Director of Institutional Research & Analytics
Description
The College of the Holy Cross seeks a collaborative leader to serve as the Director of Institutional Research & Analytics. The Director will oversee collection, analysis, and dissemination of data about the College. Along with ensuring that Holy Cross has uniform and consistent statistical information for official reporting, the Director will serve as a trusted partner to campus stakeholders who are responding to external requests and preparing internal reports that require statistical information, data analytics and storytelling. By aiming to make actionable information readily available, the director will serve as a catalyst to enable decision-makers to make data-informed decisions that will support the College’s mission and strategic priorities.
This position reports to the Associate Provost for Analytics, Assessment, and Planning, and is part of a highly-collaborative, talented, and experienced team responsible for stewarding student records, assessment of student learning and outcomes, institutional accreditation, and student technology systems. The director also works closely with a variety of leaders within the Academic Affairs division and across the College, including Information Technology Services.
Responsibilities
The director will primarily be responsible for:
- Developing and maintaining the College’s official statistical data, and conducting benchmarking analysis with peer institutions to inform strategic planning.
- Preparing and submitting data for mandated State and Federal reports and external publications, including IPEDS, U.S. News & World Report, Council of Graduate survey of graduate enrollment and degrees, NECHE Annual reports. This includes implementing efficiencies (i.e. automating uploads) to streamline external reporting processes.
- Participating in research consortia and external publications such as the Common Data Set, COACHE faculty job satisfaction survey, and HERI faculty job satisfaction survey.
- Analyzing dynamic data sets, using a range of techniques, tools, and technologies to identify patterns in historical data and apply them to predict future outcomes.
- Designing analytics reports that deliver effective stories with data, narrative and visuals.
- Providing timely and accurate institutional data to leaders across campus in order to support informed decision-making and institutional planning.
Working in collaboration with other campus partners (such as IT), the director will also:
- Develop and administer surveys to students, faculty, staff, and others, focusing on areas beyond academic assessment, such as employee satisfaction and climate surveys.
- Serve on the data governance committee to support implementation of data governance policies, standards, and procedures to ensure “a single version of the truth.”
- Create and maintain self-serve enterprise dashboards accessible to campus partners.
- Advance data, analytics, and tool literacy campus-wide, and serve as a representative of the College within the broader Institutional Research professional community.
- Actively seek, propose or adopt emerging technologies to improve operational efficiency.
Why Join Us?
At Holy Cross, you will be part of a mission-driven community of students, faculty and staff dedicated to shaping the future. This role offers the opportunity to make a lasting impact on one of the most prominent liberal arts colleges in New England, all while contributing to a culture of excellence, innovation, and stewardship. We invite passionate and visionary leaders to join our team and to honor our commitment to create a hope-filled future.
Basic Qualifications
Candidates must meet the following qualifications to be considered for this role:
- Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field (such as accounting, mathematics, statistics, economics, finance, computer science).
- Five or more years of experience analyzing quantitative and/or qualitative data. An advanced degree may count towards years of experience.
- Experience using business intelligence tools to generate reports, visualizations, and for data storytelling (preferably Tableau or Power BI) to communicate to varied audiences.
- Working knowledge of relational databases and experience querying with SQL to produce reports from large, complex data sets.
- Exceptional attention to detail, ability to manage multiple projects, meet strict deadlines, while maintaining a high degree of accuracy and sensitivity to confidential information.
- Strong interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to be a strategic thought partner that consults with other colleagues to empower them to achieve their goals.
Preferred Qualifications and Skills
- Advanced degree (master’s degree or equivalent).
- Knowledge of at least one programming language or statistical software package (such as R or Python) to apply appropriate statistical tests and methods.
- Experience with analysis and modeling techniques to evaluate and critically analyze institutional data to support decision-making and foster an analytics ecosystem.
- Experience working with academic units and business departments in higher education.
Core Competencies
- Service-oriented
- Strong teamwork & facilitation skills
- Strong leadership skills
- Strategic and goal-oriented
- Dependability
- Flexibility
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Proficient problem solving
- Innovative/creative
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Understands, values and respects diversity as an individual, in a team, and within groups; and is able to foster an inclusive and supportive environment.
About the College
The College of the Holy Cross is a highly selective Catholic, Jesuit, liberal arts undergraduate institution. Holy Cross is one of 27 Jesuit institutions of higher education in the United States, and the only exclusively undergraduate liberal arts college. Founded in 1843 on a hill overlooking the city of Worcester, the Holy Cross community encompasses the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of 3,000 undergraduate students, over 300 faculty, 800 staff, and nearly 40,000 alumni. Faithful to its Jesuit tradition and with a mission to educate men and women for and with others, Holy Cross students are urged to measure their personal successes in life by what they have done to better the lives of others, especially those less fortunate than themselves.
Under the leadership of President Rougeau, Holy Cross has developed the ASPIRE strategic plan, a bold vision for the future of the College that builds on existing strong academic foundations and reminds all members of the campus community of our enduring commitments. Supporting that plan, Provost Elliott Visconsi has recently developed with the faculty a new strategic framework for academic excellence, detailing how Holy Cross “will offer a liberal arts education that is among the finest in the world and be recognized broadly for doing so.”
Additional Information
The Director of Institutional Research & Analytics is a full-time, exempt position. The College is committed to providing competitive market pay for its employees. The College also offers a competitive benefits package for full-time staff, including:
- 403(b) Retirement plan
- Tuition & Education benefits
- Wellness programs & ongoing Training and Development opportunities
- Generous paid time off
- This position may be eligible for a hybrid work arrangement
The College is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and complies with all Federal and Massachusetts laws concerning Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action in the workplace.
The College also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities during the hiring process in compliance with law. Please contact Merrilee Grenier, Senior Associate Director of Employee Relations and Legal Compliance, for questions or to request an accommodation via email at [email protected], or by calling 508-793-3957.
To review our Employee Benefit Options, please click here.
Any candidate wishing to be considered must supply a cover letter in addition to their resume. Selected finalists may be asked to submit samples of their work and complete an analytic exercise. In your cover letter please address how your work might support the College's commitment to inclusive excellence. Please provide examples of how you have integrated diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging into your past work. For more information, please click here.
Review of applications will begin as received and continue until the position has been filled.