development architecture required to convert requirements into technical specifications.
Non-technical skills needed by a Power BI developer
It is not that a Power BI developer needs to have only technical skills alone. The non-technical or soft skills are equally important, and a combination of both makes a complete and successful Power BI developer. These skills can also be learnt after taking training from KnowledgeHut Power BI training.
Following are the soft skills that are covered in the Power BI training:
- Team player with leadership abilities.
- Great conversation and communication skills.
- Client management skills.
- Ability to interact with business and technical teams with equal efficiency.
- Remain updated with the latest business trends and quickly respond to them.
- Stay updated with the latest advancements and best practices in design and development.
- Fast learner, multitasker, and great interpersonal skills.
- Great adaptability, self-motivation, and eagerness to learn.
- The analytic and agile mindset with a problem-solving approach.
- Aptitude to apply the learned lessons to future potential solution approaches.
Rise of Power BI’s Popularity
With its capability to offer a scalable and unified platform to gather, refine, analyze, and present data on-premise or in the cloud, Power BI gives a 360-degree perspective to a business. It does this through interactive dashboards and easy-to-comprehend reporting formats.
While data analytics might not be everyone’s cup of tea, the simple yet formidably powerful Microsoft Power BI could be used for a wide variety of applications.
Simply put, the following are some of the main reasons behind the popularity of Power BI.
- Far cheaper alternatives when compared to other BI tools like Domo and Tableau to name a few, with a wide range of products and services accessible from the web to mobile devices.
- Once the KPIs or the key performance indicators are determined Power BI is an incredibly simple tool, another reason behind its gaining traction.
- Seamless integration with Office 365 and other Microsoft tools.
- The simplicity of creating dashboards, self-service analytical features, and awesome user experience are some of the other reasons why Power BI is popular.
Power BI Developer Salary
While education, training and certification, hard work, skill sets, and various other elements influence BI salary, we will discuss later the four main factors that influence Power BI jobs salary that will help to understand what employers look at when hiring new employees and what needs to be done by freshers to get Power BI jobs or the experienced Power BI professionals to achieve promotions and higher paychecks.
Average Power BI Developer Salary
The average annual Power BI starting salary or junior Power BI developer salary is $70,050, going up to $88,000 a year.
Microsoft Power BI certification salary could be as high as $134,000, with the experienced average salary of a Power BI developer as $114,298.
Factors Affecting Power BI Developer Salary
Coming to the four factors that influence Power BI salary in the international market are as follows:
1. Power BI Developer Salary: Based on Experience
- Power BI developer salary entry level (1 to 4 years of experience) is $70,806 a year.
- A mid-career Power BI salary (with 5-9 years of experience) is nearly $87,036 a year.
- A senior Power BI developer salary (with 10-19 years of experience) can fetch around $99,063 a year.
2. Power BI Developer Salary: Based on Employer
Worldwide, the top seven companies that employ Power BI Developers have the average salary structure as follows (ranging from highest to the lowest):
- Anchorage Consultants LLC: $133,983
- Next Generation Recruitment & Staffing Agency: $130,000
- Technical Connections: $113,309
- SAP Avg Salary: $155,374
- Anthem: $107,022
- Amazon: $106,853
- Tata Consultancy Services: $100K
3. Power BI Developer Salary: Based on Skill-set
Obviously, an experienced Power BI developer's salary will be higher than an entry-level Power BI developer's salary. However, this also gets combined with certain additional skill sets and roles in the Power BI field that make a difference in the pay scale.
Here are some examples to understand:
- A Data Analyst: salary may go somewhere around $62,000 annually.
- A Power BI Developer: may get around $75,000 on average a year.
- A Senior Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst may draw $78,000 on average a year.
- A Senior Data Analyst may demand over $80,000 on average a year.
4. Power BI Developer Salary: Based on Location
The salary of a Power BI Developer varies from country to country across the globe. The reason behind this is there are plenty of factors that decide the salary in a particular country. For example, the standard of living, the status of the country (developed, developing), job profile, and particular skill sets that are in high demand in a particular country, to mention a few.
Here is a glimpse of a few location-based average annual salary variations seen across the globe:
US | $74,855 a year |
Canada | CA$107,057 per year |
UK | £47,013 a year |
Australia | AU$114,395 per year |
India | ₹293,544 a year |
Top Companies That Are Looking for Power BI Developers
In India the salary structure of the top companies that recruit Power BI Developers are as follows:
Accenture
The salary range of 2 to 5 years of experience in Power BI professionals is between $81K - $170K a year.
TCS
The salary range of 2 to 5 years of experience in Power BI professionals is between $100K a year.
Infosys
The salary range of 2 to 5 years of experience in Power BI professionals is $93,901 a year.
Deloitte
The salary range of 2 to 5 years of experience in Power BI professionals is $110,319 a year.
Ernst & Young
The salary range of 2 to 5 years of experience in Power BI professionals is $114K a year.
IBM
The salary range of 2 to 5 years of experience in Power BI professionals is $103,386 a year.
Power BI Developer Jobs
Salaries of Jobs related to Power BI Developers
Here is a list of average salary ranges for Power BI professionals:
- Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst: $69,000
- Data Analyst: $62,000
- Senior Business Intelligence (BI): $78,000
- Senior Data Analyst: $80,000
- Senior Business Analyst Average Salary: $76,000
- Reporting Analyst Average Salary: $61,000
A Career in Power BI
We have already discussed the popularity and the demand for Power BI professionals. They are required in almost every kind of industry sector, like software, e-commerce, healthcare retail, etc. Here are a few of the various positions that one can apply for:
- Power BI Developer
- SQL Server Power BI Developer
- Power BI Project Manager
- Power BI Semantic Model Developer
- Power BI Consultant
- Power BI Administrator
- Power BI Manager
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Why Power BI Professionals Paid So Much?
With the flourishing of big data and businesses worldwide depending on data for their survival and growth, having a great data analysis strategy is extremely important for businesses. Since business analysts are the masters of dealing with data and drawing meaningful insights out of them, demand for business intelligence professionals is showing a continuous up-curve, with individuals skilled in Power BI drawing very high salaries across the globe.
Mentioned below is an assessment of the importance of a few of such professionals based on their job roles and responsibilities.
1. Data Analysts
- Produce reports, design data, and analysis.
- Translate data into meaningful, understandable insights that can be used for making business decisions.
2. Business Intelligence Architect
- Manage databases, data warehouses, and different storage infrastructure
- Develop data structures for organizing platforms and utilizing data more efficiently and effectively to come up with better, more productive decisions resulting in more successful outcomes.
3. Business Analysts
These techno-commercial professionals handle the following:
- Understanding the business requirements with their data skills to model and analyze data perfectly.
- Develop and propose new business intelligence solutions.
- Report-writing for organizations so that they get the most out of their data.
Conclusion
This detailed article has covered everything regarding Power BI, the Power BI professionals, their importance, the skills they need, and how they can develop them. Most importantly, we have had an extensive discussion on Power BI salaries across the globe, including India, and the factors influencing the salaries. Hopefully, this will bring the latest and valuable insights to all aspiring to enter into the Power BI profession and also those who are already into it and want to enhance their career further.
Frequently Asked Questions( FAQs)
1. What is Power BI and how it is useful?
Power BI is a part of the Microsoft Business Intelligence (MSBI) suite offering plenty of services, products, and applications. It helps businesses to derive knowledge, insights out of the huge data and arrive at intelligent business decisions.
2. Is Power BI and BI developer the same?
The development and administration of BI tools is the duty of a Power BI developer. Whereas Power BI is a part of the Microsoft Business Intelligence (MSBI) suite that offers various services, products, and applications needed for BI (Business Intelligence).
3. How long does it take to learn Power BI?
It depends on from where one wants to learn and the curriculum of the course.
4. Is Power BI development a dying career?
On the contrary Power BI would remain an excellent career opportunity not only in 2022 but many years to come.
5. What job can I get with Power BI?
Listed below are the jobs that we can get with Power BI.
1. Power BI Developer
- SQL Server Power BI Developer
- Power BI Project Manager
- Power BI Semantic Model Developer
- Power BI Consultant
- Power BI Administrator
2. Power BI Manager
- Data Analyst
- Senior Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst
- Senior Data Analyst
