Research and Data Strategy Associate

Job Title: Research and Data Strategy Associate
Department: Institutional Research and Assessment
Classification: Exempt
Grade: 10
FTE/Working Schedule: 1.0

Position Overview:

The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (IRA) provides data-driven, research-informed decision and strategic planning support to the administration, trustees, faculty leadership, and other campus constituencies to fulfill the mission and goals of Carleton College. IRA facilitates reliable and accurate data collection and reporting, performs comprehensive analysis and interpretation of pertinent data, and serves as a strategic partner to help academic programs and campus offices design and administer a sustainable and equity-minded assessment for continuous improvement.
 

The role of Research and Data Strategy Associate applies research methodology knowledge and analytical skills to manage survey administration, perform basic data analysis, and synthesize diverse institutional datasets. Core responsibilities include: executing data management tasks, such as extracting, wrangling, and validating datasets for reporting and the development of interactive decision-support tools; performing descriptive analysis for academic assessment and institutional studies; documenting data processes and definitions; liaising with stakeholders across campus; and providing administrative support for the IRA office’s daily operations. This position supports the College in advancing actionable data storytelling capacities through accurate reporting, pertinent institutional research, and dynamic visualization.

Compensation:

The expected starting salary range for this position is between $58,600 and $60,600. Actual pay will be adjusted based on job-related factors permitted by law, such as experience and training; licensure and certifications; market factors; departmental budgets; and responsibility.

Essential Job Functions/Responsibilities:

• Perform data stewardship involving oversight of institutional data assets to accurately extract, organize, verify, summarize, and archive data from Workday and other administrative databases to respond to internal and external reporting needs, benchmarking,

• Execute technical data tasks, including cleaning, merging, and validating datasets from various institutional sources, and ensure accuracy.

• Develop optimal and sustainable strategies for routine data preparation, and coordinate this effort with the IRA staff and stakeholders across campus.

• Act as a liaison to other offices to ensure that required data are submitted to IRA in a timely manner to meet the reporting and other data analysis deadlines.

• Maintain a complete calendar of institutional surveys, administer them on schedule, and provide periodical analysis of findings across multiple surveys.

• Develop a sustainable data management structure for ad-hoc assessment and evaluation research as well as data visualization.

• Perform descriptive analysis for assessment and evaluation studies.

• Extract data from federal, state, and independent consortia data collection agencies to advance benchmarking studies.

• Implement approved institutional surveys on Qualtrics and Google Form and deploy them on schedule.

• Leverage analytical tools in Qualtrics and Google Suite to develop a sustainable results dissemination structure with campus partners.

• Document data definitions and processes, and coordinate this effort with IRA office staff and stakeholders across campus.

• Manage IRA projects and facilitate streamlined workflows between the IRA office and campus stakeholders.

• Track academic assessment activities and assist in the synthesis of annual activity reports.

• Support IRA office’s daily operations, including maintaining the website and shared drives.

Additional Job Responsibilities:

• This position will regularly meet with IRA staff and frequently communicate with stakeholders across campus.

Supervision Received and Exercised:

• This position will be supervised by the Assistant VP of Institutional Research. The position does not include supervisory expectations. 

Education/Experience/Skills: 

Required:

• Master’s degree in a quantitative, social science, or data analytics field or Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative, social science, or data analytics field plus 3 years of professional experience in an applied data environment

• Proficient data manipulation skills using Excel or