Associate Vice President, Institutional Research and Analysi…

Position Summary:

The mission of National University is to deliver an exceptional student experience by providing superior programs and services that are relevant and result in meaningful learning. NU is a not-for-profit, veteran-founded institution serving a community of diverse learners. As a diverse community, the university values service to all students, staff, faculty and partners in a way that reflects the richness of the sociocultural and economic differences in society.

The Associate Vice President of Institutional Research and Analysis leads management research project creation and provides leadership for data and information products and reports. The AVP will be responsible for designing, conducting, and leading institutional research studies, including studies that incorporate predictive and prescriptive modeling. With strategic leadership, the AVP provides broad oversight of rigorous research on the effectiveness of student success strategies and interventions, program market analysis and intelligence, enrollment analytics, benchmarking and peer analysis studies, institutional research, and educating users at NU on appropriate data strategies and uses. The AVP is charged with steadily improving data governance at NU through collaboration with data stewards and other functions. The AVP leads professional staff in research and analysis initiatives that are fundamental to higher education and informed through relationships with a wide array of university leaders and across all NU locations. The AVP will lead, supervise, and mentor a team of institutional research analysts and will report to the Vice Provost for Academic Services to ensure that the office’s research agenda is targeted, meaningful, and in direct support of University goals.

Essential Functions:

• Formulates high-level annual research agenda to evaluate impact of student success strategies and interventions by developing in-depth research study protocols and analysis plans. Aggregates extant institutional and/or external data using advanced statistical modeling and data analytics to conduct analyses and prepares managerial reports including recommendations for policy, procedure or process change based upon research findings.
• Conducts ongoing environmental scanning of the higher education environment. Leads benchmarking and peer analysis studies for the university.
• Develops a program of market analysis and intelligence to support the efforts of National University Faculty, Marketing and Enrollment Management to analyze programmatic opportunities and develop new offerings in areas of high market and student demand. Undertakes analyses of program demand and viability to support new program proposals, academic program review, annual program viability reporting and program discontinuation.
• Delivers expertise in cross-functional data and information systems to deliver actionable analysis to drive the business process of enrollment management. Collaborates with Enrollment Management to provide enrollment forecasts, data, research projects and relevant policy analysis including, but not limited, to enrollment forecasting, trend analysis, predictive analytics, business intelligence and report creation.
• Identifies, collects, organizes, analyzes, interprets, manages and reports university and departmental data, successfully collaborating with other professionals responsible for data reporting across the institution, to coordinate and facilitate institutional research projects. Designs, develops and implements analytical modeling, electronic databases, tables, dashboards, processes, and procedures in support of state and federal reporting and accountability. Mines data from existing university relational databases to merge data and provide reports.
• Produces complex studies, reports, analyses, surveys and projections on matters pertaining to all aspects of University operations, including but not limited to, staffing, academic program reviews, faculty loads, productivity, strategic planning, student-faculty ratios and peer comparisons.
• Regularly communicates with data stewards and other university functions to solidify a collaborative data governance model for NU. Periodically reviews and recommends changes in policies procedures and practices.
• Collaborates with administrators, faculty and staff in the design, implementation and analysis of research studies to support evidence-based decision making and planning and to cultivate a learning-centered environment regarding University data and institutional research. Consults in the areas of Institutional Research for the NU affiliates.
• Ensures user access to appropriate data and self-service data tools and dashboards to enable decentralized data-informed decision making at NU.
• Develops educational workshops, modules, job aids, and other tools to advance the understanding of institutional research across offices and functions at NU.
• Assures timely and accurate participation in external reputational surveys, including but not limited to US News and World Report, Military Times, and Washington Monthly.
• Assures timely and accurate completion of all mandated external reports and voluntary consortia, including but not limited to IPEDS, AAUP, and the Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity.
• Provides day-to-day leadership to staff including but not limited to recruiting, selecting, orienting, assigning projects, training employees and developing personal growth opportunities.
• Generates and submits the annual budget for Business Unit including monthly and quarterly reviews to adhere with budget parameters.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Hires, trains, develops, up to 5 staff team members. Oversees budget of $700,000 annually.

Requirements:

Education & Experience:

• Master’s degree in related field, required; and ten (10) years progressive experience in an institutional research, data analysis or other University research setting, including managing a team or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Doctoral degree in related field or evidence of pursuit of advanced studies or degree, preferred.
• Supervisory experience is required. Excellent organizational judgment and strong abilities to negotiate, seek consensus, and achieve cooperation are crucial traits. The capability to work independently on complex assignments, manage projects, collaborate with others, and make judgments about priorities and quality in order to produce high quality products is essential.
• 3-5 years experience in working with Institutional Research, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics professionals is expected.
• A demonstrated ability to present complex ideas, techniques, and analytic findings concisely, clearly, and effectively, both orally and in writing, to senior decision makers at the university is required.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate insights gleaned from statistical analyses is essential. Data sense-making to multiple types of audiences is critical for the person in this role. The ability to not only wrangle and analyze data, but to contextualize the results, translate data, and interpret results is required. As a data translator, the person is this position will be able to shape research questions and align data with the questions. The capacity to help others understand what results mean in the context of higher education decision-making is essential.

Competencies /Technical / Functional Skills:

• Acts as a role model. Anticipates and plans for change. Communicates vision to the team. Ability to lead, direct and/or influence others to obtain results using a wide degree of creativity and latitude.
• Ability to understand, diagnose and plan for business issues, processes, structure, outcomes and profitability. Understands the implications of decision and actions, including a deep understanding of overall big picture of the business; able to take an idea from concept to reality.
• Aptitude to drive towards achieving measurable and challenging goals to support organizational success. Demonstrate the ability to focus on achieving results consistent with the organization’s objectives. As a leader, develops goals based on the organization’s vision, mission and strategic goals and objectives. Strong ability to exhibit very high standards of integrity, ethical conduct, and confidentiality.
• Actively seeks opportunities to influence, build effective relationships and gain alignment with peers, functional partners and/or external partners to accomplish business objectives. Ability to interface collegially with staff and administrators while providing deliverables within tight timeframes. Strong intellectual curiosity and drive to improve the organization.
• Established ability working in a lateral leadership evidence-based organizational change and development environment while conducting enrollment forecasting and analytics including benchmarking enrollment, student success and institutional and programmatic reputation.
• Strong and successful background in report writing and presentation for informed, data-driven marketing management decision-making and recommendations. Demonstrated knowledge and experience in research and design and methods including primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Proficient in techniques of marketing research and program demand/viability analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to manage, prioritize short- and long-range multiple projects and initiatives simultaneously, excellent organizational skills with attention to details; good follow-up and follow-through. Skilled in collecting, organizing, analyzing and presenting information in a relevant manner.
• Fluency in use of Microsoft Office Suite Applications such as Word, Excel, Power Point, and Outlook is expected. Demonstrated application of data analytics, including predictive and prescriptive statistical modeling, is required. Fluency with one or more software applications used for research and statistical analysis such as SAS, SPSS, R, and/or Stata is expected, as is proficiency in SQL and Tableau software.
• Work independently and foster a cooperative spirit within a large and/or small team of diverse cultures across the organization and all levels while working in a fast-paced environment with multiple deadlines and frequently changing priorities.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively communicate with a wide range of individual of constituencies in a diverse community. Excellent written and oral communication skills to present information and data to a variety of audiences.

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