Data Analyst (Human Capital)

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

The Data Analyst is responsible for technical support across analytics platforms by managing analytics security, resolving production incidents, maintaining data availability and supporting the reliable delivery of enterprise reporting and dashboards. Operating within the Human Capital Analytics team, the role partners with Human Capital, Technology, Data Engineering and Business Intelligence teams to ensure analytics products remain secure, efficient and available for business users. The incumbent will investigate and resolve issues affecting analytics platforms, reporting solutions, semantic models and data refresh processes while maintaining governance and compliance standards. As the analytics landscape matures and operational support requirements reduce, the role will progressively expand into analytics development activities including SQL development, Power BI solution design, semantic modelling, automation, and the delivery of new analytics products that enable strategic workforce decision-making.

Job Description

Key Focus Areas

• Analytics Platform Support and Operational Stability

• Analytics Security Administration and Governance

• Incident Management and Technical Troubleshooting

• Data Reliability and Production Support

• Analytics Development and Power BI Delivery

• Analytics Process Optimisation and Automation

• Stakeholder Partnership and Technical Support

• Data Governance, Security and Compliance

• Continuous Improvement and Capability Development

Key Accountabilities

Analytics Platform Support and Operational Stability

• Provide operational support for the Human Capital analytics environment to ensure the availability, reliability and performance of analytics products and reporting platforms.
• Monitor analytics platforms, scheduled refreshes, semantic models and reporting services to identify operational issues before they impact business users.
• Support the implementation of new analytics products by ensuring production readiness, operational stability and adherence to support standards.
• Coordinate activities across technology, infrastructure and data teams to ensure timely resolution of operational issues affecting analytics products.
• Maintain operational documentation, support procedures and knowledge articles to improve service quality and reduce recurring incidents.
• Contribute towards service continuity by identifying opportunities to improve platform resilience, monitoring and operational processes.

Analytics Security Administration and Governance

• Administer and maintain security within analytics platforms to ensure appropriate access to Human Capital information.
• Configure and maintain role-based security models, Row-Level Security (RLS) and other security controls across Power BI and related analytics technologies.
• Investigate and resolve user access issues while ensuring compliance with internal governance standards and regulatory requirements.
• Support periodic security reviews, user access recertification and audit activities relating to analytics platforms.
• Partner with Information Security, Technology and Data Governance teams to ensure security models remain aligned to organisational policies.
• Maintain strong oversight of permissions, workspace security and distribution of analytics products.

Incident Management and Technical Troubleshooting

• Investigate, diagnose and resolve incidents affecting analytics products, dashboards, data models and reporting environments.
• Perform root cause analysis for recurring issues and recommend permanent corrective actions that improve platform stability.
• Work closely with data engineers, database administrators and application support teams to resolve complex technical issues affecting analytics delivery.
• Monitor production incidents, prioritise resolution activities and communicate progress to stakeholders.
• Support production deployments by validating functionality, monitoring post-deployment performance and resolving production defects.
• Identify trends in operational incidents and recommend improvements that reduce future support requirements.

Data Reliability and Production Support

• Support the execution and monitoring of data refresh schedules, ETL processes and analytics pipelines.
• Validate the completeness, accuracy and availability of data used within enterprise analytics products.
• Investigate data anomalies and coordinate corrective actions with upstream data providers and engineering teams.
• Perform reconciliation and validation activities to ensure consistent reporting across multiple analytics products.
• Support testing activities for new datasets, reports, dashboards and analytics solutions before deployment into production.
• Maintain high standards of data quality and contribute towards continuous improvement of operational data management processes.

Analytics Development and Power BI Delivery

• As operational support demand decreases, progressively contribute towards the development and enhancement of analytics solutions.
• Develop SQL queries, data transformation logic and reusable analytics components supporting enterprise reporting requirements.
• Build, maintain and optimise Power BI semantic models, dashboards and interactive reports.
• Support report optimisation initiatives to improve performance, scalability and user experience.
• Contribute towards automation initiatives that reduce manual reporting effort and improve operational efficiency.
• Assist in implementing enterprise reporting standards, naming conventions, documentation and version control practices.

Stakeholder Partnership and Technical Support

• Collaborate closely with Human Capital stakeholders, Technology teams, Data Engineering and Business Intelligence teams to ensure analytics products continue to meet business requirements.
• Provide technical support and expert guidance to business users on analytics platforms, dashboards, security models and reporting solutions.
• Support the rollout of new analytics products by assisting users with onboarding, access, issue resolution and adoption.
• Partner with Product Owners and Analytics Specialists to understand new business requirements and translate these into operational support and technical solutions.
• Communicate technical issues, risks and resolution progress clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Build trusted relationships across Human Capital, Technology and Business functions to promote a reliable and customer-focused analytics service.

Analytics Process Optimisation and Automation

• Identify opportunities to improve analytics support processes through automation, standardisation and continuous improvement.
• Contribute towards reducing manual operational effort by developing reusable scripts, automated monitoring processes and standard operating procedures.
• Support implementation of monitoring and alerting capabilities that proactively identify production issues before business impact occurs.
• Improve deployment, testing and release management practices to strengthen operational stability and reduce production defects.
• Promote best practices in documentation, change control and knowledge management across analytics platforms.
• Support continuous optimisation of Power BI datasets, semantic models, reports and data refresh performance.

Data Governance, Privacy and Responsible Use of Data

• Ensure analytics platforms comply with enterprise data governance standards and information security policies.
• Maintain strong understanding of security models within reporting and visualisation platforms, ensuring appropriate access to confidential Human Capital information.
• Support implementation and maintenance of Row-Level Security (RLS), Object-Level Security (OLS) and workspace governance.
• Validate that reporting outputs align to approved business definitions and enterprise data standards.
• Partner with Data Governance teams to identify, escalate and resolve data quality issues impacting analytical outputs.
• Support audit readiness by maintaining appropriate documentation, evidence of controls and compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Promote responsible and ethical use of Human Capital data while ensuring confidentiality and privacy obligations are consistently maintained.

Continuous Improvement and Capability Development

• Remain current with emerging analytics technologies, platform capabilities and industry best practices.
• Contribute towards improving team capability through knowledge sharing, documentation and coaching of colleagues where appropriate.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen operational resilience, customer experience and analytics maturity.
• Participate in projects introducing new technologies, reporting platforms and analytics capabilities.
• Contribute ideas that improve scalability, reliability and efficiency of the People Analytics operating model.

Knowledge & Skills

Knowledge

• Enterprise analytics platforms and reporting environments.
• Power BI administration, semantic models and workspace governance.
• Analytics security models including Row-Level Security (RLS) and Object-Level Security (OLS).
• SQL development, relational databases and data modelling principles.
• Data governance, privacy legislation and responsible use of employee information.
• Analytics production support, incident management and operational service management.
• Human Capital analytics and workforce reporting concepts.
• Cloud analytics platforms, modern data architecture and business intelligence ecosystems.

Skills

• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capability.
• Technical troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
• SQL querying and data validation.
• Power BI report development and optimisation.
• Data reconciliation and quality assurance.
• Stakeholder communication and customer support.
• Process automation and continuous improvement.
• Documentation and operational knowledge management.
• Planning, prioritisation and incident coordination.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts in simple business language.

Work Experience

• 5 - 7 years experience in Data Analytics, Business Intelligence or Analytics Platform Support.
• Experience supporting enterprise reporting environments.
• Experience administering analytics security and user access.
• Experience troubleshooting production analytics issues.
• Experience working with SQL and relational databases.
• Experience building or supporting Power BI reports and semantic models.
• Exposure to cloud analytics platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Azure or Databricks will be advantageous.
• Experience working within Human Capital analytics or financial services environments is desirable.

Technical Competencies

• SQL development and optimisation.
• Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.
• DAX and Power Query.
• Semantic modelling and star schema design.
• Power BI security administration (RLS and OLS).
• Data modelling and relational databases.
• Data validation and reconciliation techniques.
• Incident management and root cause analysis.
• Performance optimisation of reports and datasets.
• Understanding of ETL/ELT processes.
• Basic Python or scripting capability.
• Understanding of cloud analytics platforms including Microsoft Fabric, Azure Synapse or Databricks.
• Knowledge of Azure DevOps or source control practices is advantageous.

Education

• Bachelor's Degrees and Advanced Diplomas:
• Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Engineering, Business Analytics or related quantitative disciplines (Required).
• Relevant professional certifications in Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Fundamentals, Data Analytics or Business Intelligence are advantageous.

Education

Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised