Institutional Research Analyst III (2 Positions)

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 78,000 - 96,000; Full time

Job summary

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc. is seeking an Institutional Research Analyst III to support a wide range of research projects, data gathering and reporting to meet institutional, federal, and accreditation requirements.

The role provides data management, programming, and analytical support to IRSA, Academic Affairs, and campus stakeholders. You will perform complex analyses, maintain data quality, and develop dashboards to communicate trends for strategic initiatives at the institutional

Qualifications

• Equivalent to graduation from a four-year college or university; additional qualifying experience may be substituted for the required education.
• Three years of progressively responsible technical research or statistical experience including or supplemented by one year in interpretation and graphic presentation of data.
• Experience with data extraction, querying, and reporting to support institutional research and planning.
• Ability to develop dashboards and data visualizations for stakeholders and communicate findings clearly.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for nontechnical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Report institutional data to internal and external organizations for mandates and accreditation requirements.
• Inventory data requests and coordinate groups, support, and resources to fulfill them.
• Develop theoretical frameworks, research designs, and methodologies for timely research insights.
• Design and conduct analyses using appropriate statistical techniques for project requirements.
• Maintain dashboards and develop user-friendly reports and presentations highlighting key trends.
• Write queries, integrate data sources, and build data sets for analyses and reporting.

Skills

Data analysis

SQL

Data visualization

Project management

Communication

Statistical methods

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

SQL

Tableau

Power BI

SPSS

SAS

R

Job description

Overview

Reporting to the Senior Director of Institutional Research and Strategic Analytics, the Institutional Research Analyst III supports a wide variety of research projects, including data gathering, analysis, and reporting to meet institutional, federal, and accreditation requirements. The position provides comprehensive data management, programming, and analytical support to Institutional Research and Strategic Analytics (IRSA), Academic Affairs, and, when appropriate, other campus constituents related to institutional or system priorities, mandated or required information, and accreditation. This role will perform complex research studies and other requests that foster understanding of institutional efficacy. The position also coordinates the compilation and submission of institutional data to internal and external organizations. The incumbent manages projects largely independently and will help coordinate and cross-train IRSA staff, including other research technicians, research analyst/programmers, and student assistants. The position is responsible for maintaining the accuracy, validity, reliability, and usability of data delivered to stakeholders, including supporting data literacy campus-wide.

Key Responsibilities

• Report out institutional data to internal and external organizations related to institutional or system priorities, mandated or required information, and accreditation requirements
• Inventory and manage data and research requests, and identify the appropriate group, support, and resources needed to ensure the requirements for the request will be addressed
• Develop and/or provide expertise related to appropriate theoretical frameworks, research designs, and methodological approaches to facilitate producing research studies that present timely, relevant, and consequential findings and insights
• Consult and provide expertise related to available and appropriate data to meet requirements for requests as well as provide guidance to ensure findings and results are interpreted and described accurately
• Design and conduct relevant data analyses by applying appropriate research methodologies and statistical techniques related to the requirements outlined for each project
• Perform quality checks on own work and the work of other contributors, when applicable
• Maintain and build relevant dashboards that are comprehensive and accessible for consumers to use
• Apply various data visualization techniques to develop user-friendly reports, dashboards, and presentations to communicate key trends related to various topics that highlight strategic initiatives at the institutional and system levels including assigned projects
• Develop systematic reporting capabilities, documentation, and web-based sites related to assigned projects to support operational continuity and departmental productivity
• Develop a detailed understanding of and subject matter expertise related to institutional data, databases, and platforms (e.g., SAMI Gateway, Spartan Connect, Campus Data Warehouse) to perform analyses related to evaluation and research studies
• Write queries, integrate data sources, and develop business logic to build data sets for use to conduct various analyses, create reports and dashboards
• Manage and clean large datasets for optimizing reporting and efficiency
• Provide appropriate explanations of information resources based on operational definitions from relevant data dictionaries that are in use at SJSU and the CSU
• Identify, investigate, and work to resolve data quality issues with relevant data being used across IRSA and other IRSA interfaces to ensure accurate reporting of information
• Perform technical tasks and provide technical support on data collection, aggregation, analytics, and assigned research and evaluation activities
• Provide documentation, user support, and access to data sources as required
• Develop, maintain, and enhance relevant databases by serving as a strategic business partner to cultivate and integrate data from a range of sources
• Cross-train colleagues and university stakeholders related to appropriate information, knowledge, skills, and competencies about managing, using, and reporting data
• Support and engage in a wide range of complex evaluation and applied research studies
• Examine and analyze practices, programs, and policies including various key initiatives related to student success to measure effectiveness and/or impact
• Provide research support for projects related to program planning, assessment, accreditation, and academic scheduling
• Contribute to research projects involving analyses of student success and program outcomes using university data
• Apply appropriate statistical and modeling techniques related to enrollment management, faculty workload, and student success including trend analysis, predictive and scenario modeling
• Develop content and methodological knowledge of common practices in qualitative and quantitative approaches in higher education settings
• Facilitate formative and summative evaluation processes for IRSA using institutional and programmatic data through the application of mixed methodologies to analyze effectiveness and impact for planning and decision-making purposes
• Prepare informative reports and presentations of professional quality to facilitate the interpretation and utilization of data by an audience of institutional stakeholders

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Ability to communicate with constituents in a professional and respectful manner
• Understand and able to apply appropriate survey, evaluation, and research designs and methodologies to measure institutional, programmatic, and key initiatives’ effectiveness and/or impact
• Knowledge and ability to use data information systems (e.g., PeopleSoft & Campus Data Warehouse) to build dashboards (e.g., Tableau, Power BI)
• Project management skills, including clear and concise communication; organization, time and task management abilities; planning and scheduling; technical and research knowledge; adept in relationships and teambuilding
• Ability to manage and oversee multiple programs’ operational needs, coordinate logistics to ensure timely delivery of work products, and provide recommendations for areas of improvement
• Ability to apply analytic mindset and use appropriate techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of policies, programs, and practices
• Proficient writing and presentation skills including the ability to communicate technical details to nontechnical audiences
• Ability to identify important insights from various data and program sources and suggest implications for university policy and practices
• Ability to support academic leaders on their enrollment, program, assessment, and scheduling management practices
• Understands academic policies and programs to support planning, accreditation, and assessment to help evaluate its effectiveness
• Ability to write original and edit existing queries using SQL
• Ability to apply general statistical techniques, such as tests of difference and association (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA, correlation, regression)
• General knowledge to perform descriptive statistics and ability to learn and apply statistical models in software packages such as IBM SPSS, SAS, Stata, and/or R using command syntax
• Data management skills and the ability to generate, query, merge, transform, and restructure data sets and account for missing, duplicated, and unmatched data using SQL and similar techniques
• Ability to learn and apply best practices related to statistical models in enrollment planning (e.g., regression, moving average)
• Ability to test and refine numerical projection techniques in tools such as Excel, SPSS, and R
• Ability to explain statistical and quantitative issues to a variety of audiences
• Ability to produce tables and graphical analyses in software systems such as Tableau and Microsoft Excel
• Knowledge of data presentation conventions and techniques

Required Qualifications

• Equivalent to graduation from a four-year college or university. Additional qualifying professional experience may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis.
• Three years of progressively responsible technical research or statistical experience including or supplemented by one year in the interpretation and graphic presentation of data. Graduate study in the social sciences, economics, mathematics, statistics, public or business administration or engineering may be substituted for the required experience on a year-for-year basis.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in education, social sciences, economics, computer science, data analytics, mathematics, statistics, public or business administration, computer or data science, or other related fields
• Three or more years of experience in a similar function
• Experience in higher education research, coding/programming, project management, enrollment management and/or scheduling concepts and procedures
• Experience running statistical models and predictions (such as linear and binary regressions) on higher education data sets
• Experience working directly in Institutional Research/Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment, and/or Data Analytics/Business Intelligence offices

Compensation

Classification: Research Technician III; Anticipated Hiring Range: $6,501/month - $6,763/month (Step 9 – Step 11). CSU Salary Range: $5,548/month - $8,083/month (Step 1 – Step 20).

Note

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