Job Title: Business Intelligence Contractor

Duration: 6 Months
Location: Irvine, CA 92697 (Hybrid)

Job Description

A skilled Business Intelligence Contractor is needed to support analytics initiatives focused on student success. The contractor will design, develop, and maintain advanced Power BI solutions, implement best practices, and guide BI standards for the team. This role requires deep technical expertise in Power BI, SQL development, data modeling, and data security particularly for sensitive educational data within a regulated environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deploy advanced Power BI dashboards, reports, and semantic models supporting student success analytics.

• Establish and document best practices, standards, and development guidelines for Power BI across the organization.

• Mentor and provide technical leadership to new Power BI developers.

• Collaborate with business systems analysts and stakeholders to translate complex business requirements into technical specifications.

• Develop and optimize complex SQL queries, stored procedures, and views in SQL Server.

• Implement and maintain data security controls, including RLS, OLS, and access management for sensitive student data.

• Ensure compliance with data privacy policies and regulatory requirements.

• Perform data modeling and optimization to ensure performance and scalability of BI solutions.

• Create thorough and detailed documentation for reports, datasets, processes, and architecture.

Required Experience & Skills

Power BI Expertise

• Advanced proficiency with Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, and Power BI Report Server

• Strong command of DAX for complex measures and calculations

• Expertise in Power Query (M language) for transformation logic

• Experience designing and optimizing semantic models (datasets)

• Implementation of Row-Level Security (RLS) and Object-Level Security (OLS)

SQL & Database Skills

• Advanced SQL coding skills, including:

  • Complex query design

  • Query optimization & performance tuning

  • Stored procedures, functions, and views

• Strong experience with SQL Server (preferred)

Data Security & Governance

• Experience implementing controls for sensitive/confidential data

• Familiarity with data governance principles and compliance frameworks

Business & Analytical Skills

• Proven ability to interpret complex business requirements and develop appropriate BI solutions

• Experience partnering with cross-functional stakeholders

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities

• 5+ years of professional experience in BI/analytics development

• Portfolio of previous Power BI dashboards demonstrating technical and design capability

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience in higher education analytics, including student success metrics

• Understanding of FERPA or similar educational data privacy regulations

• Exposure to AWS data lake ecosystem:

  • S3

  • Glue

  • Athena

  • Apache Iceberg

  • Redshift

• Experience with ETL/ELT tools such as dbt, Informatica, or similar

• Knowledge of data warehousing concepts (Star Schema, Snowflake Schema)

• Familiarity with Python or R for advanced analytics

• Experience using Git for version control

• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies

• Power BI certification (e.g., Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate)

• Understanding of data visualization best practices and UX/UI principles

• Knowledge of other BI tools (Tableau, Qlik)

• Experience working with Student Information Systems (SIS) or educational databases