Learning Analytics Data Scientist for Student Success Insights

The Pennsylvania State University; State College (Centre County); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

75% tuition discount for employees and

Robust retirement plans

Job summary

Penn State IT invites a Learning Analytics Data Scientist to join the Data Empowered Learning team. You will design and deploy models powering tools like Course Insights and Elevate, transforming complex data into insights that improve student success and institutional efficiency.

You will work across Canvas, Starfish, and SIS data, collaborating with leadership and developers to move findings into practical applications used by thousands of users across Penn State.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with Python data stack for cleaning, feature engineering and modeling.
• Strong background in regression, clustering and experimental design.
• Proficient in writing complex SQL to extract/reshape data.
• Ability to translate technical results into clear narratives for executives.
• Experience managing production data and code with CI/CD practices.

Responsibilities

• Design, validate, and deploy predictive models (e.g., student risk, engagement).
• Architect and maintain data workflows from Canvas, Starfish, SIS sources.
• Apply exploratory data analysis and ML to produce trends and recommendations.
• Collaborate with leadership to convert insights into practical tools.
• Communicate data and methods to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Partner with developers to productionize models for wide university use.

Skills

Python data stack (pandas, NumPy)

Quantitative methods (regression, 2+)

SQL queries

Communicating findings

CI/CD workflows (GitHub Actions etc.)

Education

Degree in Data Science/CS/Information Science

Tools

GitHub Actions

Job description

Penn State IT invites a Learning Analytics Data Scientist to join the Data Empowered Learning team. You will design and deploy models powering tools like Course Insights and Elevate, transforming complex data into insights that improve student success and institutional efficiency.

You will work across Canvas, Starfish, and SIS data, collaborating with leadership and developers to move findings into practical applications used by thousands of users across Penn State.