Business Data Specialist

Job Description The Business Data Specialist develops, maintains, and supports business-critical data products that enable operational reporting, compliance, funding, and analytics across the organization. The role partners closely with Data Engineering, Data Domains, DevOps, Data Governance, Analytics, and Business teams to ensure domain-specific data products are accurate, traceable, well-documented, and aligned with business requirements. This position combines strong technical data skills with deep business understanding. The Data Specialist develops and enhances dbt models, fulfills complex data requests, validates data quality, investigates production issues, and ensures data products remain maintainable and audit-ready throughout their lifecycle. Over time, the individual is expected to become the technical subject matter expert for assigned business domains, developing expertise in the underlying business processes, configuration logic, business rules, and data lineage needed to support critical operational, reporting, and compliance requirements. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties. Develop, maintain, and enhance domain-specific data products and data models using dbt and Snowflake to support operational reporting, analytics, compliance, funding, and business processes. Partner with the Data Domains team to identify, define, and incorporate enterprise data required to support business-critical data products. Translate business requirements into scalable, reusable technical solutions while balancing immediate business needs with long-term maintainability. Design and implement technical solutions for complex ad hoc data requests while identifying opportunities to create reusable data assets. Perform data validation, reconciliation, root cause analysis, and quality assurance to ensure the integrity, accuracy, and completeness of production data. Investigate data quality and production issues, identify root causes across upstream and downstream systems, and partner with cross-functional teams to implement sustainable solutions. Design and maintain configuration-driven solutions that simplify complex business rules while ensuring configuration consistency, usability, and appropriate validation of dependent settings. Develop a deep understanding of how business configurations drive system logic and reporting to ensure data products accurately reflect business intent. Ensure data models are traceable, well-documented, and defensible through clear business rules, metadata, testing, and lineage documentation to support audit and compliance requirements. Apply systems thinking to understand how data, business rules, configurations, and downstream reporting interact, proactively identifying risks, dependencies, and opportunities to simplify complex processes. Become the technical subject matter expert for assigned business domains, developing expertise in business processes, data lineage, reporting requirements, and system functionality. Collaborate with Business Analysts to translate functional requirements into scalable technical solutions while providing guidance on technical capabilities, implementation approaches, and data impacts. Work closely with Data Engineering, DevOps, Data Governance, Analytics, and other cross-functional teams to ensure data products meet enterprise standards for quality, security, performance, and governance. Evaluate existing data products and technical designs to identify opportunities to improve scalability, performance, maintainability, usability, and data quality. Create and maintain technical documentation, business rules, configuration documentation, validation procedures, and data definitions. Process confidential and sensitive data in accordance with organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and data governance standards. Supervisory Responsibilities: This position has no formal supervisory responsibilities. Certificates and Licenses : None required. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: Five (5) to Seven (7) years of relevant professional experience with data analysis. Advanced Microsoft Excel skills Demonstrated experience communicating with various stakeholders including teachers and school leaders Self-motivated to solve emergent issues with the best available tools and is expected to work collaboratively with other team members and the broader team of data analysts across the company MS365 proficient Experience with data analysis, modeling, design and documentation Experience in developing reports and/or dashboards with reporting tools like MS Access, MS Power BI, Excel Knowledge of programming standards and techniques, ideally with experience writing in SQL Ability to communicate technology concepts effectively with technically proficient and non-technically proficient individuals Effective customer service and interpersonal skills Strong organizational and time management skills Experience in developing reports and/or dashboards Ability to travel 10% of the time Ability to clear required background check DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, computer science, technology, or education leadership Experience working in education with academic data sets Experience developing dashboards in business intelligence tools such as PowerBI Experience scripting in Python for ETL processes Experience working in Snowflake, DBT, Streamsets and/or Alation WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This is a home-based position. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS : Stride, Inc. considers a person’s education, experience, and qualifications, as well as the position’s work location, expected quality and quantity of work, required travel (if any), external market and internal value when determining a new employee’s salary level. Salaries will differ based on these factors, the position’s level and expected contribution, and the employee’s benefits elections. Offers will typically be in the bottom half of the range. We anticipate the salary range to be $66,379-$110,000. Eligible employees may receive a bonus. This salary is not guaranteed, as an individual’s compensation can vary based on several factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, geographic location, experience, training, education, and local market conditions. Stride offers a robust benefits package for eligible employees that can include health benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. Job Type Regular The above job is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor. All employment is “at-will” as governed by the law of the state where the employee works. It is further understood that the “at-will” nature of employment is one aspect of employment that cannot be changed except in writing and signed by an authorized officer. If you are a job seeker with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to apply for one of our jobs, you can request the appropriate accommodation by contacting [email protected]. Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities Stride, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants receive consideration for employment based on merit without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. Stride, Inc. complies with all legally required affirmative action obligations. A pplicants will not be discriminated against because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant.