Power BI SME

Role Summary 

Avanade India’s Data & AI practice is looking for a Power BI Consultant who can take a reporting requirement from the first conversation with a business user through to a published, refreshing, secured dashboard in production. This is a hands-on build role with real client exposure — you will gather requirements, design the data model, write the DAX, build the visuals and own the solution through go-live. 

We are looking for someone who thinks about the model before the chart. Strong DAX and a clean star schema are what make a dashboard fast, accurate and maintainable, and this role is weighted towards that discipline as much as towards visual design. Programming exposure — particularly Python for data analysis — is a welcome addition and will be supported and developed in the role, but strong Power BI craft is what matters most. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Gather and clarify reporting requirements with business and IT stakeholders — understand the questions being asked, the decisions they support, the underlying data sources and the definitions behind each metric. 

• Translate requirements into a solution design: data model, KPI and measure definitions, report structure, navigation, security model and refresh approach. 

• Design and build robust Power BI data models — star schema design, fact and dimension tables, relationships and cardinality, date/calendar tables, hierarchies and role-playing dimensions. 

• Write and optimise DAX — measures, calculated columns and tables, time intelligence, variables, context transition, and performance tuning of slow measures. 

• Build and maintain Power Query (M) transformations — source connections, cleansing, shaping, merges and appends, query folding awareness, parameters and incremental refresh setup. 

• Develop KPI dashboards and analytical reports that are visually clear and decision-oriented — appropriate visual selection, consistent formatting, drill-through, bookmarks, tooltips and accessible design. 

• Implement row-level security — role design, DAX filter expressions, static and dynamic RLS patterns — and validate it thoroughly before release. 

• Configure and manage Power BI Service operations: workspaces, apps, dataset publishing, scheduled refresh, on-premises data gateway configuration, refresh failure troubleshooting and access management. 

• Profile, validate and reconcile data against source systems — using SQL, and Python where you have it — to investigate anomalies and support analysis that goes beyond the dashboard. 

• Write and tune SQL against source systems and data warehouses to extract, validate and shape data for reporting. 

• Test and validate reports — reconciliation against source, measure accuracy checks, performance testing on realistic data volumes, and UAT support with business users. 

• Document solutions — data dictionaries, measure definitions, model documentation and handover material — and support end users through training and adoption. 

• Follow deployment and governance practice: workspace lifecycle, deployment pipelines, version control, naming standards and dataset certification where applicable. 

• Contribute to reusable practice assets — report templates, DAX pattern libraries, theme files and accelerators. 

Required Skills & Experience 

• 3–6 years of hands-on experience building and delivering Power BI solutions in a client or enterprise environment. 

• Strong DAX skills — measures, time intelligence, filter and row context, CALCULATE patterns, and the ability to debug and optimise existing DAX. 

• Strong Power Query / M skills for data transformation, including handling multiple and messy source systems. 

• Solid data modelling capability — dimensional modelling, star schema design, relationship and granularity decisions, and understanding of why model design drives report performance. 

• Proven experience designing and building KPI dashboards that business users actually use, with attention to layout, clarity and interaction design. 

• Hands-on implementation of row-level security, including dynamic RLS driven by a user/security table. 

• Practical experience with Power BI Service administration: workspaces, apps, scheduled refresh, data gateway setup and refresh troubleshooting. 

• Experience across the full delivery cycle — requirement gathering, solution design, build, testing, UAT and go-live support — not only report building to a handed-over spec. 

• Good SQL — joins, aggregations, window functions and query optimisation basics. 

• Ability to engage business stakeholders directly, ask clarifying questions and explain technical constraints in plain language. 

• Attention to detail on data accuracy, with the habit of reconciling and validating numbers before they reach a user. 

Preferred / Good to Have 

• Programming exposure and data analysis in Python — pandas and numpy for data manipulation, basic visualisation and readable analysis scripts. Good to have rather than essential; an interest in building this skill is valued. 

• Microsoft certification PL-300 (Power BI Data Analyst) or DP-600 (Fabric Analytics Engineer). 

• Exposure to Microsoft Fabric — Lakehouse, Warehouse, Dataflows Gen2, semantic models and Direct Lake. 

• Experience with Azure data services — Azure SQL, Synapse, Data Factory or Databricks — feeding Power BI datasets. 

• Familiarity with Power BI performance tooling: DAX Studio, Tabular Editor, Performance Analyzer and Best Practice Analyzer. 

• Experience with paginated reports (Power BI Report Builder) or Power BI Embedded. 

• Exposure to Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate) for embedded and write-back scenarios. 

• Awareness of data governance and cataloguing — Microsoft Purview, sensitivity labels and dataset certification. 

• Version control and CI/CD experience for Power BI (Git integration, deployment pipelines). 

• Domain exposure in one or more of manufacturing, BFSI, consumer goods, energy or healthcare reporting.