Director, Business Intelligence for Advancement

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Job Summary

The Director is the lead expert, creator, and trainer for business intelligence efforts within Institutional Advancement’s operations team. The organized efforts of the Director will provide insightful, interactive reports that foster intelligent decision making and planning. The Director is responsible for overseeing data retrieval, manipulation, strategic analysis, and the creation of reports and data visualizations to support work and inform fundraising decisions. The Director serves as the lead creative and content developer for the department and as a critical liaison to IA’s executive team to ensure that data resources are leveraged optimally to inform performance evaluation and fundraising strategies.

Under the direction of the AVP of Advancement Operations and Business Intelligence, the Director will manage business intelligence and analytics efforts to provide structure and vision to the fundraising process. This involves comprehensive and strategic analysis of donor behavior, prospect pipelines, and the presentation of meaningful research data related to ongoing fundraising activities and new campaign initiatives.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in data science, business analytics, information systems, or a related field
• Six (6) or more years of experience in business intelligence, data analysis, or a related field, preferably within a higher education fundraising or non-profit environment

Relevant combinations of education, training and experience may be considered.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree
• Prior experience in higher education
• Proven experience in developing and maintaining business intelligence dashboards and in leading data science projects and teams
• Substantive experience with data governance, aggregation, transformation, development, and predictive modeling 

Preferred Knowledge, Skill, and Abilities

• Strong analytical skills with experience in SQL and other data querying languages
• Familiarity with fundraising databases and CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce, Blackbaud)
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, or Scala
• Strong knowledge of machine learning frameworks and libraries (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn)
• Familiarity with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark) and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, D3.js)
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking abilities with great attention to detail
• Ability to interpret and present complex data insights to non-technical stakeholders
• Proactive, self-motivated, and able to manage multiple tasks simultaneously
• Strong understanding of fundraising principles and donor engagement strategies
  
  

Shift

Business Hours: Monday - Friday

Starting Salary/Rate

Expected hiring range: $120,000- $150,000

Pay transparency disclosure: The selected candidate’s salary will be determined based on factors that include the available budget, internal equity, and the final candidate’s qualifications, experience, education and other job-related credentials. This hiring range is provided as Rensselaer’s good faith estimate of the expected hiring range at the time of posting.

Application instructions

Follow the on-screen prompts to create a brief online profile. Please be ready to upload your resume and cover letter.

If you need assistance with the online application process, please contact careers@rpi.edu.

Job Posted Date

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Total Compensation and Benefits Information

Rensselaer’s Total Compensation Program is designed to provide stable pay growth, a comprehensive and affordable benefits package, and a comprehensive and affordable retiree medical and prescription plan. Rensselaer is recognized locally and nationally for the dept