How To Become A Decision Support Analyst: What It Is and Career Path

What is a decision support analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Lan Jiang Ph.D.

A decision support analyst works in a wide variety of fields, typically solving problems that are presented by various departments within their company. These professionals help analyze various options and create reports to help the departments decide which should be implemented. The decision support analyst may be assigned to a certain problem area or may be given multiple areas in which they help find solutions.

The tasks that they perform in this role include, but are not limited to, analyzing health care costs and utilization trends to maximize ROI, providing analytical expertise, and determining appropriate applications to design, document, test, and implement products based on user needs and requirements. This job also involves performing research, gathering data, and creating reports and presentations. A minimum of a bachelor's degree is required for this position in statistics, information systems, or related field. Prior work experience in a proven relevant capacity is also desirable.

The average hourly salary for the position is $33.14, which amounts to $68,939 annually. Moreover, the career is expected to grow in the near future and create new opportunities all across the United States.

What general advice would you give to a Decision Support Analyst?

Lan Jiang Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Menlo College

Technically speaking, salary is a quantitative measure of your value. So, to maximize your salary potential, you ask the question "how to increase my value in general, and specifically to a certain organization". It is important to have a growth mindset, you can keep learning for self improvement, and you should always go beyond the expectation to offer more to the organization.

ScoreDecision Support AnalystUS Average

Salary

6.3

Avg. Salary $81,227

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.7

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.41%

Asian 12.91%

Black or African American 11.49%

Hispanic or Latino 13.88%

Unknown 5.49%

White 55.82%

Gender

female 50.90%

male 49.10%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.5

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.4

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a decision support analyst

Explore decision support analyst education requirements

Most common decision support analyst degrees

Bachelor's

73.1 %

Master's

17.4 %

Associate

7.3 %

Start to develop specific decision support analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Data Analysis	13.08%
SAS	7.93%
Tableau	6.87%
Financial Analysis	6.86%
Cognos	4.97%

Complete relevant decision support analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New decision support analysts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a decision support analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real decision support analyst resumes.

Research decision support analyst duties and responsibilities

Lead development of MicroStrategy base reporting system that clearly highlight previously unclear revenue from different customer segments.
Resolve and troubleshoot system problems.
Assist in design and implementation of overall ERP system.
Provide primary help desk support to the SAS user community on all aspects of SAS programming, processing, and data.

Prepare your decision support analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your decision support analyst resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a decision support analyst resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Decision Support Analyst Resume templates

Build a professional Decision Support Analyst resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Decision Support Analyst resume.