Senior Data Analyst

Hybrid, contract position. Newark, NJ - 3 days/week. Overview Seeking a highly motivated Senior Data Analyst with deep experience in HR / people data and enterprise data environments. This role will focus on working directly with workforce data—analyzing, profiling, validating, and preparing high-quality datasets to support analytics, governance, and reporting initiatives. The ideal candidate has strong hands-on SQL experience, understands HR data domains and data categories, and brings a disciplined data quality mindset. This role partners closely with HR stakeholders, Data Engineering, Governance, and Analytics teams within a regulated enterprise environment. Key Responsibilities • Work directly with HR / people datasets (not system configuration), analyzing employee demographics, headcount, attrition, hiring, compensation, performance, learning, and organizational hierarchy data • Perform advanced SQL queries to extract, analyze, validate, and reconcile large workforce datasets • Profile data to assess completeness, accuracy, consistency, and integrity across multiple sources • Identify data quality issues, anomalies, and gaps; partner with engineering teams to remediate root causes • Define and document data categories, business definitions, data lineage, and metadata attributes • Support the creation and maintenance of data dictionaries, data quality rules, and governance artifacts • Collaborate with AWS-based data platform teams to validate data pipelines and warehouse outputs • Support source-to-target data validation and reconciliation across HR data flows • Contribute to regulatory, audit, privacy, and compliance initiatives related to employee data (PII, GDPR, etc.) • Partner with HR and Analytics teams to ensure datasets are structured for reporting, dashboards, and advanced analytics use cases • Assist in the implementation and utilization of data governance tools such as Microsoft Purview (preferred) Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Analytics, Information Systems, Computer Science, Business, HR, or related field • Senior level experience as a Data Analyst in an enterprise data environment • Strong hands-on SQL experience (must-have) with the ability to query and analyze large, complex datasets • Experience working with AWS-based data environments (required) • Experience working with HR / people data domains • Strong understanding of data categories, data classification, and data quality principles • Experience performing data profiling, reconciliation, and validation activities • Familiarity with data warehouses and enterprise data pipelines • Proficiency with Excel and/or BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, etc.) • Experience working in Agile delivery environments Preferred Qualifications • Experience with Microsoft Purview or similar data governance / metadata management tools • Experience in financial services or other regulated industries • Familiarity with HR source systems (e.g., Workday, SuccessFactors, ADP), with emphasis on data structures rather than system administration • Knowledge of privacy and compliance standards related to employee data Key Competencies • Strong analytical and data problem-solving skills • Data quality and controls mindset • Attention to detail and accuracy • Ability to translate business questions into data queries and analysis • Effective communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders • Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, regulated environment