Research and Data Strategy Associate

Position Overview

The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (IRA) provides data‑driven, research‑informed decision and strategic planning support to the administration, trustees, faculty leadership, and other campus constituencies to fulfill the mission and goals of Carleton College. IRA facilitates reliable and accurate data collection and reporting, performs comprehensive analysis and interpretation of pertinent data, and serves as a strategic partner to help academic programs and campus offices design and administer a sustainable and equity‑minded assessment for continuous improvement.

The expected starting salary range for this position is between $58,600 and $60,600. Actual pay will be adjusted based on job‑related factors permitted by law, such as experience and training; licensure and certifications; market factors; departmental budgets; and responsibility.

• Perform data stewardship involving oversight of institutional data assets to accurately extract, organize, verify, summarize, and archive data from Workday and other administrative databases to respond to internal and external reporting needs, benchmarking
• Execute technical data tasks, including cleaning, merging, and validating datasets from various institutional sources, and ensure accuracy
• Develop optimal and sustainable strategies for routine data preparation, and coordinate this effort with the IRA staff and stakeholders across campus
• Act as a liaison to other offices to ensure that required data are submitted to IRA in a timely manner to meet the reporting and other data analysis deadlines
• Maintain a complete calendar of institutional surveys, administer them on schedule, and provide periodical analysis of findings across multiple surveys
• Develop a sustainable data management structure for ad‑hoc assessment and evaluation research as well as data visualization
• Perform descriptive analysis for assessment and evaluation studies
• Extract data from federal, state, and independent consortia data collection agencies to advance benchmarking studies
• Implement approved institutional surveys on Qualtrics and Google Form and deploy them on schedule
• Leverage analytical tools in Qualtrics and Google Suite to develop a sustainable results dissemination structure with campus partners
• Document data definitions and processes, and coordinate this effort with IRA office staff and stakeholders across campus
• Manage IRA projects and facilitate streamlined workflows between the IRA office and campus stakeholders
• Track academic assessment activities and assist in the synthesis of annual activity reports
• Support IRA office’s daily operations, including maintaining the website and shared drives

• This position will regularly meet with IRA staff and frequently communicate with stakeholders across campus

• This position will be supervised by the Assistant VP of Institutional Research. The position does not include supervisory expectations

Required:

• Master’s degree in a quantitative, social science, or data analytics field or Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative, social science, or data analytics field plus 3 years of professional experience in an applied data environment
• Proficient data manipulation skills using Excel or other software
• Proficient in performing descriptive statistics
• Experience with basic data visualization (e.g., Power
  
  BI, Tableau)
• Demonstrated meticulousness and precision in rigorous data validation and processing to ensure error‑free datasets and analysis
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a proven ability to document technical processes and to convey technical information or procedures in a manner easily understood by others
• Exceptional organizational skills
• Ability to complete tasks independently in a timely manner
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex timelines and multiple projects simultaneously while engaging professionally with diverse campus stakeholders
• Collaborative work style to carry out projects within a close‑knit, multi‑disciplinary team environment, and troubleshoot end‑user…