Zachery VanderLeest
Des Moines,IA
Summary
Detail-focused analyst specialized in performing comprehensive analytics and modeling across diverse business areas. Expertise includes aggregating data, developing actionable insights, and presenting findings to drive strategic decisions. Proven to understand customer requirements and translate into actionable project plans. Evaluates for patterns and trends within data, enhancing business understanding, and supporting informed decision-making processes.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Data Analyst
Principal Financial: Retirement Income Solutions
2022.07 - Current
- Generate data visualizations using Power BI to help articulate insights, educate and improve data-driven decision making
- Automate reports to drive business savings in the form of employee time and company resources
- Consult with partners to use available data and critical thinking to provide solutions while maintaining data governance protocols (e.g
- Reports, spreadsheets, ad hoc tickets)
- Perform data queries to create hypotheses and insights into business trends
- Create reusable queries to generate consistent reporting.
Geologist II: GIS & Data Analyst
State of Iowa: Dept. of Natural Resources
2016.11 - 2022.07
- Spatial and tabular data development, cleaning, analysis and visualization
- Focus internal and external products to increase awareness, readability and usability of data
- Development, management, support and monitoring of interactive online visualization products such as GIS automation, custom tool design, and web scraping to improve speed and process flow
- Development of manuals for GIS technologies
- Identify, manage, and resolve technical issues for both hardware and software solutions.
Program Coordinator
Iowa State University: Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
2016.01 - 2016.11
- Development and management of an education and outreach program for remote sensing
- Assist in development of an aerial imagery calibration program
- Experimental design and in situ data collection per external clients' specifications
- Analysis of data for precision and accuracy e.g., GPS data
- Client interaction and education on data analysis and discoveries
- Hiring and management of undergraduate student assistants.
Graduate Research Assistant
Iowa State University: Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
2014.01 - 2015.12
- Remote sensing for precision agriculture
- Data analysis and statistical methods for GIS
- Professional presentations for conferences, ISU extension and external clients
- Development of educational materials e.g., Big Data, Remote Sensing and GIS
- Data collection/generation using a variety of technologies (e.g
- SUAS/UAV, GPS weather stations)
- Testing and evaluation of experimental equipment and software prior to public release.
Education
Masters of Science - Industrial and Agricultural Technology (Advisor specialized in Big Data)
Iowa State University
Ames, IA05.2016
Bachelors of Science - Agronomy (Option: Soil Science) and History
Iowa State University
Ames, IA12.2013
Skills
- Python Programming
- Data Cleaning and Management
- Remote sensing
- GIS Software Proficiency
- GPS Data Collection
- ArcGIS Suite
- Data Visualization and Presentations
- Statistical Analysis
- SQL
- SAS
- Data Analysis
- Data Storytelling
Timeline
Data Analyst
Principal Financial: Retirement Income Solutions
2022.07 - Current
Geologist II: GIS & Data Analyst
State of Iowa: Dept. of Natural Resources
2016.11 - 2022.07
Program Coordinator
Iowa State University: Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
2016.01 - 2016.11
Graduate Research Assistant
Iowa State University: Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
2014.01 - 2015.12
Masters of Science - Industrial and Agricultural Technology (Advisor specialized in Big Data)
Iowa State University
Bachelors of Science - Agronomy (Option: Soil Science) and History
Iowa State University
Similar Profiles
Courtney Haley-ShawCourtney Haley-Shaw
Retirement Specialist at Principal FinancialRetirement Specialist at Principal Financial
Brad CraigBrad Craig
Assistant Vice President of Retirement Operations at Principal Financial GroupAssistant Vice President of Retirement Operations at Principal Financial Group
Aditya BagdiAditya Bagdi
Data Engineer at Principal Financial GroupData Engineer at Principal Financial Group