Senior Manager, Research & Analytics

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

*Location for this role is onsite in Salt Lake City, Utah. Will consider candidates open to relocating*

The Senior Manager, Research & Analytics is a key leader in the organization, responsible for strengthening WGU’s research and analytics platform, outreach, and impact across our non-degree offerings. This is a key role that will support multiple facets of WGU’s mission, vision, and strategy.

This leader will support the production of actionable insights (through qualitative research, experimental research, descriptive analytics, and inferential analytics) that will allow WGU to better individualize the student experience to improve key student and staff outcomes. Projects will cover a range of topics including enrollment, marketing, engagement and interventions, curriculum, academic supports, business development, and other administrative and academic processes.

Successful candidates will have experience in managing a team of research scientists and data analysts with a focus in learning science, behavioral science and education psychology. They will have a desire to collaborate with other institutions and researchers, and to communicate insights to senior WGU leadership and external stakeholders. And they will be strategic in their vision and empathetic in their approach.  

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Conduct business and inferential analytics that drive the organization forward in terms of knowledge and impact

• Partner with key stakeholders and leaders to understand their business challenges and opportunities, craft research/analytical solutions, and enable their teams to understand critical performance indicators and trends.

• Delegate work assignments and help ensure proper bandwidth allocation across team members.

• Provide mentorship and support to direct reports (i.e., project prioritization).

• Develop a training and development framework to ensure continual team growth.

• Responsible for the hiring, training, and development of research scientists

• Conduct qualitative and experimental studies to test critical research hypotheses in WGU On-Ramp and Certificate programs, with strong ownership over the full research lifecycle

• Establish processes to manage research projects, and to communicate actionable insights to internal and external stakeholders

• Represent WGU by presenting at relevant conferences.

• Develops and inspires a team of research and analytics professionals to do their best work, and fosters team collaboration and best practices.

• Ensures the timeliness, accuracy, and quality of reports and analysis.

• Provides technical guidance on research designs, analytic methods, and innovative tool sets.

• Fosters an environment that enables cross-functional feedback to team and stakeholders.

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:

• Deep knowledge of a field such as learning science, behavioral science, behavioral economics, education psychology, or related field.

• Skilled at managing and prioritizing multiple simultaneous projects, meeting deadlines, and managing stakeholder expectations.

• Proven experience participating in and collaborating with cross-functional teams and personalities successfully.

• Ability to develop and lead a fast-paced, dynamic team.

• Strong analytical skills, including experience with testing design, regression, tracking, and interpreting results.

• Results-oriented, with the ability to deliver results through strong team leadership.

• Expert ability to independently define and conduct original scientific research.

• Data manipulation using programming languages like SQL and Python.

• Data visualization skills using tools like Python and Tableau.

• Deep experience with qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary rese