Lead Data Analyst

DataAnalystJobs; Columbus (OH); Hybrid; USD 132,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Gifthealth is seeking a Lead Data Analyst to own the analytics direction for a domain, drive metric definitions, and lead a small team of data analysts within the Analytics & Reporting department.

The role reports to the Manager, Analytics & Reporting (with dotted line to the Director, Data & Analytics) and focuses on operational excellence, compliance, and stakeholder communication across the organization.

Qualifications

• Senior analyst with 7–10 years of data analysis experience.
• Strong SQL skills and data modeling capability.
• Proven people management or leadership experience.
• Healthcare data, PHI, and HIPAA knowledge.
• Ability to explain findings to varied stakeholders.
• Experience with dbt, Looker/LookML, and Python preferred.

Responsibilities

• Set the analytical direction for the domain and define canonical metrics.
• Own the metric layer and ensure traceability of numbers to sources.
• Manage 2–3 data analysts with 1:1s, reviews, and development plans.
• Guide cross-functional collaboration with operations, sales, and leadership.

Skills

Senior analytics

SQL mastery

Metric definition

Team leadership

Communication

Education

Education optional

Tools

dbt

LookML

Python

Job description

Lead Data Analyst

About Us

At Gifthealth, we're revolutionizing the way people experience healthcare by simplifying the process of managing prescriptions and health services. Our mission is to provide a seamless, personalized, and efficient healthcare experience for all our customers. We're a dynamic, innovative, and customer-centric company dedicated to making a positive impact on people's lives.

Position Summary

We are seeking a Lead Data Analyst to own the analytical direction for a domain, drive its metric definitions, and lead a small team of data analysts. This position plays a key role in supporting the Analytics & Reporting department and reports to the Manager, Analytics & Reporting (with a dotted line to the Director, Data & Analytics), ensuring alignment with organizational goals, operational excellence, and compliance standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Set the analytical direction for a domain: decide the canonical metrics, which sources are authoritative for which question, what gets modeled in dbt versus answered ad hoc, and the validation required before a result goes to a client or an executive.
• Drive metric definitions for the domain into the dbt layer, in partnership with data engineering and BI, so that definitions live in models rather than in a Looker filter, a spreadsheet, or an analyst's head, and so any headline number can be traced to where it is computed and what it excludes.
• Manage two to three data analysts as direct reports: 1:1s, review of their SQL and conclusions, growth plans, and performance conversations.
• Own the sequencing of analysis in the domain, including what the business needs next, what recurring reporting can be retired, and what to say no to, negotiating directly with operations leads, account teams, and the Director.
• Take on the hard questions in the domain that require patient-level reconstruction, an identified mechanism in the data, and an owned action, such as an unexplained metric shift or a client asking why two internal numbers disagree.
• Keep shared metrics shared across domains by working with other leads and BI, escalating rather than forking a definition when there is disagreement.
• Know where a join quietly drops rows across the underlying systems (NDP, LDZ, IDP, BestRx, and the entity-resolution layer that resolves identity across roughly thirty source systems), and teach that to the analysts on the team.

Qualifications

• Education: A degree is optional. We evaluate demonstrated capability, not credentials, so equivalent hands-on experience is fully acceptable.
• Licensure/Certification: Not applicable to this role.
• Experience: Typically 7 to 10 years of hands-on data analysis experience, with a track record as the senior analyst others checked their work with. Formal people-management experience is welcome but not required; we will also consider a strong Senior Data Analyst ready for the step up.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Required:
  • A track record as the senior analyst others checked their work with on ambiguous business questions that ended in a decision someone acted on.
  • Deep SQL: comfortable in a warehouse with a few hundred dbt models, able to read other people's SQL critically, and checks for fan-out before trusting a total.
  • Experience setting metric definitions that other people then had to live with, documented well enough that they held.
  • Experience managing or leading analysts, or informal experience doing so and wanting the accountability that comes with the title.
  • Judgment about your own results: a number that looks great or alarming gets validated against a second source before it is shared.
  • Able to explain a finding to an operations lead, an account manager, and the Director in the same week, and to tell an account team what the data does not support without hedging or overclaiming.
  • Comfort working in an unfinished stack, with two migrations in flight and the ground moving.
  • Treats PHI, masking, BAAs, and role-based access as part of the daily workflow by default, not a compliance review at the end.
  • Strong understanding of healthcare data, PHI, and HIPAA requirements.
  • Proven ability to lead a small team and drive performance across the domain.
  • Excellent leadership, communication, and data-driven decision-making skills.
  • Preferred:
  • Pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, healthcare, or payer data experience, including claims, adjudication, prior authorization, NDCs, or the prescription lifecycle.
  • Manufacturer patient-support or hub program experience, especially where the manufacturer receives the reporting directly.
  • dbt experience to the point of writing and testing models yourself and reviewing a teammate's.
  • Looker and LookML experience, or experience migrating reporting off a legacy BI tool without freezing the business during the migration.
  • Python for analysis that SQL is not well suited to.
  • Experience owning a metric layer or definitions catalog that multiple teams depended on.

Work Environment

• Location: Columbus, OH or remote (US).
• Schedule: Full-time.
• May require flexibility to respond to urgent client or executive questions as they arise.
• Regular meetings with the Analytics & Reporting team, direct reports, and Data & Analytics leadership to ensure alignment. Analysts spend time on the distribution floor and listening to patient calls to understand the operation the data describes.

Key Essential Functions

• Not applicable. This is a standard office/remote analyst role with no physical labor requirements.
• Periodic on-site visits to the Columbus distribution center and call center are expected, primarily during onboarding, to understand the operation the data describes.

Employment Classification

Status: Full-time
FLSA: Exempt

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement

Gifthealth is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. If you do not meet every requirement but still feel you would be a great fit for this role, we encourage you to apply!

Disclaimer

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, or skills required of personnel. Gifthealth reserves the right to modify job duties or descriptions at any time.

Salary Description

$132,000-165,000