Senior Research Analyst
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
Full-time
Research
Posted on May 13, 2023
Position Primary Purpose and General Duties:
The mission of the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRDS) in the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs is to empower decision makers, enhance institutional effectiveness and maintain compliance through accurate, accessible, and actionable data and analyses. The office provides necessary data governance to align reporting needs with business processes, ensures the highest level of data quality and provides data definitions along with training efforts. The office values excellence through integrity, collaboration, and innovation supported by diverse skills, perspectives, and experiences. The core responsibility for the Senior Research Analyst will be to conduct outcome driven institutional research studies related to VCU's strategic plan, Quest 2028.
The responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Leading, initiating, defining, and developing original research projects addressing institutional questions and issues.
- Conducting applied research and analytic studies related to diversity and educational excellence, including the design, execution, and evaluation of these studies.
- Examining data, identifying trends and opportunities for institutional improvement and efficiency gains pertaining but not limited to the areas of student enrollment planning, student persistence and success, faculty and staff recruitment and retention, academic and administrative unit performance, and university performance with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
- Creating and maintaining statistical models and use those models to simulate the effect of proposed changes to university practice, as well as to make short-term and long-term projections based on explicit assumptions.
- Regular data extraction, manipulation, analysis, and interpretation of results to prepare institutional responses to external and internal queries (“ad hoc” requests) on a wide range of issues – e.g. diversity and inclusion indices, university climate index, student admissions and enrollment information and projections, employee information, student retention and graduation, financial aid, etc.
- Assisting the IRDS communications team in preparing reports and presentations, reflecting analysis of institutional and external data.
- Working with institutional committees and staff to coordinate work, provide expert advice, technical guidance, and information.
- Providing oversight and support to research analysts that involve all reporting and analytics efforts.
Attend and present at both regional and national conferences on various related topics - Serve on data, research, and IT-related campus and university-wide committees.
- Other duties and projects as assigned
- Bachelors required with a major in statistics, mathematics, computer science, economics, or other quantitative social science discipline.
- Experience in extracting, analyzing, and interpreting data from a variety of sources (information systems).
- Ability to draw conclusions and communicate data findings; applying statistical principles and methods to meet a range of information requirements; gathering and analyzing data and generating statistical reports
- Experience (2-3 years) with statistical software tools/packages such as SAS (preferred), SPSS, R etc. to produce high quality analysis.
- Demonstrated computer skills including knowledge and familiarity with spreadsheets, programming languages, relational databases and SQL.
- Interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively verbally and in written form.
- Strong organizational and documentation skills.
- Ability to take initiative when working independently and yet work effectively in a team environment with people who have a diverse array of experiences and backgrounds.
- Master's degree in social science or data analytics preferred, or the equivalent in training and work experience at a level that equates to an advanced degree.
- Hands on experience with Data Visualization and Business Intelligence Tools such as Tableau, Power BI, SASVA
- Ellucian/Banner experience.
- 2-3 years experience working in Higher Education preferably in an Institutional Research Office.
- Familiarity with higher education data domains (e.g. admissions, enrollment, financial aid, employee, finance, development, sponsored research) in a university setting.
- Experience with survey research design, administration, and analysis.
For consideration, please apply by Friday, May 12, 2023.
All full-time university staff are eligible for our generous benefits package that includes choices for health, vision, and dental coverage, life-insurance, short and long-term disability coverage, retirement planning, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, flexible spending accounts, tuition benefits, significant paid-time off,12 paid holidays, and more. Explore our benefits further here: https://hr.vcu.edu/current-employees/benefits/university-and-academic-professional-benefits/
Full-time, benefitted position
Salary range: $65,000-$75,000
Eligible for a Flexible Telework Arrangement
University job code: IT Engineer/Architect 1
Position Details:
Department: Institutional Research and Decision Support
Employment Type: UF - University Employee FT
Restricted Status: No
FTE: 1
Exemption Status: Exempt