Senior Data Analyst - Institutional Research

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Job Profile Summary

The IAR (Institutional Analytics and Research) Senior Data Analyst is responsible for extracting, processing, analyzing, and reporting on data to produce rigorous, actionable insights and research.  They establish and maintain strong relationships with peers and leaders across IAR, Data Engineering, Compliance and Accreditation, Product Management, Finance, EdTech, and Faculty staff.  They perform ad hoc analyses, build standard reports and data visualizations, and deliver information and insights through various methods and media that privilege data storytelling and compress time-to-action.

The IAR Senior Data Analyst resides in the Institutional Research department and is responsible for gathering, analyzing, and reporting institutional data to internal and external clients. The primary focus of this role is on Compliance and Accreditation reporting to external accrediting bodies, as well as providing ad hoc data and research support to internal Compliance and Accreditation stakeholders.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

• Submits timely and accurate data to various external accrediting organizations regarding enrollment, student outcomes, financial aid, human resources, etc. (such as IPEDS).
• Partners with internal Compliance and Accreditation stakeholders and provides data, insights, and reporting support.
• Stays up to date on new compliance requirements from external accrediting organizations and ensures that these requirements are followed internally.
• Sets and manages expectations about analytics tasks and activities through clear, timely, and effective communication with partners and stakeholders.
• Answers complex business questions requiring extensive knowledge of the university’s data assets across several domains and departments.
• Identifies adequate data sources and data sets to evaluate hypotheses, build forecasts, and support findings of research projects and experiments.
• Collaborates with Data Engineering in the development of complex ETL/ELT processes and data pipelines.
• Identifies, investigates, and solves complex data issues, contributing to the accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, and validity of the university’s data.
• Collaborates with Data Engineering and other data & analytics partners to define standards and best practices that increase data quality across the university.
• Combines data analysis, visualization, and narrative structures to convey information in compelling ways that instigate deliberate action.
• Conveys information effectively to peers, partners, and senior leaders, using a variety of resources and formats (synchronous and asynchronous, verbal and written) such as e-mails, presentations, meetings, and workshops.
• Creates and organizes information about processes, projects, operations, data assets, and insights from analyses and research, making it accessible in ways that increase the university’s knowledge and efficiency.
• Contributes actively to the development of the university’s data management platforms (e.g., data dictionaries, catalogs, etc.).
• Supports and accelerates other team members’ development through constructive feedback and sharing of technical and institutional knowledge.
• Drives tasks, activities, and small-scale projects with high levels of autonomy, confidence, and collaboration with peers and partners.
• Understands and abides by the relevant policies and methods to access, use, transform, store, and delete data in responsible, secure, and compliant ways.
• Collaborates effectively with other technical specialists (e.g. data engineers) in the construction of data products, systems, and applications.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Advanced SQL proficiency, with experience writing queries and subqueries, creating views, and knowledge of different join types, filtering, sorting, aggregation, window functions, common table expressions (CTE), and performance tuning.
• Highly proficient and experienced in using tools like Tableau and Power BI to present data and information utilizing charts, graphs, and maps, in ways that make it easy to understand trends, patterns, and outliers.
• Ability to interpret and design models that describe how data relate to one another, and to the properties of the real-world entities they represent.  Understands conceptual and logical data modeling, and has experience with dimensional models, star schema, and snowflake schema.
• Experienced with descriptive statistics, causal analysis, and inference.
• Comfortable with common project management methodologies and frameworks (e.g., Waterfall, Agile, SDLC).
• Proficient in MS Office suite, including advanced Excel knowledge.
• Ability to apply sound judgment, systems-thinking, and analytical skills to assess risks, perform root-cause analyses, make recommendations, and drive cross-functional decisions that contribute to the achievement of the university’s objectives.
• Ability to perform with a very high level of autonomy, reliability, self-direction, and with a bias for action.  Manages conflicting and concurrent activities with minimal need for supervision.

Job Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:           

• Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline
• 5 years of related experience in Data Analysis, Business Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics, Decision Intelligence, Research, Learning Science, or Behavioral/Cognitive Psychology.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in higher education compliance reporting

Work Location

• This position is in-office in Salt Lake City, UT.
• Schedule: 4 days onsite, 1 day work from home

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The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

How to apply: apply online

Full-time Regular Positions (FT classification, standard working hours = 40)

This is a full-time, regular position that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

The University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.