Senior Data Analyst

Serve as a resident expert on external measures of academic excellence.  Identify and drive best practices in peer benchmarking.  Conduct routine and custom benchmarking analyses for university leaders to inform executive-level decision.Build expertise on public and commercial benchmarking data sources, train campus partners on these tools for their academic unit-specific analyses.  Recommend, design and drive market research studies to inform campus leaders of programmatic strengths and opportunities.

Responsibilities:

• Rankings Center of Expertise:  Study and build expertise in domestic and international rankings methodologies to provide training to campus constituents:  deans, heads, communications offices.  Work with academic units to brainstorm opportunities for metric-centric improvements which align with their mission and priorities.  Serve as primary owner of 1-2 ranking data submissions:  manage schedule, interpret year-to-year changes, collect information from source systems & offices, review with peer analysts, prepare executive summaries for President's Cabinet.   Catalog survey timing, source data offices and best practices.  Work with other EDA analysts to build longitudinal rankings reports and make available to heads, deans, MarCom and other campus constituents.
• Benchmarking:  Routinely conduct analyses for executives  to identify strengths, weakness, and opportunities.  Train other analysts & Professionals on best practices in conducting their own SWOT analyses.  Conduct what-if scenarios as a resource to deans & heads as requested.  Comprehend impact of the university's data system flows to external agencies, e.g. Academic Analytics, Association of American Universities, recommend best practices and opportunities for greater academic participation.  Investigate peers' best practices and interpretations to inform our own.  Partner with the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and colleges to identify and drive best practices for utilizing university licensed faculty activity and scholarly platforms for peer benchmarking.  Analyze viability of 3rd party datasets for use by university leaders to inform peer trends and provide recommendations on purchase of such systems.  Mine 3rd party data systems as part of SWOT analyses and act as a resident expert for academic units.
• Market Research:  Utilize rankings expertise and benchmarking findings to propose and shape market research studies and opportunities.   Participate in strategic MR design sessions with the executive director and strategic communications partners to build targeted and broad communications plans.  Support execution of communications plans as required.  Analyze short-term and long-term effectiveness of reputational outreach efforts.  Assess market research firms on factors such as cost, higher-education expertise, reputation, suite of tools, to recommend as university partners.
• Informational Tool Creation & Support:  Build and maintain tools which facilitate EDA operations or those of our partner offices, e.g. Libraries, Faculty Recognition Office where improving  external data quality is a shared goal.  Act as a back up to the Senior Engagement Specialist as needed.

• Bachelor's degree
• Five or more years of experience in higher education or adjacent field and a demonstrated growth in responsibilities
• Five years of experience analyzing institutional data or market data
• Experience with training and acting as a resident expert, sharing best practices with other partners across campus
• Consideration will be given to an equivalent combination of required education and related work experience
• Impeccable attention to detail
• Positive attitude who works well with other high-caliber data professionals and executives
• Ability to be creative, inquisitive, a deep thinker with the ability to devise strategies to meet new opportunities and have a track record for getting things done
• Tenacity and a natural inquisitiveness to understand complex systems

• Experience working with external vendors

• Purdue will not sponsor employment authorization for this position
• A background check is required for employment in this position
• FLSA: Exempt (Not eligible for overtime)
• Retirement Eligibility: Defined Contribution Waiting Period
• Purdue University is an EOE/AA employer. All individuals, including minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply

All university employees are afforded a generous benefits package, https://www.purdue.edu/hr/benewell/index.php, including medical/dental/vision insurance, paid time off, and retirement contributions. As part of Purdue University’s expansive employee benefit package, the University is proud to offer its employees the opportunity to grow, learn, and advance by offering a tuition remission opportunity at both Purdue University and Purdue Global.

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