Stantec Business Intelligence Interview Guide

Getting ready for a Business Intelligence interview at Stantec? The Stantec Business Intelligence interview process typically spans multiple question topics and evaluates skills in areas like data modeling, dashboard design, ETL pipeline development, analytical problem-solving, and translating insights for business impact. Interview preparation is especially important for this role at Stantec, as candidates are expected to navigate complex data ecosystems, present actionable recommendations to diverse stakeholders, and support data-driven decision-making across the organization’s global projects.

In preparing for the interview, you should:

• Understand the core skills necessary for Business Intelligence positions at Stantec.
• Gain insights into Stantec’s Business Intelligence interview structure and process.
• Practice real Stantec Business Intelligence interview questions to sharpen your performance.

At Interview Query, we regularly analyze interview experience data shared by candidates. This guide uses that data to provide an overview of the Stantec Business Intelligence interview process, along with sample questions and preparation tips tailored to help you succeed.

Stantec is a global design and consulting firm specializing in engineering, architecture, environmental services, and project management for infrastructure and community development. Serving clients in sectors such as water, transportation, energy, and buildings, Stantec delivers solutions that balance innovation, sustainability, and operational excellence. With offices across North America and internationally, the company is committed to improving quality of life through thoughtful design and collaboration. In a Business Intelligence role, you will support data-driven decision-making, helping Stantec optimize project outcomes and advance its mission of designing with community in mind.

As a Business Intelligence professional at Stantec, you will be responsible for gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data to support strategic decision-making across the organization. You will collaborate with various teams to design and develop dashboards, generate reports, and provide actionable insights that drive business performance. Key tasks include identifying business trends, optimizing operational processes, and ensuring data quality and integrity. This role plays a vital part in helping Stantec leverage data to improve project outcomes, support client needs, and advance the company’s mission of delivering innovative solutions in the architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting sectors.

2.1 Stage 1: Application & Resume Review

The interview journey at Stantec for a Business Intelligence role begins with a thorough application and resume screening. The focus is on identifying candidates with a strong foundation in data analysis, data visualization, ETL processes, and business intelligence tool proficiency. Experience with dashboard design, data warehousing, and the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders are highly valued. Tailoring your resume to highlight relevant project work, technical skills, and clear business impact will set you apart at this stage.

2.2 Stage 2: Recruiter Screen

The next step is a recruiter-led phone or video call, typically lasting 30 to 45 minutes. This conversation assesses your motivation for joining Stantec, your understanding of the company’s business model, and your overall fit for the business intelligence role. Expect to discuss your background, career motivations, and ability to translate data insights into actionable business recommendations. Preparation should focus on articulating your experience with data-driven decision-making and your interest in the company’s mission.

2.3 Stage 3: Technical/Case/Skills Round

In this stage, you’ll encounter a mix of technical interviews and case-based assessments, often conducted by business intelligence team members or data leads. You may be asked to solve SQL problems, design data warehouses, interpret metrics, or architect ETL pipelines. Real-world business cases are common, such as evaluating the impact of a promotional campaign, designing dashboards for executives, or improving data quality across complex systems. Demonstrating your ability to apply business intelligence skills to practical scenarios and communicate your thought process clearly is essential for success.

2.4 Stage 4: Behavioral Interview

The behavioral round, usually led by a hiring manager or cross-functional team member, delves into your soft skills, collaboration style, and adaptability. Questions often center on how you’ve handled project challenges, communicated technical insights to non-technical audiences, managed competing priorities, or navigated stakeholder expectations. Prepare to share examples that showcase your problem-solving, teamwork, and ability to make data accessible and actionable for diverse audiences.

2.5 Stage 5: Final/Onsite Round

The final stage typically involves a virtual or onsite panel interview, which may include multiple interviewers from analytics, business, and IT teams. This round often features a blend of technical deep-dives, live problem-solving, and scenario-based questions. You may be asked to present a previous project, walk through a business intelligence solution, or design a dashboard live. Emphasis is placed on your ability to synthesize complex data, deliver clear recommendations, and demonstrate end-to-end ownership of BI initiatives.

2.6 Stage 6: Offer & Negotiation

If you successfully navigate the previous rounds, you’ll enter the offer and negotiation phase, led by the recruiter or HR partner. This stage covers compensation, benefits, start date, and may include discussions about team structure or career growth opportunities. Being prepared with market insights and your own priorities will help you negotiate confidently.

2.7 Average Timeline

The typical Stantec Business Intelligence interview process spans 3 to 5 weeks from application to offer. Fast-track candidates with highly relevant experience and strong technical skills may move through the process in as little as 2 to 3 weeks, while the standard pace allows about a week between each stage to accommodate stakeholder schedules and technical assessments. Take-home case assignments, if included, usually have a 3-5 day completion window, and onsite panel rounds are scheduled based on mutual availability.

Next, let’s explore the types of interview questions you can expect throughout the Stantec Business Intelligence interview process.

3.1 Data Modeling & Warehousing

Expect questions that assess your ability to design scalable, maintainable, and efficient data architectures. Be prepared to discuss data warehouse design, data pipelines, and how to ensure data quality and accessibility across business units.

3.1.1 Design a data warehouse for a new online retailer
Outline your approach to schema design, data sources, ETL processes, and reporting needs. Emphasize scalability, normalization, and how you’d handle slowly changing dimensions.

3.1.2 How would you design a data warehouse for a e-commerce company looking to expand internationally?
Discuss considerations for localization, multi-currency handling, and regional compliance. Highlight how you’d structure data to support cross-border analytics.

3.1.3 Design a scalable ETL pipeline for ingesting heterogeneous data from Skyscanner's partners.
Describe your approach to schema mapping, error handling, and scheduling. Explain how you’d ensure reliability and data consistency across diverse sources.

3.1.4 Design an end-to-end data pipeline to process and serve data for predicting bicycle rental volumes.
Walk through ingestion, transformation, storage, and serving layers. Note how you’d automate data validation and monitoring for reliability.

3.2 Data Quality & ETL

This category focuses on your strategies for ensuring data integrity and reliability within complex ETL workflows. You’ll be expected to discuss troubleshooting, monitoring, and continuous improvement of data pipelines.

3.2.1 Ensuring data quality within a complex ETL setup
Explain the checks, audits, and monitoring you’d put in place. Mention how you’d handle discrepancies between source and target systems.

3.2.2 How would you approach improving the quality of airline data?
Describe your process for profiling, cleaning, and validating data. Emphasize root cause analysis and feedback loops with data producers.

3.2.3 Modifying a billion rows
Discuss strategies for efficiently updating massive datasets, such as batching, indexing, and minimizing downtime.

3.3 Business Analytics & Experimentation

You’ll be asked to demonstrate your ability to translate business questions into analytical frameworks, design experiments, and interpret results to drive decision-making.

3.3.1 How you would evaluate whether a 50% rider discount promotion is a good or bad idea? How would you implement it? What metrics would you track?
Lay out an experimental design, key metrics, and how you’d measure incremental impact. Discuss potential confounders and how to control for them.

3.3.2 The role of A/B testing in measuring the success rate of an analytics experiment
Explain the fundamentals of experimental design, control/treatment groups, and interpreting statistical significance.

3.3.3 How to model merchant acquisition in a new market?
Describe the variables you’d track, modeling techniques, and how you’d use data to inform go-to-market strategies.

3.3.4 What kind of analysis would you conduct to recommend changes to the UI?
Discuss user journey mapping, funnel analysis, and how you’d prioritize recommendations based on data-driven insights.

3.4 Data Visualization & Communication

This section tests your ability to make complex data accessible and actionable for non-technical stakeholders. Expect to discuss dashboard design, storytelling, and best practices in data communication.

3.4.1 Making data-driven insights actionable for those without technical expertise
Highlight your approach to translating technical findings into clear, relevant recommendations for business users.

3.4.2 How to present complex data insights with clarity and adaptability tailored to a specific audience
Discuss tailoring your narrative, visual aids, and adapting depth based on the audience’s familiarity with the data.

3.4.3 Demystifying data for non-technical users through visualization and clear communication
Describe your use of intuitive charts, interactive dashboards, and storytelling techniques to drive engagement.

3.4.4 How would you visualize data with long tail text to effectively convey its characteristics and help extract actionable insights?
Talk about summarization techniques, word clouds, and segmenting rare vs. common patterns to highlight insights.

3.5 Metrics & Reporting

You’ll need to demonstrate your ability to define, track, and interpret business metrics that matter. Questions here focus on metric selection, dashboarding, and actionable reporting.

3.5.1 Which metrics and visualizations would you prioritize for a CEO-facing dashboard during a major rider acquisition campaign?
Discuss metric selection, real-time vs. historical views, and how to ensure executive relevance.

3.5.2 Write a query to calculate the conversion rate for each trial experiment variant
Explain your approach to grouping, filtering, and calculating conversion rates, ensuring clear and accurate reporting.

3.5.3 Design a dashboard that provides personalized insights, sales forecasts, and inventory recommendations for shop owners based on their transaction history, seasonal trends, and customer behavior.
Discuss how you’d tailor dashboards to individual users, automate insights, and enable self-service analytics.

3.6 Behavioral Questions

3.6.1 Tell me about a time you used data to make a decision.
Describe how you identified a business problem, analyzed the relevant data, and translated your findings into a recommendation that led to measurable impact.

3.6.2 Describe a challenging data project and how you handled it.
Share a specific scenario, the obstacles you faced, and the steps you took to overcome them, emphasizing problem-solving and adaptability.

3.6.3 How do you handle unclear requirements or ambiguity?
Explain your approach to clarifying objectives, iterative communication, and how you ensure alignment with stakeholders throughout the project.

3.6.4 Tell me about a time when your colleagues didn’t agree with your approach. What did you do to bring them into the conversation and address their concerns?
Discuss your communication style, how you foster collaboration, and how you incorporate feedback to achieve consensus.

3.6.5 Describe a time you had to negotiate scope creep when two departments kept adding “just one more” request. How did you keep the project on track?
Detail your prioritization framework, negotiation tactics, and how you maintained transparency and protected data quality.

3.6.6 When leadership demanded a quicker deadline than you felt was realistic, what steps did you take to reset expectations while still showing progress?
Share your strategy for communicating risks, proposing trade-offs, and ensuring stakeholders remained informed and engaged.

3.6.7 Tell me about a situation where you had to influence stakeholders without formal authority to adopt a data-driven recommendation.
Explain how you built credibility, used data storytelling, and navigated organizational dynamics to drive adoption.

3.6.8 Walk us through how you handled conflicting KPI definitions (e.g., “active user”) between two teams and arrived at a single source of truth.
Describe your process for facilitating discussions, aligning on definitions, and documenting standards to ensure consistency.

3.6.9 Tell me about a time you delivered critical insights even though 30% of the dataset had nulls. What analytical trade-offs did you make?
Discuss your approach to data profiling, imputation or exclusion strategies, and how you communicated uncertainty to stakeholders.

3.6.10 Give an example of automating recurrent data-quality checks so the same dirty-data crisis doesn’t happen again.
Highlight your initiative in building tools or processes that improved long-term data reliability and reduced manual effort.

4.1 Company-specific tips:

Familiarize yourself with Stantec’s global footprint and the diversity of its services, from engineering and architecture to environmental consulting. Understand how business intelligence supports large-scale infrastructure and community development projects, and be ready to discuss how data-driven insights can improve operational efficiency and project outcomes.

Research Stantec’s commitment to sustainability and innovation, and consider how BI can help measure and report on these initiatives. Be prepared to reference recent projects or case studies that demonstrate Stantec’s impact in sectors like water, energy, or transportation.

Learn about Stantec’s collaborative culture and multi-disciplinary teams. Practice explaining how you would work cross-functionally with engineers, project managers, and environmental scientists to deliver actionable insights. Emphasize your ability to communicate complex findings in ways that resonate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

4.2 Role-specific tips:

4.2.1 Demonstrate expertise in data modeling and data warehouse design.
Showcase your ability to architect scalable and maintainable data warehouses tailored for complex, multi-source environments like those at Stantec. Be ready to discuss schema design, normalization, and strategies for handling slowly changing dimensions. Use examples from your experience to illustrate how your designs enable efficient reporting and analytics for diverse business units.

4.2.2 Articulate your approach to building robust ETL pipelines.
Explain your process for designing end-to-end ETL workflows that reliably ingest, transform, and store data from heterogeneous sources. Highlight your strategies for error handling, automation, and monitoring, ensuring data integrity and minimal downtime. Reference any experience you have optimizing large-scale data flows or integrating third-party data, which is highly relevant to Stantec’s global operations.

4.2.3 Show advanced problem-solving in data quality management.
Be prepared to discuss how you ensure data integrity within complex ETL setups, including the use of audits, validation checks, and discrepancy resolution between source and target systems. Share examples of how you’ve profiled, cleaned, and validated data, along with techniques for root cause analysis and implementing feedback loops to improve quality over time.

4.2.4 Translate business needs into analytical frameworks and experiments.
Demonstrate your ability to break down business questions into measurable hypotheses, design experiments (such as A/B tests), and select the right metrics to evaluate impact. Discuss how you control for confounding variables and interpret results to provide actionable recommendations. Use scenarios relevant to project management, client services, or operational optimization.

4.2.5 Excel at dashboard design and data visualization for executive and operational audiences.
Show your capacity to create dashboards that deliver clear, personalized insights for users ranging from shop owners to CEOs. Explain your process for selecting key metrics, designing intuitive visualizations, and tailoring reports for different stakeholders. Highlight your experience with interactive dashboards, automated reporting, and enabling self-service analytics.

4.2.6 Communicate complex data insights with clarity and adaptability.
Practice explaining technical findings in straightforward language, using storytelling and visual aids to make data accessible for non-technical users. Discuss how you adapt your communication style and depth based on the audience, ensuring that recommendations are both understood and actionable.

4.2.7 Handle ambiguity and stakeholder alignment with confidence.
Share examples of how you’ve clarified unclear requirements, facilitated consensus on KPI definitions, and managed competing priorities. Emphasize your iterative communication skills and ability to document standards, which are crucial for maintaining consistency across Stantec’s global projects.

4.2.8 Exhibit resilience and creativity in challenging data scenarios.
Be ready to describe how you’ve delivered insights despite incomplete or messy datasets, including your analytical trade-offs and how you communicated uncertainty. Discuss your approach to automating data-quality checks and building processes that prevent recurring issues, demonstrating your commitment to long-term reliability.

4.2.9 Highlight your influence and collaboration skills.
Prepare stories that show how you’ve influenced stakeholders without formal authority, using data storytelling and credibility to drive adoption of your recommendations. Explain your methods for negotiating scope, resetting expectations, and fostering collaboration across departments to keep BI projects on track.

4.2.10 Present end-to-end ownership of BI initiatives.
Be ready to walk interviewers through a previous BI project, from initial data gathering and modeling to dashboard delivery and stakeholder training. Emphasize your ability to synthesize complex data, deliver clear recommendations, and support business impact at every stage of the project lifecycle.

5.1 How hard is the Stantec Business Intelligence interview?
The Stantec Business Intelligence interview is considered moderately challenging, especially for candidates with experience in data modeling, dashboard design, and ETL pipeline development. The process tests both technical expertise and your ability to communicate insights to diverse stakeholders. You’ll need to demonstrate proficiency in translating complex data into actionable recommendations that align with Stantec’s mission and global project portfolio.

5.2 How many interview rounds does Stantec have for Business Intelligence?
Typically, the Stantec Business Intelligence interview process consists of 5 to 6 rounds: an initial application review, recruiter screen, technical/case interviews, behavioral interviews, a final onsite or virtual panel round, and an offer/negotiation stage. Each round is designed to assess specific competencies relevant to business intelligence and the company’s collaborative culture.

5.3 Does Stantec ask for take-home assignments for Business Intelligence?
Yes, Stantec sometimes includes take-home case assignments in the process. These usually involve designing dashboards, solving real-world business analytics scenarios, or developing ETL solutions. Candidates are generally given 3 to 5 days to complete the assignment, allowing them to showcase their technical skills and problem-solving approach in a practical context.

5.4 What skills are required for the Stantec Business Intelligence?
Key skills include advanced data modeling, data warehousing, ETL pipeline development, data visualization, and business analytics. Strong communication skills are essential for presenting insights to both technical and non-technical audiences. Experience with dashboard design, metrics reporting, and stakeholder alignment is highly valued, along with the ability to manage data quality and translate business needs into analytical frameworks.

5.5 How long does the Stantec Business Intelligence hiring process take?
The hiring process typically spans 3 to 5 weeks from application to offer. Fast-track candidates may complete the process in as little as 2 to 3 weeks, but the standard pace allows about a week between each stage to accommodate interviews, technical assessments, and panel scheduling.

5.6 What types of questions are asked in the Stantec Business Intelligence interview?
Expect a mix of technical, case-based, and behavioral questions. Technical rounds cover data warehouse design, ETL architecture, SQL queries, and dashboard development. Case interviews focus on business analytics scenarios, metric selection, and experimental design. Behavioral questions assess collaboration, stakeholder management, and your ability to communicate complex data insights clearly.

5.7 Does Stantec give feedback after the Business Intelligence interview?
Stantec generally provides high-level feedback through recruiters, especially at later stages. While detailed technical feedback may be limited, candidates can expect to hear about their overall strengths and areas for improvement, helping them understand their fit for the role.

5.8 What is the acceptance rate for Stantec Business Intelligence applicants?
The acceptance rate for Stantec Business Intelligence roles is competitive, estimated at around 3-5% for qualified applicants. The process is rigorous, with a strong emphasis on both technical ability and cultural fit within Stantec’s collaborative, global environment.

5.9 Does Stantec hire remote Business Intelligence positions?
Yes, Stantec offers remote opportunities for Business Intelligence professionals, with some roles requiring occasional travel or office visits for team collaboration. Flexibility is offered based on project needs and team structure, supporting both remote and hybrid work arrangements.

• Related guides:
  • Stantec interview questions
  • Business Intelligence interview guide
  • Top Business Intelligence interview tips

Ready to ace your Stantec Business Intelligence interview? It’s not just about knowing the technical skills—you need to think like a Stantec Business Intelligence expert, solve problems under pressure, and connect your expertise to real business impact. That’s where Interview Query comes in with company-specific learning paths, mock interviews, and curated question banks tailored toward roles at Stantec and similar companies.

With resources like the Stantec Business Intelligence Interview Guide and our latest case study practice sets, you’ll get access to real interview questions, detailed walkthroughs, and coaching support designed to boost both your technical skills and domain intuition.

Take the next step—explore more case study questions, try mock interviews, and browse targeted prep materials on Interview Query. Bookmark this guide or share it with peers prepping for similar roles. It could be the difference between applying and offering. You’ve got this!