Senior Analyst

Role: Senior Analyst

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Job type: Full time, permanent – hybrid

This position offers a hybrid work model, allowing flexibility between working from home and our office. Typically, employees are expected to work 2 days in the office per week.

Why QS?

At QS, we believe that work should empower you. That’s why we foster a flexible working environment that encourages every employee to own their career whilst flourishing personally and professionally. Our commitment to people development is recognised globally: QS is a Gold-accredited Investors in People organisation, placing us among the top 28% of workplaces worldwide. Our company values underpin everything we do – we collaborate, respect and support each other.

It’s our mission to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities that change lives.

Our diversity makes us stronger. By sharing our experiences, we learn from one another and achieve more together, driving progress across the sector.

At QS, you’ll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape. You’ll take on meaningful challenges that see a positive impact across the business and the wider sector.

We’re confident you’ll feel right at home here. QS was named as one of Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® in the UK (October 2023), recognising the respect, trust and appreciation that drive our culture every day.

As a Senior Analyst, this is what you’ll be doing:

The Senior Analyst at QS owns complex analytics and reporting outcomes from end to end. You will lead work from problem framing and requirements discovery through data modelling, analysis, validation, delivery, adoption and ongoing improvement, remaining accountable for the quality, usefulness and business impact of the solution.

Working with internal stakeholders and external clients, you will translate between technical detail and business priorities. You will confidently lead discovery and reporting conversations, challenge assumptions constructively, explain analytical choices clearly and turn complex findings into practical recommendations for audiences at different levels of technical fluency.

The scope is deliberately broad: ad-hoc analysis, dependable recurring and client-facing reporting, improvements to reporting pipelines, HubSpot data and reporting, and strategic projects that raise the capability of decision intelligence and the wider Data & Analytics function. You will help maintain a lean, trusted reporting suite by improving, consolidating or retiring products when appropriate.

As a senior individual contributor, you will operate with a high degree of autonomy while collaborating closely with peer analysts and wider stakeholders. You will help define and uphold common QS standards for analytics and client reporting, share knowledge, provide constructive peer challenge and collectively identify opportunities to improve how the team works.

Role responsibilities:

• Own complex analytics and reporting initiatives across their full lifecycle, including problem definition, scoping, prioritisation, requirements, data preparation, modelling, analysis, testing, delivery, documentation, adoption, monitoring and continuous improvement.
• Act as the accountable analytical lead for assigned work, managing dependencies, risks, stakeholder expectations and delivery quality, and escalating early when outcomes or timelines are at risk.
• Lead discovery with internal stakeholders and external clients to identify the decision or business outcome behind a request, agree success measures and recommend the most appropriate analytical approach rather than taking reporting requests at face value.
• Present insights, recommendations and reporting solutions to technical and non-technical audiences, adapting the level of detail and communication style to the audience.
• Build trusted relationships with clients and client-facing teams, supporting reporting discussions, explaining methodologies and limitations, and responding professionally to questions or challenge.
• Use statistical and analytical techniques to identify, analyse and interpret trends and patterns in new and existing datasets, converting findings into clear recommendations and actions.
• Define and promote standardised metrics, methodologies, models and documentation so that internal and client reporting is consistent, accurate, explainable and aligned with QS standards.
• Work collectively with peer analysts to review approaches, share knowledge, challenge assumptions and identify improvements to analytical quality, delivery practices and team standards.
• Provide technical guidance, peer review and coaching to other analysts, helping to strengthen analytical judgement, reproducibility, communication and ownership across the team.
• Develop a broad working knowledge of HubSpot, including its core data model, objects and relationships, reporting, workflows and the downstream use of HubSpot data in analytics and business processes.
• Partner with operational and technical stakeholders to validate reporting logic, investigate data issues and improve the accuracy and usefulness of HubSpot-derived analytics.
• Write and optimise SQL to extract, transform and model data for scalable analysis and reporting, using version control and peer review so analytical code is reproducible, testable and safe to change.
• Design, develop and maintain Power BI solutions that are usable, performant, appropriately governed and suitable for internal or external audiences.
• Test, document and monitor data models and reporting products, including automated or repeatable quality checks that surface breakages before stakeholders or clients identify them.
• Investigate and resolve the root causes of data quality, reconciliation and reporting issues, coordinating action across relevant teams where ownership is shared.
• Make recommendations on how QS obtains, models, governs and analyses data to improve accuracy, efficiency, scalability and maintainability.
• Promote self-service analytics by enabling stakeholders to interpret reports correctly and understand the underlying metrics, assumptions and limitations.
• Benchmark performance and trends against agreed targets and provide clear commentary on material changes, risks and opportunities.
• Maintain clear specifications, data definitions, methodology notes, decision logs and user guidance for analytical and reporting solutions.
• Support cross-functional priorities and ad-hoc analysis while making transparent trade-offs and protecting the quality of committed work.
• Undertake other duties that reasonably support the objectives of the Data & Analytics function.

Key skills and experience:

• BS in Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, Information Management, Statistics or a closely related field, or equivalent demonstrable experience.
• Experience in a Data/BI Analyst, Analytics Engineering, Data Science or comparable analytics role, including ownership of complex reporting or analytical work from discovery through adoption and support.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously, exercise sound judgement, manage competing priorities and remain accountable for outcomes rather than only task completion.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to collect, organise, analyse and communicate significant amounts of information with close attention to accuracy and materiality.
• Advanced experience designing, developing and presenting data in Power BI, Tableau or other BI reporting applications, including solutions intended for senior stakeholders or external clients.
• Strong SQL capability and experience modelling data for scalable, maintainable and reproducible reporting.
• Broad working knowledge of HubSpot, including data models, standard and custom objects, relationships, reporting and workflows, with the ability to connect platform processes to downstream analytics.
• Experience engaging directly with clients or external stakeholders on reporting, requirements, findings or delivery, with the confidence to handle questions and explain technical concepts in business language.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, with the ability to move comfortably between technical detail, analytical interpretation and business-oriented recommendations.
• Proven ability to elicit and challenge requirements constructively, frame ambiguous business questions and agree how analytical outcomes will be validated.
• Experience defining or applying shared reporting standards, metric definitions, quality controls and documentation across multiple products or stakeholders.
• A collaborative approach to peer review, knowledge sharing and collective problem-solving, with the confidence to offer constructive challenge and consider alternative views.
• Experience guiding or mentoring junior analysts through technical reviews, analytical reasoning or stakeholder communication.
• Experience working with cloud data warehouses such as Snowflake, alongside relational database environments.
• A practical understanding of data governance and security, including row-level security, access controls, privacy considerations and controlled sharing of data externally.
• Experience identifying and resolving data quality issues across source systems, transformation layers and reporting outputs.
• Practical use of AI tools in analytics workflows, with the judgement to validate, challenge and document outputs before they are relied upon.
• Experience using R or Python for analytical modelling, automation or advanced analysis is desirable.
• Highly developed critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify root causes, evaluate trade-offs and propose maintainable solutions.
• Experience working effectively in a small, high-impact team with tight deadlines, changing priorities and shared accountability.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills, with a proactive approach to identifying risks, opportunities and areas for continuous improvement.
  
  

So, who are we and what do we do?

QS is the world leader in higher education services, analytics, insights and intelligence. From consultancy to student mobility, academic partnerships to branding solutions, our services power both institutional and individual success.

We’re behind the world’s most widely read university rankings. With an 85% share of all Google searches for university rankings, the QS World University Rankings® reach hundreds of millions, shaping decisions and guiding futures.

Since launching in 1990, our impact and influence have only grown. Today, we work with more than 2,000 of the world’s leading higher education institutions, over 12,000 employers, and governments seeking change and socioeconomic development through higher education – while helping more than 75,000 students enrol each year.

Join QS and you’ll join an 800-strong community of problem-solvers, creators, collaborators and change-makers based in 40+ countries and 11 international offices, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, the USA and our headquarters in London.

With every talented new hire, business acquisition and bold initiative, we’re strengthening our reach and delivering even greater value to institutions and learners worldwide. Are you ready to shape the future of higher education?

We take investing in our people very seriously.

As standard you will have:

• Competitive base salary
• Access to an annual bonus scheme (for qualifying roles only)
• 20 days annual leave, plus public holidays
• Generous maternity and paternity leave
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and MiCare health
• A vibrant social environment and multicultural and multinational culture

But that’s not all. Outside of these standard benefits we also offer resources to allow professional growth and wellness initiatives to nurture a healthy mindset:

• Free subscription to the Calm App – the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation
• A focus on welfare which is led by our global wellness team, with mental health first aiders globally
• Access to a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives and groups
• Strong recognition and reward programs – including a peer-to-peer recognition platform, quarterly and annual QS Applaud Awards, Connect with your Career annual PD event
• Support for volunteering and study leave
  
• Free subscription to LinkedIn learning – with over 5000 courses and programmes at your fingertips
• Options to join our outstanding global Mentorship programme
• Brand new breakout and relaxing spaces in office

Like what you’ve heard? Great, apply now!

As a candidate, we know the application and interview process can be daunting and so it’s important that you have a great experience with us. Our dedicated Talent Team will work hard to ensure you are fully informed at all stages and you are really excited by this opportunity to do meaningful work in the education space.

Equal opportunities

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organisation where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive.