What Is a Pricing Analyst? (+ How to Become One)

A pricing strategy determines how much a company should charge for its products and services. Pricing analysts work to deliver data-driven insights so companies can offer competitive pricing. It's a role that typically requires excellent analytical skills as well as a background in business and finance, so if you enjoy thinking through problems and turning to research to inform your solutions, this may be a good career fit.

Explore this career in further detail, including the pricing analyst skills you’ll need to develop. You can also get started right away with the University of Virginia's Pricing Strategy Optimization Specialization, where you'll learn techniques to increase price realization and maximize profits.

What is a pricing analyst?

Pricing analysts are responsible for identifying a company's optimal pricing. To make that recommendation, they conduct market research, seek to understand consumer behavior, and get a deeper sense of the true value of the company's products or services and the costs required to produce them. It’s a technical role requiring thorough research and data analysis, as well as the ability to communicate your findings.

Tasks and responsibilities of a pricing analyst

As a pricing analyst, you will price products and services based on in-depth research and analysis of the market, historical pricing data, competitor pricing, and company costs. You’ll also examine profit margins, which may include identifying ways to reduce production costs.  

The tasks and responsibilities of a pricing analyst vary according to the industry you work. However, in general, a pricing analyst has the following duties:

• Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data

• Conducting market research

• Using financial modeling to forecast

• Implementing pricing strategies to increase profits

• Implementing consumer psychology strategies on product placement and price points

• Reporting findings

• Monitoring and adapting plans according to industry changes, competitor pricing, or trends

Pricing analyst skills

Pricing analysts require a combination of technical and workplace skills. Not only do they need to be able to conduct research and analyze data, but they need to be able to communicate their findings. Here are some of the key skills needed to be a pricing analyst:

Pricing analyst salary and job outlook

According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a pricing analyst in the United States is $68,937, with many roles featuring additional pay, such as bonuses and profit sharing [1]. Some companies pay significantly higher. According to Indeed’s March 2024 data, these companies offer salaries well above the averages stated above [2]:

• SM&A: $208,899

• Lockheed Martin: $92,180

• Matematica: $84,853

• Northop Grumman: $89,053

• Uline: $82,872

Pricing analyst vs. financial analyst: key differences

While pricing analysts and financial analysts are both interested in the data of profit and cost, they are very different jobs. Pricing analysts seek to understand the market, customers, and competitors of a product or service so they can develop a pricing strategy, whereas financial analysts provide informed guidance to companies or individual investors on important business investment decisions by analyzing economic trends and current market conditions.

How to become a pricing analyst

There's no set way to become a pricing analyst, but the steps bellow are among the more common:

1. Earn a bachelor's degree. 

Because of the research this role requires, it's typical to see a bachelor's degree requirement. Relevant majors include business, data science, finance, economics, or accounting.

According to Zippia, 75 percent of pricing analysts have a bachelor’s degree, with 13 percent holding a master’s degree [3].

2. Gain experience.

You may be able to find entry-level pricing analyst roles, sometimes called "associate pricing analyst," that require somewhere between 0-2 years of experience. However, it's more common to need around 4-6 years of experience to move into this role.

To begin gaining experience, consider internships or roles like pricing coordinator or pricing specialist, which can help you develop the skills and experience you'll need to continue advancing.

3. Develop your data skills.

Being able to work with data, including collecting, sorting, and analyzing, is a critical part of being a pricing strategist. Develop your data skills, including your abilities to create data visualizations and report your findings. Hone your skills in SQL and Tableau to start.

Pricing analyst career path

If you decide working as a pricing analyst is for you, you’ll find a number of ways to progress as you build your career. Let’s take a look at some options and the associated salaries of each after you have built up experience as a pricing analyst:

• Accounting analyst: $66,065

• Senior pricing analyst: $93,898

• Senior finance analyst: $115,099

• Business analyst: $92,821

• Finance manager: $122,145

• Senior data analyst: $118,981

• Fund manager: $118,882

• Pricing manager: $121m130

*All salary data sourced from Glassdoor, November 2024.

Build your pricing strategy skills with Coursera 

You'll find several ways to build or strengthen key skills in business, data, marketing, and more on Coursera.

• Get comfortable using data to find the answers to pressing questions with the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate. Over eight courses, you'll learn key analytical skills (data cleaning, analysis, & visualization) and tools (spreadsheets, SQL, R programming, Tableau).

• Gain a foundational understanding of pricing strategy with the University of Virginia's Pricing Strategy Optimization Specialization. Over four courses, you'll use the strategic power of pricing to set profit-maximizing prices.