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This position has closed. Xcel Energy removed this listing from their careers page on Oct 6, 2026. The interview prep below is still useful, and there are similar open roles at the bottom of this page.

Senior/Principal Data Analyst

Xcel Energy · Eau Claire, WI · $84,900–$138,600 a year · Full time

Posted Sep 9, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 4, 2026

Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

This posting covers both a senior and a principal level, with the principal acting as team lead setting workload and priority. Where do you place yourself?

What they are checking: Whether they place themselves honestly between the senior and principal levels, since the principal leads the team and sets priorities.

How do you know an analysis is right before you show it to anyone?

What they are checking: Whether they check their analysis thoroughly before sharing it, because colleagues need to trust the numbers before making decisions on them.

Tell me about an analysis that changed what a business team did.

What they are checking: Whether their analysis has actually changed business decisions, since impact on the business matters more here than delivering a report.

How do you explain a method's limitations to someone who wants certainty?

What they are checking: Whether they can explain an analysis's limits honestly to someone who wants certainty, so decisions are made with a clear view of risk.

What would you do

A stakeholder asks for a number and you can tell the real question is different. What do you do?

What they are checking: Whether they recognize when a stakeholder's request hides a different question, and reframe it so the analysis answers what truly matters.

If you came in at the principal level setting priorities for others, how would you decide what the team works on?

What they are checking: The team lead duty the posting names for the higher level

This is based in Eau Claire within a utility. What would you want to know about the data landscape before you took it?

What they are checking: Whether they would ask smart questions about the utility's data landscape before joining, since the state of data shapes what they can achieve.

About the work

The posting names data wrangling and dealing with imperfections in data. Walk me through how you'd assess and clean an unfamiliar data set.

What they are checking: Whether they have a real method for assessing and cleaning unfamiliar data, since data wrangling is the first responsibility the posting names.

What advanced analytics have you actually built and put into use?

What they are checking: Whether they have built advanced analytics that people actually used, which matters more than techniques they've only studied or experimented with.

How do you process structured and unstructured data together for one analysis?

What they are checking: Whether they can combine structured and unstructured data in one analysis, since the posting expects both and many analysts only handle one.

Practice this interview out loud.

Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at Xcel Energy from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.

Practice this out loud

The full job description

As published by Xcel Energy.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a leading energy provider and Fortune 500 company, dedicated to serving millions of electricity and natural gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. We make energy work better for our customers, helping them thrive every day. That means always raising the bar - delivering better service and providing more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy. Xcel Energy is a place where you’ll have opportunities to grow, expand your skills, and help lead the clean energy transition. We offer meaningful rewards, recognition, and support to help you build your career and make an impact - both on the job and beyond. Most importantly, it means you’ll be joining a company that knows employees are the driving force behind its success and is committed to helping you be your best. Xcel Energy supports a hybrid work model to enable collaboration and flexibility. Many roles are expected to work onsite three days per week (Tuesday–Thursday); however, work location expectations vary based on role, team, and business needs. Position Summary for Sr Data Analyst Responsible for defining, implementing and supporting advanced analytics solutions and capabilities. Provides expertise in the integration, analysis and wrangling of data in support of solving business problems. Manipulates and analyzes complex datasets with a variety of tools; communicates results clearly and concisely to provide insight to multiple audiences. Position Summary for Principal Data Analyst Responsible as team lead for defining, implementing and supporting advanced analytics solutions and capabilities. Determines work load and priority for the team. Provides expertise in the integration, analysis and wrangling of data in support of solving business problems. Manipulates/ analyzes complex datasets with a variety of tools; communicates results clearly and concisely to provide insight to multiple audiences. Essential Responsibilities • Data Wrangling/Exploration: Follow consistent practices to ensure data integrity and deal with imperfections in data. Effectively process structured data; proficiently integrate data sets from various sources; confidently draw conclusions from data. Collaborate with business stakeholders as needed to ensure solid data understanding and proper data transformation; work cross-functionally with development and engineering teams. Analyze large amounts of information to discover trends and patterns; draw conclusions and gain actionable insights from data. • Programming: Develop efficient and high quality code; follow solid validation process to ensure consistency and minimize errors; adhere to version control standards. Maintain skills through continuing education; seamlessly transition between languages to apply the right approach to the right problem. • Work Management - Manages multiple tasks, with the ability to deal with ambiguity and shifting priorities. Communicates status and estimates clearly and timely to management and team members. • Data Visualization: Create meaningful data visualizations to communicate results and highlight business impact. Utilize various visualization techniques and delivery methods of visualization that are audience appropriate (e.g. interactive, statistical, and exploratory). • Communication: Effectively communicate technical information to numerous audiences (e.g. senior management, client community, peers and junior associates); effectively develop relationships with individuals inside and outside of IT. Address challenges to analytic processes and influence others to change their approach and work collectively to implement new tools/techniques. Gain support from related stakeholders for analytic solutions. • Continuing Education - takes a proactive approach to understanding industry and organization-specific business issues. Participates in structured and self-study training courses. Continually improves technical skills and learns new data sources. Minimum Requirements for Sr Data Analyst ($84,900-$120,567) • Bachelor's degree in MIS, CIS, Statistics, Analytics or related IT degree or sufficient experience • Minimum of 5 years of experience in an analytics environment • Expertise in SQL • Comfortable working with large, complex data sets - drawing conclusions and proposing recommendations • Proven ability to effectively partner, collaborate, and communicate with technical and non-technical colleagues in various business functions at all levels • Hands-on experience constructing visual analytics • Working knowledge of an analytics data warehouse and big data platform • Familiarity with fundamentals of statistics, probability and data pipelines • Strong attention to detail • Demonstrated ability to wrangle data • Comfortable working with structured and unstructured data Minimum Requirements for Principal Data Analyst ($97,600-$138,600) • Bachelor's degree in MIS, CIS, Statistics, Analytics or related IT degree or equivalent experience • Minimum of 8 years' experience in an analytics environment • Expertise in SQL • Comfortable working with large, complex data sets - drawing conclusions and proposing recommendations • Proven ability to effectively partner, collaborate, and communicate with technical and non-technical colleagues in various business functions at all levels • Hands-on experience constructing visual analytics with SAP products and or Microsoft Power BI • Working knowledge of an analytics data warehouse • Working knowledge of a big data platform • Familiarity with fundamentals of statistics and probability • Familiarity with fundamentals of data pipelines • Strong attention to detail • Demonstrated ability to wrangle data • Comfortable working with structured and unstructured data • Demonstrated leadership skills with the ability to lead a team Our culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that guide how we work, support one another, and grow together. Our Values Connected, Committed, Trustworthy, Safe Our Employee Commitments • Work that makes a difference • A team you can count of • Opportunities to grow • Rewards that help you thrive Xcel Energy provides job applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities throughout the application process. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form . Non-Bargaining The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $84,900.00 to $138,600.00 per year This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, Health Care Reimbursement Account, Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA), Transportation Reimbursement Account, Short-term disability (STD), Long-term disability (LTD), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Tuition reimbursement, Transit programs, Employee recognition program, Pension, 401(k) plan, Paid time off (PTO), Holidays, Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO), Parental Leave Benefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part. In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information including but not limited to dates of school attendance and graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information. Deadline to Apply: 10/05/26 EEO is the Law (PDF) | Equal Opportunity Statement (PDF) | Employee Rights (PDF) All Xcel Energy employees and contractors share responsibility for protecting the company's information and systems by adhering to cybersecurity policies, standards, and best practices, recognizing that cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility. Accessibility Statement Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com and https://jobs.xcelenergy.com accessible to any and all users. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form . For any other application related questions, including application follow-ups or technical issues, please use our Recruiting Assistance, Electra, for assistance. Electra can be found in the lower right-hand corner of our Xcel Energy Careers site.