About Toptal
Toptal is a global network of top freelance talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand. With $200+ million in annual revenue and over 40% year-over-year growth, Toptal is the world’s largest fully remote company.
We take the best elements of virtual teams and combine them with a support structure that encourages innovation, social interaction, and fun. We see no borders, move at a fast pace, and are never afraid to break the mold.
Position Description
As a Senior Business Analyst at Toptal, you will play a critical role as a strategic advisor to business functions and leaders across the company. We are looking for someone to provide business leaders with key insights and recommendations and surface both successes and opportunities for improvement. This will require you to use data, create and define metrics, measure performance, develop reports, build models, forecast outcomes, run experiments, and perform deep diagnostic analysis.
This role requires both strong technical data skills and business acumen. Ultimate success in this role goes beyond data-related activities and delivers the “so what” that drives decisions and real business impact. You will need to fully understand the business function (processes, objectives, organization, performance drivers, barriers), and have the ability to connect the dots between data analysis, business strategy, and operational effectiveness.
You will need to be a critical thinker, problem-solver, and self-starter. Our Senior Business Analysts are driven and proactive, think independently and do not just take orders. There must be an ability to see the bigger picture to make cross-functional connections in both business processes and data. There is an expectation that you not only answer the question that was asked but the question that wasn’t. It will be important for you to build positive relationships across the organization and have a “find a way” attitude.
This role is part of our Business Analytics Center of Excellence, where Analysts are assigned to support one or more business functions, such as SMB Sales, Enterprise Sales, Marketing, Talent Operations, Finance or Business Operations.
This is a remote position that can be done from anywhere. Due to the remote nature of this role, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Resumes and communication must be submitted in English.
Responsibilities:
- Analyze data, build models, test hypotheses, find root causes, develop prototypes, forecast performance, create Tableau reports, and write SQL scripts.
- Extract insights from these data activities to inform business decisions.
- Use descriptive (what happened) and diagnostic (why did it happen) analytics to develop specific, actionable recommendations for business leaders.
- Define metrics that are independent, holistic, accurate, encourage the right behaviors, and are aligned with company strategy and objectives.
- Manage relationships and small projects with cross-functional stakeholders.
- Map business processes to their corresponding data flows.
- Proactively identify and surface opportunities to improve efficiency, conversion, revenue generation, client and talent experience, operations, communication, systems & tools, cash usage, etc.
- Work closely with Data Analysts, Data Scientists, Report Developers, and Business Process Owners to empower data-driven decision making.
In the first week you will:
- Onboard and integrate into Toptal.
- Rapidly begin learning about Toptal’s history, culture, and vision.
- Shadow key teams across the company to learn the core of Toptal’s operations and capabilities, including Marketing, Talent Operations, Enterprise, and SMB.
In the first month you will:
- Understand the data generated through company operations and activities and where/how that data is stored–especially as it relates to your business function.
- Obtain a basic understanding of your assigned business function and its operations.
- Assess the current state of performance metrics, reports, dashboards, models, and analyses used in your business function, and identify discrepancies and opportunities to improve.
- Begin supporting your function leader with relevant insights and reports for bi-weekly leadership meetings.
In the first three months you will:
- Develop a mastery of data elements pertaining to your function.
- Begin standardizing definitions and aligning metrics with OKRs and company initiatives.
- Obtain a strong working knowledge of critical business processes.
- Begin identifying new opportunities to explore in your quest to continually improve performance.
In the first six months you will:
- Begin to solve real business problems as a team that will move the needle on key performance metrics.
- Help achieve alignment and standardization of metric definitions across the company.
- Perform detailed root cause analysis to expose key drivers of performance.
In the first year you will:
- Inform key strategic initiatives, goals, priorities, and performance indicators for your business function.
- Become an expert both on business process and data flows for your business function.
- Contribute to creating a world-class Business Analytics function.
Requirements:
- 7+ years of experience in data science, data analysis, analytics, business intelligence, or reporting.
- Extremely proficient in SQL; experience with R, Python, or MATLAB a plus.
- Experience with BI tools (Tableau, Qlik, PowerBI, etc.).
- Experience in doing exploratory data analysis, prototyping, testing hypotheses, performing root cause analyses, modeling business processes, building forecasts, creating predictive models, defining metrics, and/or measuring business performance.
- Track record of linking data and analytics to business strategy and operations to drive real impact.
- Working knowledge of probability and statistics.
- Experience with process improvement is a plus.
- Team player who builds strong relationships and establishes trust with business leaders, Engineers, and colleagues.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex issues in a simple and intuitive way.
- Strong professional skepticism, including the ability to challenge assumptions, communicate limitations, and flag blind spots.
- Work collaboratively and independently; take ownership of quality, accuracy, and timeliness of deliverables.
- Both a strong background in math, science, engineering, or statistics and deep business acumen is required; advanced degrees and/or MBA a plus.
- You must be a world-class individual contributor to thrive at Toptal. You will not be here just to tell other people what to do.