Director - Institutional Research

Employer Info:

Northeastern University

http://www.northeastern.edu/

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global, experiential, research university built on a tradition of engagement with the world, creating a distinctive approach to education and research. The university offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools, and select advanced degrees at graduate campuses in Charlotte, North Carolina, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Toronto.
Job Name
Director - Institutional Research
Posting Date
09/10/2019
Brief Description
The Director of Institutional Research oversees compliance reporting, internal requests for information, and ranking/guidebook reporting while also acting as a contributing member of the IR staff. The Director plays a critical role as the leader of the IR team by providing expertise in internal and external reporting, data analysis, accreditation, and assessment. The Director also supports the Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Research and Decision Support in monitoring and improving IR team operations.
Job Category
Institutional Research
Job Type
Full-Time
Education Level Required
Bachelors
Location City
Boston, MA 02115, United states
How to Apply
Online
Direct Link
Click here for more info
Job Details

About Northeastern:

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and a world leader in experiential learning. The same commitment to connecting with the world drives our use-inspired research enterprise. The university offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools. Our campuses in Charlotte, N.C., San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto are regional platforms for undergraduate and graduate learning and collaborative research. Northeastern pursues advanced research in security and materials at the Innovation Campus in Burlington, Massachusetts, and in coastal sustainability at the Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts.

 

About the Opportunity:

University Decision Support at Northeastern University provides timely information and analysis to both the Northeastern community and to external entities to enable evidenceā€based decision making and planning.  The work done by Institutional Research staff supports and informs planning, management, accreditation, and assessment activities at every level of the University. The office provides regular and ad hoc data analyses to both internal and external constituencies and plays an integral role in developing data resources for university.

 

The Director of Institutional Research oversees compliance reporting, internal requests for information, and ranking/guidebook reporting while also acting as a contributing member of the IR staff. The Director plays a critical role as the leader of the IR team by providing expertise in internal and external reporting, data analysis, accreditation, and assessment. The Director also supports the Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Research and Decision Support in monitoring and improving IR team operations.

 

Each year hundreds of data and analysis requests are received by the office from both internal and external audiences. The Director assumes the lead role in prioritizing and organizing these projects and requests, identifying and solving reporting problems, and recommending solutions and resolving issues.  The Director is responsible for assigning projects and ad hoc requests for information to the IR staff, keeping in mind workload, complexity, priorities, and other circumstances.

 

The Director also participates in the preparation of various publications used to report standard data within the campus community and will plan for and develop new data analyses/reports that present data of interest to the University community.  Communication is also an important part of the Director’s job to ensure that the IR team’s clients understand the resources available to them and how to use them.

 

The Director is responsible for the smooth functioning of the IR staff, including their professional development, technical skills, and work environment.  Responsibilities of this position may also include membership on relevant university committees, and meeting with clients of the IR team to ascertain their information needs.

 

The position involves a great deal of interaction with people and requires a customer service mentality to quickly respond to the requests from both university offices and external agencies. The Director must have strong analytic skills, be detail oriented and be willing to work with others to maintain and improve upon the quality of the data reported through UDS and by users within the University community.

 

He/she will assist the AVP by creating, developing and implementing techniques to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the office.  This may also include various technical functions within the office such as the managing documentation of the office’s work, overseeing updates to the department website, or organizing the UDS Tableau Server site.

 

The Director must have strong technical skills and the desire to expand upon those skills through formal and informal training opportunities. The Director will participate in professional development activities in order to maintain currency in industry practices and trends, and will take advantage of training to maintain strong technical skills in areas that affect his/her job.

  • Oversee the work of the Institutional Research team by prioritizing and organizing projects and ad hoc requests, identifying and solving reporting problems, reviewing the work of the IR team, and resolving issues. 
  • Participate in the preparation of data and reports for Northeastern’s campus decision makers. 
  • Prepare summaries of rankings and guidebooks submissions for Senior Leadership Team approval.
  • Manage the IR team by setting goals and performance standards and coaching and evaluating staff.
  • Assist the Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Research and Decision Support in optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the office through technical solutions, improved documentation, or other ideas. 
  • Participate in university-wide committees as needed and meet with IR team clients to ascertain their needs for information.

Responsibilities:

 

Qualifications:

 

  • Excellent technical and analytical skills
  • Strong interpersonal, management, and networking skills, both within and outside of the organization
  • The desire and capacity to mentor and train institutional research staff members
  • Effective organizational skills to keep track of multiple priorities and deadlines
  • Bachelor’s degree required (advanced degree preferred) in statistics, a quantitative social science, education, mathematics, computer science, operations research, or similar field
  • 8-10 years’ experience in institutional research
  • Supervisory experience
  • Strong knowledge of reporting standards in higher education, including accreditation and common rankings and guidebooks
  • Understanding of the nuances that inform data reporting and analysis in higher education in general and higher education compliance reporting specifically (e.g., IPEDS)
  • Experience working with key external databases used by institutional researchers and the capacity to work with large data sets
  • Strong prior experience in data reporting, data manipulation, analysis, and presentation with software tools including but not limited to Tableau, Brio, Toad, Excel, SPSS, R, Cognos and Argos

 


Preferred Qualifications:

 

 

Salary Grade:

 14

Additional Information:
 

 

Northeastern University is an equal opportunity employer, seeking to recruit and support a broadly diverse community of faculty and staff.  Northeastern values and celebrates diversity in all its forms and strives to foster an inclusive culture built on respect that affirms inter-group relations and builds cohesion. 

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other  characteristic protected by applicable law.

To learn more about Northeastern University’s commitment and support of diversity and inclusion, please see www.northeastern.edu/diversity.