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Posted: 03-Mar-26
Location: Northfield, Minnesota
Type: Full-time
Salary: $58,600 - $60,600
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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 role of Research and Data Strategy Associate applies research methodology knowledge and analytical skills to manage survey administration, perform basic data analysis, and synthesize diverse institutional datasets. Core responsibilities include: executing data management tasks, such as extracting, wrangling, and validating datasets for reporting and the development of interactive decision-support tools; performing descriptive analysis for academic assessment and institutional studies; documenting data processes and definitions; liaising with stakeholders across campus; and providing administrative support for the IRA office’s daily operations. This position supports the College in advancing actionable data storytelling capacities through accurate reporting, pertinent institutional research, and dynamic visualization.
Compensation:
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.
Essential Job Functions/Responsibilities:
- 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.
Additional Job Responsibilities:
- This position will regularly meet with IRA staff and frequently communicate with stakeholders across campus.
Supervision Received and Exercised:
- This position will be supervised by the Assistant VP of Institutional Research. The position does not include supervisory expectations.
Education/Experience/Skills:
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., PowerBI, 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 issues.
- Engage in the quality assurance process and business process improvement.
- Ability to see information in print and electronically. Screen time is extensive.
- Track record of maintaining strict confidentiality and handling sensitive institutional data with discretion.
- Ability to learn new technologies and reporting tools.
Preferred:
- Master’s degree in data science or analytics
- Familiarity with SQL, R, PowerBI or Tableau
- Familiarity with Qualtrics or Google Form
- Experience with Workday
- Experience with Asana or similar project management platform
- Experience working in higher education
Must have the ability to understand and follow written and oral work instructions, operations, safety procedures, and hazardous labels.
Note: This position description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employees may perform other related duties to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.
Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the hire is complete. We accept only online applications.
Carleton College is an AA/EEO Employer: We are committed to developing our staff to better reflect the diversity of our student body and American society. Members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Carleton also offers a robust suite of benefits including: A generous 403(b) retirement plan with a 10% employer contribution and 2% employee contribution. Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance. Paid time-off, including 25 annual leave days, 8 paid holidays, and extra days at the end of the calendar year to make a continuous week off before New Year’s. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for all employees. A dependent tuition program after six years of service.
Founded in 1866, Carleton College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college of roughly 2,000 students located in the historic river town of Northfield, Minnesota. Carleton College occupies more than 1,000 scenic acres of campus, arboretum, over 100 campus buildings, and athletic fields. Located 40 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Carleton offers access to the cultural advantages of a major metropolitan area.
