Behavioral Health Data Analyst

Career Guide

A Behavioral Health Data Analyst turns mental health and substance use data into clear insights that improve access, quality, outcomes, and cost of care. The role often supports clinical teams, care managers, program leaders, and compliance teams by building reports, tracking performance, and finding trends in patient needs and service delivery.

Browse All Roles

Key Responsibilities

Build and maintain recurring reports on behavioral health access, utilization, and outcomes
Clean, validate, and reconcile data from clinical systems, claims data, and surveys
Define and monitor key metrics such as appointment wait times, follow up rates, and readmissions
Analyze program performance for therapy, psychiatry, and substance use services
Identify gaps in care and opportunities to improve care coordination
Support quality improvement initiatives with data findings and measurement plans
Create dashboards and data visuals for leaders and frontline teams
Partner with clinicians and operations teams to translate questions into analysis
Document data definitions and reporting logic to ensure consistent reporting
Support audits and compliance reporting related to behavioral health programs

Top Skills for Success

SQL

Data Cleaning

Data Visualization

Dashboard Building

Descriptive Statistics

Data Storytelling

Stakeholder Communication

Requirements Gathering

Healthcare Data Literacy

Behavioral Health Metrics

Claims Data Analysis

Privacy Compliance

Career Progression

Can Lead To

Senior Behavioral Health Data Analyst

Behavioral Health Analytics Lead

Quality Improvement Analyst

Population Health Analyst

Clinical Informatics Analyst

Transition Opportunities

Data Scientist

Analytics Manager

Product Analyst

Health Services Research Analyst

Program Evaluation Manager

Common Skill Gaps

Often Missing Skills

Metric DefinitionData GovernanceClinical Workflow UnderstandingOutcome MeasurementData Quality ManagementPresentation Skills

Development SuggestionsAsk to shadow care managers or clinic operations to learn workflows, build a simple metric dictionary for your main reports, and practice presenting one page summaries that connect results to decisions and next steps.

Market Intelligence Report

Behavioral Health Data Analyst is part of the Data Analysis category.Explore our market intelligence report to see how AI and hiring demand are shifting for these roles.

See the market intelligence report

Salary & Demand

Median Salary Range

Entry Level$60,000 to $80,000

Mid Level$80,000 to $105,000

Senior Level$105,000 to $135,000

Growth Trend

Growing demand driven by expanded mental health coverage, measurement based care, value based care, and increased focus on outcomes reporting.

Companies Hiring

Major Employers

UnitedHealth GroupOptumCVS HealthAetnaHumanaKaiser PermanenteTeladoc HealthLyra HealthHeadspaceTalkspaceOracle Health

Industry Sectors

Health systemsHealth insuranceBehavioral health providersTelehealth providersGovernment health agenciesNonprofit health organizationsHealthcare technology vendors

Recommended Next Steps

Review a few behavioral health scorecards and list the core access, quality, and outcome metrics used

Build a small portfolio project using de identified healthcare style data and publish a dashboard and a short written summary

Strengthen SQL skills for joins, window functions, and data validation checks

Learn common healthcare data sources such as claims, EHR encounters, and screening tools

Create a personal metric dictionary template and use it on your next reporting deliverable

Network with behavioral health operations leaders to understand their highest impact questions