Description:
 

Job Description Summary:
 

The Director leads a cross-functional analytical and strategic initiatives function that supports executive leadership in improving institutional performance across academic programs, operations, and financial sustainability. This role transforms institutional data into actionable insights and improvement initiatives, working collaboratively with leaders across Academic Affairs, Finance, HR, Facilities, and Research Administration.
The position focuses on institutional performance improvement rather than pure reporting, with approximately 35% of time devoted to data preparation and analytics and 65% dedicated to strategic insight, initiative development, and executive collaboration.
The Director serves as a trusted partner to executive leadership, supporting portfolio strategy, pricing discipline, contribution margin improvement, operational efficiency, and board-level reporting.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Key Responsibilities

1. Market & Academic Portfolio Analysis

Lead strategic analysis of program competitiveness and value positioning.

Responsibilities include:

• Conduct US News and peer-benchmark ranking analysis for all academic programs.
• Identify strategic levers that drive ranking performance, including outcomes, reputation metrics, and faculty indicators.
• Evaluate program pricing strategy relative to quality and competitive positioning.
• Support leadership in portfolio strategy decisions, including growth opportunities and program repositioning.
• Provide executive briefings on market demand, competitive position, and program economics.

2. Contribution Margin Performance Management

Ensure program-level financial sustainability and improvement initiatives.

Responsibilities include:

• Monitor contribution margin performance by program across the institution.
• Lead analysis to identify drivers of margin erosion or opportunity.
• Partner with program leadership to develop improvement initiatives and financial discipline plans.
• Prepare quarterly performance updates for executive leadership.
• Support preparation of annual Board of Regents presentations on program financial performance.

3. Facilities Strategy & Utilization Optimization

Support strategic utilization of institutional facilities.

Responsibilities include:

• Analyze campus capacity vs utilization across all facilities.
• Identify opportunities to increase space utilization and revenue generation.
• Lead or support project management of initiatives designed to fill underutilized space.
• Develop dashboards and reports for leadership on facility performance metrics.

4. Human Resources Strategic Analytics

Maintain and enhance the COO operational dashboard for HR performance.

Responsibilities include:

• Maintain detailed institutional headcount analytics.
• Track and analyze recruitment pipeline performance, including:
  • Recruitment aging schedules
  • Hiring delay Pareto analysis
  • Candidate loss analysis
• Monitor employee turnover trends and drivers.
• Partner with HR and Risk Management to analyze workers’ compensation performance and trends.
• Support evaluation of HR training effectiveness, including baseline measurement and post-training impact.

5. Financial Analytics & Operational Efficiency

Provide analytical support to improve financial performance and operational discipline.

Responsibilities include:

• Conduct institutional discount rate analysis and financial aid strategy evaluation.
• Provide budget vs actual performance analysis across key institutional units.
• Lead spend analytics initiatives, identifying opportunities for strategic sourcing and cost efficiencies.
• Enhance institutional revenue forecasting models, including gross revenue by program and semester.

6. Research Administration Support

Provide analytical and forecasting support for research activities.

Responsibilities include:

• Support research revenue forecasting and trend analysis.
• Provide analytical insight to improve grant performance and planning.
• Assist Research Administration leadership in data-driven decision-making.

7. Board & Executive Dashboard Development

Develop and maintain executive-level performance dashboards.

Responsibilities include:

• Design and maintain board-level dashboards modeled after leading university examples