Staff Data Analyst

Guitar Center Stores, Inc.; Westlake Village (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Guitar Center in Westlake Village, CA seeks a Staff Data Analyst to act as the senior analytics partner to Merchandising and adjacent commercial teams. You will identify opportunities, frame ambiguous questions, design credible measurement, and influence leaders to act using retail and financial insight.

You will bring 8+ years in data analytics, strong SQL and Python, and deep BI/visualization experience (Omni, Looker, Tableau, Power BI), plus excellent communication to senior leaders and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of data analytics or senior IC leadership experience.
• Deep fluency in retail/merchandising analytics and P&L linkage.
• Strong experimental design and causal inference judgment.
• Excellent communication to senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
• Staff-level influence with cross-team collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Merchandising to guide decisions on pricing, assortment, promotions, and inventory.
• Identify, size, and sequence high-value opportunities with analytics leaders.
• Translate ambiguous questions into analytical plans and proofs of concept.
• Define data needs and coordinate with Data Engineering, BI, and Sr Analysts.
• Design experiments, guide interpretation, and account for bias and cannibalization.
• Turn insights into clear recommendations and build merchandising data fluency.
• Collaborate with analytics management to define policies for experimentation and inference.

Skills

SQL

Python

BI storytelling

Tools

Omni

Looker

Tableau

Power BI

Job description

At Guitar Center, Analytics helps teams make better decisions that drive customer and business value. We are looking for a Staff Data Analyst to serve as the senior analytics partner to Merchandising and adjacent commercial teams.

This senior individual contributor will identify and size opportunities, frame ambiguous questions, design credible measurement, and influence leaders to act. The ideal candidate combines retail or commercial judgment, financial acumen, advanced analytical skills, and a track record of how organizations use data.

Key Responsibilities

• Merchandising partnership: Partner with Merchandising leaders to guide decisions across pricing, assortment, allocation, promotions, inventory, vendors, and visual merchandising.

• Opportunity prioritization: Identify, size, and sequence high-value revenue, margin, inventory, and customer opportunities with Merchandising leaders and analytics management.

• Analytical leadership: Translate ambiguous commercial questions into analytical and measurement plans; conduct rigorous analysis and develop proof-of-concept analyses when useful.

• Solution direction: Define needed data and capabilities, then partner with Data Engineering, BI, and other Sr.Analysts to operationalize durable solutions.

• Experimentation and causal measurement: Guide hypothesis design, comparison groups, and interpretation, accounting for seasonality, selection bias, halo, and cannibalization effects.

• Influence and enablement: Turn complex findings into clear recommendations and build Merchandising fluency in using data and BI to diagnose performance, test ideas, and act confidently.

• Methods and team partnership: Partner with analytics management to define and document Guitar Center's policies and standards for experimentation and causal inference.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & REQUIREMENTS:

• 8+ years of professional experience in dataanalytics, or similar roles with Staff-level scope or equivalent senior individual contributor leadership in recent years.

• Experience partnering with leaders to identify and size opportunities, shape priorities, and improve decisions. Direct Retail experience a plus.

• Deep fluency in retail, eCommerce, merchandising, inventory, pricing, promotions, customer, or finance analytics, with the ability to connect findings to P&L, margin, inventory, and customer outcomes.

• Strong skills in SQL and Python. Your analytical coding fluency is paired with the judgment to use AI-assisted development effectively, review and debug AI-generated code, and critically validate the resulting analytical logic and outputs.

• Strong experimental design and causal inference judgment, including comparison-group selection, incrementality, uncertainty, and halo and cannibalization effects.

• Strong BI and data visualization fluency for exploration, prototyping, and decision-focused storytelling, with experience in modern BI platforms such as Omni, Looker, Tableau, or Power BI.

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to turn complex analysis into concise narratives for senior leaders and non-technical partners.

• Staff-level influence and ownership, demonstrated by establishing practical methods, sharing expertise, and building trust across business, analytics, BI, Data Engineering, and Data Science partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in retail and/or the music industry preferred.

• A curious self-starter, eager to push boundaries, ask the right questions, and follow data wherever it leads.

• Experience working in a dynamic environment where decisions have a tangible impact.

Pay Rate: $140,000- $175,000 / annually depending on background and experience.

The job posting is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific employee, which is always dependent on actual experience, education, and other factors. The pay range(s) listed are provided in compliance with state specific laws. Pay ranges may be different in other locations

About Guitar Center

Guitar Center embodies the world of creativity and music by encouraging our teammates to find their own individual sound. We strive to craft lifelong musicians and make a difference in the world by enabling musicians and non-musicians alike to experience the almost indescribable happiness that comes from playing an instrument. We believe in putting our customers first, engaging with respect and integrity and fulfilling our mission with passion.

Why join us?

With a career at Guitar Center, you become part of the world's largest multichannel musical instrument retailer. Whether at our Stores, Contact Centers, Distribution Centers, or Support Center, Guitar Center employees have a common goal: to help people find their sound and fill the world with more music.

Guitar Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides fair and equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected status prohibited under Federal, State, or local laws. All employment decisions are based on valid jobarelated requirements.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our website, you may request a reasonable accommodation to express interest in a specific opening. You can request a reasonable accommodation by sending an email to [e-mail].