Power BI Analyst

PowerBI Analyst

12 month contract

Local to MN

Description of Project

The Minnesota Department of Information Technology Services (MNIT) partnering with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is seeking an experienced Technical Power Business Intelligence (BI) expert to lead with strong knowledge of Power BI to shape the future of data analytics. The resource will develop and create best practices, architectural standards, and resolving any technical challenges related to Power BI. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on technical expert who can design scalable and efficient solutions aligned with business needs and serve as the technical authority for Power BI development across the organization. This is a hands-on role that will work closely with the Reporting Services team and provide leadership on the technical side of report/dashboard creation, data modeling, and semantic layer development.

Additionally, the resource will actively guide and train our MNIT developers by providing practical, real-world examples and exercises to effectively transfer their knowledge of the platform, allowing users to directly apply what they learn to their own data analysis tasks within Power BI.

Architecture & Design

· Collaborate with the Reporting Services Team to design, develop, and implement best practices for developers and citizen developers.

· Establish architectural patterns and best practices for Power BI development.

· Recommend and create documentation for Power BI architecture standards.

· Design robust testing frameworks for Power BI solutions.

· Provide education on designing data models within Power BI, including how to troubleshoot and support them.

· Provide industry standards regarding workspace management, naming, permissions, including how to evaluate usage and admin management and creating a plan for unused workspace decommissioning.

· Provide patterns for utilizing gateways and data security.

Technical Guidance

• Provide technical guidance in developing Power BI reports, dashboards, and advanced analytics solutions.
• Guide the use of advanced Power BI features such as DAX to deliver high-impact analytical solutions.
• Provide advanced training on accessibility in Power BI.
• Ensure the Power BI environment is optimized for performance, including query performance, report rendering, and dashboard responsiveness.
• Guide optimization of DAX queries and data models
• Ensure proper implementation of security standards
• Evaluate and recommend new Power BI features and capabilities

Development & Implementation

• Create reusable components and templates for Power BI development.
• Build proof-of-concept solutions for new requirements.
• Optimize existing solutions for better performance.
• Design and implement automated testing solutions.
• Create development standards and patterns. Particularly when publishing reports to shared workspaces and external platforms.

Desired Experience and Skills

• Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
• Five (5) years’ substantial hands-on Power BI development experience
• A Master’s degree substitutes for three years of experience, or a Bachelor’s degree in Data or Computer Science, or other related field substitutes for two years, or an Associate’s degree substitutes for one year
• Two (2) engagements lasting more than six (6) months in Power BI Developer role
• Proven work experience as a Power BI Consultant
• Deep expertise in:
• Power BI semantic model development
• DAX programming
• Dimensional modeling
• Power BI performance optimization techniques
• Power BI architecture and best practices related to dashboard/report development
• Power BI paginated report development
• Data Warehousing concepts
• Excellent analytical abilities to interpret complex data sets, identify trends, and data visualization to translate raw data into actionable insights.
• Ability to translate business requirements into data-driven solutions effectively.
• Well-versed in risk mitigation strategies to help safeguard data assets against potential threats
• Strong knowledge with relational databases and SQL for data extraction and manipulation