BI Engineer - Data Analytics

About Costco IT

Costco IT is responsible for driving the technological direction for Costco Wholesale, the world's third largest retailer operating in fourteen countries. Despite its vast scale and rapid international growth, Costco maintains a family-focused, employee-centered culture where individuals thrive and succeed. This unique environment is a key factor behind Costco's success, as recognized by multiple renowned publications such as Bloomberg and Forbes. The company prioritizes employees and members first, renowned for its generosity, community involvement, and numerous philanthropy awards. Costco engages employees in volunteer initiatives, sponsoring numerous opportunities to assist communities.

Joining the Costco Wholesale IT team means entering a dynamic and fast-moving setting involved in transformative efforts to build the next-generation retail environment alongside dedicated and highly skilled colleagues.

Role Overview

Business Intelligence (BI) Engineers at Costco are tasked with developing, delivering, and maintaining high-profile desktop and mobile reports as well as dashboards. They leverage BI tools following best practices and development standards. Their collaboration spans product owners, UI/UX designers during wireframe and prototype stages, architects, engineers (data, platform, DevOps), and various stakeholders to ensure timely, accurate, high-performing, and reliable BI solutions for end-users. BI Engineers continuously seek opportunities to enhance data reliability, operational efficiency, and data quality essential for BI applications and reporting.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the full lifecycle and upkeep of Costco's BI reporting systems, handling metrics, reports, and dashboards.
• Contribute to designing and developing proof-of-concept and prototype application environments.
• Embrace and integrate newly sanctioned technologies, languages, tools, and BI standards.
• Collaborate closely to ensure applications conform to appropriate design patterns and standards.
• Produce documentation on BI applications and operational support manuals.
• Evaluate business needs and software requirements to ascertain design feasibility, including time and cost estimations.
• Detect trends, patterns, and correlations in data to inform business insights.
• Design solutions that meet both functional and non-functional business and technical requirements.
• Build and maintain automated reporting, dashboards, and analyses empowering teams to self-serve data needs.
• Support definition of technical requirements such as tooling or platform selection criteria within reporting environments.
• Assist in solution design, including data warehouse and data mart implementation linked to BI.
• Balance functional, system management, and quality of service responsibilities diligently.
• Ensure adherence to BI architectural standards and governance.
• Conduct testing, troubleshooting, root cause analysis, gap identification; propose solutions and preventive actions.
• Automate and document processes, sharing knowledge, educating team members, delegating tasks, and continuously improving operations.
• Apply practical knowledge to sustainable applications and capabilities.
• Partner with product owners, managers, solution leads, and stakeholders to create and maintain robust data sets and models fostering reporting and self-service BI solutions.
• Develop prototypes and wireframes of potential features.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications, delivering tailored BI, advanced analytics, and API/service solutions.
• Coordinate with architects, data stewards, engineers, scientists, and quality teams to design efficient visualizations, dashboards, and recommend BI data model optimizations.
• Oversee BI reporting environments using technologies like Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Airflow, UC4, Cloud Run, Azure Functions, etc.
• Create accessible and comprehensible data visualizations leveraging Power BI and similar tools.
• Develop, refine, and optimize dashboards connecting to multiple data sources including Big Query, Oracle, SAP BW, SAP HANA, Azure SQL DW (Synapse), ADLS, Cosmos, Databricks, Delta-Lake, and others to accelerate BI solutions delivery.
• Identify and implement internal improvements to automate manual processes and optimize BI capabilities.
• Enhance data reliability, efficiency, and data management quality for BI applications and reports.
• Communicate complex technical ideas clearly to non-technical stakeholders both verbally and in writing.
• Conduct peer reviews of fellow BI engineers' work.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of professional experience with BI technologies such as Microsoft Power BI, IBM Cognos, SAP Webi, and Tableau, demonstrating successful Power BI implementations.
• Minimum 2 years of hands-on experience specifically using Power BI.
• Over 1 year programming experience with languages such as DAX, MDX, SQL, Python, Java, or C#.
• At least 1 year experience in BI-related domains including ETL, data warehousing, data mining, and report development; strong skills in writing complex SQL queries across diverse data sources.
• Familiarity with Azure cloud architecture, low-code Power Apps, and data visualization technologies.
• Strong analytical reasoning and problem-solving abilities.

Recommended Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or related fields or equivalent experience.
• Certifications in Microsoft Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Microsoft Power Platforms, IBM Cognos, or Tableau.
• Azure cloud-related certifications.
• Experience with Git and Azure DevOps.
• Familiarity with Big Query platform.
• Exposure to agile software development approaches for reporting design and visualization delivery.
• Experience handling sensitive data and knowledge of e-commerce, distribution, or logistics industries.
• Background in retail industry metrics like sales, inventory, margins, and projections.
• Excellent communication skills both spoken and written.
• Experience with Airflow, UC4 Job Scheduler, Cloud Run, and Power Automate toolsets.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace applications such as Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Gmail.

Required Application Documents

• Cover Letter
• Resume

Compensation

Salary ranges depending on level:

• Level 1: $85,000 - $110,000
• Level 2: $105,000 - $135,000
• Level 3: $130,000 - $160,000
• Level Senior: $150,000 - $190,000 plus bonus and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
• Level Staff: $180,000 - $225,000 plus bonus and RSUs

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package includes paid time off; medical, dental, vision, hearing aid, pharmacy, behavioral health coverage; employee assistance programs; health care reimbursement accounts; dependent care assistance plans; short- and long-term disability insurance; accidental death and dismemberment insurance; life insurance; 401(k) plan; stock purchase opportunities for eligible employees.

Equal Opportunity and Inclusion

Costco is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment and maintains an equal opportunity employment policy. All qualified applicants will be considered regardless of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected classification. Accommodations for disabilities during application or recruiting can be requested.

Legal Requirements

Employment requires proof of authorization to work in the United States. Sponsorship for certain work visas, such as H1-B, may not be offered for selected positions.