Business Analyst

Position Summary

The Business Analyst will have a thorough understanding of scholarly book publishing functions and processes, including order processing, inventory management, royalty calculations, domestic and international distribution, and sales analysis. Integrating with other business functions, the Business Analyst leverages technology to enhance efficiency and productivity across departments.

Responsibilities

• Gather, process, and import into Acumen monthly sales and inventory transactions for 10 different distribution outlets.
• Resolve inventory or sales data discrepancies with vendors or in-house departments, and reconcile sales import receipts with vendor financial statements.
• Support the verification and approval process for monthly vendor invoices for both reference and sales vendors.
• Monitor the Press's inventory, creating and reporting monthly adjustments, and assisting in overall inventory planning.
• Provide support for in-house consultation on various projects across a suite of systems and financial statements.
• Conduct data analyses, prepare financial information, and provide ad hoc reporting for a wide variety of internal clients.
• Participate in data-related projects linking the accounting and royalty database with the Press's books database (Biblio).
• Responsible for ongoing development and subscriber support for Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, The Columbia Gazeteer of the World, and Columbia International Affairs.
• Liaise with database developers and user authentication systems.
• Assist Sales and Marketing with subscriber technical support for CIAO, Granger's, and Gazeteer.
• Collect and analyze usage statistics from databases.
• Collect and analyze e-book sales statistics and usage reports from vendors.
• Coordinate the application of Google Analytics across the databases, including the collection, reporting, and analysis of usage data.
• Maintain relationship with anti-piracy vendor, Link Busters, coordinate with Legal and Editorial department notification of potential piracy of CUP books, and field direct reports of potential piracy from authors.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent related experience required, 3-5 years of related work experience.
• 4-6 years working with book publishing, accounting, and management software like Acumen or Bookmaster and Bilblio3.

Preferred Qualifications

• 4-6 years of publishing experience, preferably with a university press, with demonstrated knowledge of publishing processes.
• Understanding of database management systems designed for storing, managing, and searching diverse data formats. (MarkLogic or similar.)
• Must possess strong technical skills, analytical skills, critical thinking, and practical problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent communication, writing, presentation, quantitative, and interpersonal skills required.
• Advanced knowledge of Excel, Word, Windows, PowerPoint, and data applications required.
• Experience with SQL and exposure to data visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau, etc.)
• Strong research skills needed.
• Ability to work as a member of a collaborative team while exercising independent judgment is essential.
• Familiarity with ONIX.
• Experience with BISAC, Thema, and MARC.
• Understanding of XML workflow for book publishing systems.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.