Freelance Data Analyst R Programming Jobs in Salt Lake City, UT

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Grade: Professional 310
Pay Range: $91,000.00 - $136,400.00
Job Description
At WGU, data is a catalyst for better outcomes. As an IAR Senior Data Analyst, you will transform complex information into meaningful insights that help leaders make informed decisions, improve operations, and enhance the student experience. This role partners closely with academic leaders, data engineers, product teams, finance, and other stakeholders to solve challenging business problems through data storytelling, analytics, and reporting.
This position is ideal for someone who combines strong technical expertise with the ability to communicate insights to executive audiences. You are equally comfortable writing complex SQL, developing business intelligence solutions, collaborating on data pipelines, and presenting actionable recommendations to senior leaders.
What You'll Do

• Partner with stakeholders across academic delivery, reporting, data engineering, and executive leadership teams to identify analytics needs and translate business questions into technical requirements.
• Develop, maintain, and enhance dashboards, reports, and visualizations that provide actionable insights and support key business decisions.
• Perform complex analyses across multiple data domains to answer strategic business questions, evaluate initiatives, and support planning activities such as quarterly business reviews and operating plans.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering teams on ETL/ELT processes, data pipelines, and data quality initiatives to improve the reliability and accessibility of university data.
• Identify, investigate, and resolve complex data issues while helping establish standards and best practices that improve data quality across the organization.
• Combine data analysis, visualization, and storytelling techniques to communicate findings effectively to technical and non-technical audiences, including executive leadership.
• Drive projects and analytics initiatives with a high degree of autonomy while mentoring peers through knowledge sharing and constructive feedback.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline.
• 5 years of related experience in Data Analysis, Business Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics, Decision Intelligence, Research, Learning Science, or Behavioral/Cognitive Psychology.
• Advanced SQL proficiency, including complex queries, subqueries, joins, aggregations, window functions, common table expressions (CTEs), data manipulation, and performance optimization.
• Strong experience building reports, dashboards, and visualizations using Tableau.
• Experience working with analytics engineering concepts, ETL/ELT processes, data pipelines, and data quality initiatives.
• Ability to read, understand, and work with PySpark code in support of analytics and data engineering efforts.
• Experience communicating complex insights to partners, stakeholders, and senior leaders through presentations, meetings, workshops, and written communications.
• Knowledge of data modeling concepts including conceptual, logical, dimensional, star schema, and snowflake schema design.
• Experience with descriptive statistics, causal analysis, and inference.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including advanced Excel.
• Familiarity with project management methodologies such as Agile, Waterfall, or SDLC frameworks.
• Ability to perform with a high level of autonomy, reliability, self-direction, and sound judgment while balancing multiple priorities.

Bonus Points

• Experience with Databricks.
• Experience developing solutions in Power BI.
• Exposure to Databricks Genie or other AI-assisted coding and analytics tools.
• Experience using Jira, Confluence, Miro, Visio, Lucidchart, or similar collaboration and diagramming platforms.
• Previous experience supporting executive reporting, strategic planning, or high-visibility business reviews.

Experience in Lieu of Education
An equivalent combination of training, experience, credentials, or accomplishments demonstrating the ability to perform the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements.
What to Expect
At WGU, our mission drives everything we do, including how we hire. Our interview experience is designed to give qualified candidates the opportunity to show their best work through meaningful conversations and collaboration.
We thoughtfully review every application and invite forward the candidates whose experience and potential best align with the role and our mission.

• Introductory call
• Hiring manager interview
• Technical Panel interview
• Leadership Interview

Work Location
This is a full-time, in-office position requiring five days per week in our Salt Lake City, Utah office, designed to foster the collaboration and connection that fuel our best work.
Visa Sponsorship
While we welcome applicants from all backgrounds, WGU is not able to provide visa sponsorship for this role.
Travel Requirement
This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.
Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.
How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.