Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Program Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Program Analyst is a cross-functional contributor responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing web experiences through analytics, content management, technical QA, and stakeholder collaboration. This role blends front-end troubleshooting (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), tag and data-layer governance (Google Tag Manager, Adobe Launch), backend integration validation (APIs, JSON), and performance/accessibility best practices to deliver measurable improvements in conversion, engagement, and site reliability. The Web Program Analyst partners with product managers, designers, developers, marketing, and data teams to translate business goals into trackable, testable web solutions and to maintain robust production environments.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Web Developer or Front-End Developer
Digital Marketing Analyst / Web Analytics Specialist
Business Analyst with web or ecommerce focus

Advancement To:

Senior Web Program Analyst / Lead Web Analyst
Web Program Manager / Digital Product Manager
Director of Web Operations or Head of Digital Analytics

Lateral Moves:

UX / Interaction Designer
Data Analyst / Data Engineer (web analytics specialization)
QA Automation Engineer (web focus)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Serve as the primary owner for tagging strategy and governance: design, implement, and maintain dataLayer architecture, Google Tag Manager containers, Adobe Launch rules, and server-side tagging to ensure accurate, scalable capture of user interactions and events across web properties.
Lead A/B and multivariate test implementations by translating experiment specs into tracking and QA requirements, deploying variations through the CMS or client-side scripts, validating event integrity, and coordinating with Product and Marketing to measure lift and attribution.
Execute detailed technical QA on content releases and feature deployments, including cross-browser and cross-device testing, regression testing for analytics and tracking, validation of API integrations, and written triage for defects in Jira or equivalent ticketing systems.
Own CMS configuration and build tasks for enterprise platforms (Drupal, WordPress, Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager): create templates, configure modules/components, manage workflows, and enforce best practices for responsive design, metadata, and structured content to support SEO and accessibility.
Monitor and analyze web performance and user experience metrics—page speed, time-to-interactive, Core Web Vitals—and collaborate with engineering to prioritize front-end optimizations (lazy loading, asset bundling, critical CSS) that improve conversion and retention.
Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, and data visualizations (Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Google Data Studio) to communicate acquisition, engagement, conversion, and funnel performance to stakeholders and leadership.
Build and maintain SQL queries and scripts to join web event streams with backend user and transaction data for attribution, cohort analysis, and funnel diagnostics; validate analytical datasets and reconcile discrepancies between analytics platforms and business systems.
Implement and maintain consent and privacy controls (GDPR/CCPA), managing tag firing rules, data retention policies, and collaboration with privacy teams to ensure compliant data collection and storage strategies.
Act as the bridge between business stakeholders and engineering teams to translate feature requirements into technical acceptance criteria, wire up tracking plans, estimate work, and validate completed work against acceptance criteria.
Audit and remediate analytics instrumentation by conducting regular tag audits, source code inspections, and traffic sampling to detect duplicate events, missing parameters, or tracking regressions after releases.
Configure and maintain e-commerce and conversion tracking (purchase events, checkout funnel, cart events) in analytics platforms and integrate with CRM, order management, and attribution tools to support ROI and CAC calculations.
Provide ongoing support for personalization and content targeting engines, ensuring audience definitions are accurate, event triggers are reliable, and data is flowing to CDPs and personalization platforms.
Document technical processes, tagging specifications, runbooks, and release notes to create a single source of truth for analytics instrumentation, CMS governance, and troubleshooting procedures.
Conduct root-cause analysis on traffic anomalies, drop-offs, or data quality issues by correlating analytics trends with release logs, server metrics, and external campaign activity to provide actionable remediation plans.
Maintain and enhance site accessibility practices (WCAG 2.1/2.2) by auditing pages, ensuring semantic HTML usage, validating ARIA attributes, and collaborating with designers and developers to remediate barriers for users with disabilities.
Manage and optimize SEO-critical elements in the CMS: canonical tags, structured data/schema markup (JSON-LD), hreflang, meta tags, and sitemap generation to improve organic visibility and crawl efficiency.
Coordinate release windows and deployment plans with DevOps, QA, and Product to minimize customer impact, validate post-deploy analytics, and ensure rollback procedures are in place for tracking failures.
Mentor junior analysts and cross-train team members on the web analytics ecosystem, CMS best practices, and troubleshooting techniques to raise organizational maturity and resilience.
Stay current with web platform and analytics innovations—server-side tagging, privacy-preserving measurement, AI-driven analytics, progressive web apps—and recommend pilot projects to test strategic value for the organization.
Manage vendor relationships for third-party scripts and measurement tools, negotiate service-level expectations, verify integrations, and ensure third-party tags do not degrade site performance or violate policy.
Coordinate with security and backend teams to validate secure transmission of analytics payloads, minimize PII leakage, and ensure proper tokenization or hashing where required.
Establish and track KPIs for web health and program success (Uptime, Tag Accuracy Rate, Conversion Rate, Bounce/Engagement, Accessibility Score), and maintain a cadence of reporting and stakeholder reviews to drive continuous improvement.
Troubleshoot complex production incidents related to tracking, data quality, or front-end regressions, off-hours if needed, and provide postmortem documentation with corrective action items and preventive measures.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to answer business questions related to acquisition, behavior, and monetization.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by recommending analytics platform improvements, instrumentation standards, and prioritization of measurement initiatives.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements, defining event taxonomy, parameter lists, and success metrics for cross-functional projects.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team, estimating work, clarifying acceptance criteria, and reviewing completed stories related to web instrumentation.
Provide on-call support rotation for urgent analytics or tracking incidents that impact reporting, campaigns, or customer experience.
Help run training sessions and office hours for internal stakeholders (marketing, product, content) to improve self-service analytics literacy and reduce redundant data requests.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Universal Analytics migration experience: tagging implementation, event modeling, and reporting.
Adobe Analytics and Adobe Launch proficiency for enterprise tracking, eVar/prop configuration, and processing rules.
Tag management platforms: Google Tag Manager (client & server-side), Tealium, Adobe Launch—expertise implementing triggers, variables, and custom templates.
Content Management Systems: hands-on experience with Drupal, WordPress, Sitecore, or Adobe Experience Manager including template building and workflow configuration.
Front-end technologies: strong working knowledge of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (vanilla and frameworks), and browser devtools for debugging DOM, network, and performance issues.
SQL: ability to write advanced queries for event, session, and user-level joins; experience with BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, or equivalent data warehouses.
Tag/dataLayer design and governance: build scalable event taxonomies, naming conventions, and validation processes.
API and integration testing: consume and validate REST/JSON APIs, ensure event payloads align with backend records.
Web performance optimization: Core Web Vitals analysis, caching, image optimization, lazy loading, and build tooling awareness (Webpack, Lighthouse).
Accessibility (WCAG) testing and remediation techniques; familiarity with automated tools (axe, WAVE) and manual testing methods.
A/B testing and experimentation platforms: Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize (or equivalent) for experiment implementation and measurement.
Data visualization and dashboarding: Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Google Data Studio for synthesizing insights and delivering executive-ready reports.
Privacy & compliance: practical knowledge of GDPR/CCPA impacts on tracking, consent management platforms (OneTrust, TrustArc), and data minimization practices.
Ticketing and collaboration tools: Jira, Confluence, Slack, Git/GitHub for issue tracking, documentation, and release coordination.

Soft Skills

Strong stakeholder management: communicate complex technical trade-offs in business terms and manage expectations across marketing, product, and engineering teams.
Analytical mindset: synthesize quantitative data to tell a compelling story and recommend prioritized actions tied to KPIs.
Attention to detail: methodical validation of tracking, deployments, and reporting to minimize data quality issues.
Project management: ability to coordinate multiple parallel initiatives, prioritize deliverables, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
Problem-solving: rapid triage of production incidents with clear escalation paths and remediation plans.
Teaching and documentation: create clear runbooks, tagging specs, and training materials to scale knowledge across the organization.
Adaptability: comfortable working with evolving analytics platforms, privacy regulations, and changing product roadmaps.
Collaboration and empathy: build strong working relationships with non-technical stakeholders and technical peers alike.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Digital Media, Data Analytics, Marketing, or related field; or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree in Analytics, Information Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, or MBA with digital focus; industry certifications (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Agile/Scrum, Accessibility).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science / Software Engineering
Information Systems / Data Analytics
Digital Marketing / Communication Design
Human-Computer Interaction / UX Design
Business / Product Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–7 years of progressive experience in web analytics, CMS administration, or web operations.

Preferred: 5+ years experience in enterprise web analytics or web program delivery, proven track record with CMS platforms (Drupal/WordPress/Sitecore/AEM), GA4 and tag management, strong SQL skills, and demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional measurement programs.