We analyzed 2,585 active Data Analyst postings to map the skills companies actually want in 2026. SQL, Python, Tableau, Power BI, dbt, and salary by skill family. The "Data Analyst" Title Hides a Lot of Different Jobs Job postings that say "Data Analyst" can mean very different things. Some want a SQL-heavy reporting role. Some want a Python-heavy product analytics role. Some want a dashboard-and-stakeholder BI role. The title is the same; the work is not. To cut through that, we looked at every active "Data Analyst" posting on the InterviewStack.io job board as of May 2026 — 2,585 listings, with skills extracted from descriptions and synonyms collapsed (so dashboards and data visualization count once, postgres and postgresql count once). The headline: a Data Analyst posting in 2026 is, on average, a SQL job + a BI tool job + a Python job rolled into one. The skills that pay the most aren't the ones that show up most.…