Career Profile: Operations Research Analysts

Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 104,200 people employed as operations research analysts in the United States. The median annual salary is $82,360. Entry level employees earn approximately $48,690 per year and senior employees earn approximately $160,850 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Develop business methods and procedures, including accounting systems, file systems, office systems, logistics systems, and production schedules.
• Formulate mathematical or simulation models of problems, relating constants and variables, restrictions, alternatives, conflicting objectives, and their numerical parameters.
• Specify manipulative or computational methods to be applied to models.
• Develop and apply time and cost networks to plan, control, and review large projects.
• Break systems into their components, assign numerical values to each component, and examine the mathematical relationships between them.
• Design, conduct, and evaluate experimental operational models in cases where models cannot be developed from existing data.
• Educate staff in the use of mathematical models.
• Perform validation and testing of models to ensure adequacy and reformulate models as necessary.
• Collaborate with senior managers and decision makers to identify and solve a variety of problems and to clarify management objectives.
• Present the results of mathematical modeling and data analysis to management or other end users.
• Collaborate with others in the organization to ensure successful implementation of chosen problem solutions.
• Analyze information obtained from management to conceptualize and define operational problems.
• Study and analyze information about alternative courses of action to determine which plan will offer the best outcomes.
• Prepare management reports defining and evaluating problems and recommending solutions.
• Define data requirements and gather and validate information, applying judgment and statistical tests.
• Observe the current system in operation and gather and analyze information about each of the parts of component problems, using a variety of sources.

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