Data & Analytic Officer job at Boston Architectural

Job Description

Boston Architectural College (BAC) has launched a new strategic plan that envisions the BAC as a global network for design education and design literacy, with virtual aerial roots that capture social differences and facilitate the learning of the curious, the creative, the ambitious, the exemplary traditional and nontraditional students irrespective of social identities and geographic location delivering on our educational mission of diversity and inclusion to help our students fully actualize their potential. To accomplish our plan, the BAC will transform over the next five years into a robust and growing institution whose educational innovations become models emulated across the higher education spectrum.

Critical to the success of this plan is the design and development of a robust data and analysis strategy that will facilitate the use of data for strategic, operational, research, and decision support consistently across the institution. This includes designing new advanced models to measure the BAC’s social and intellectual value and strategic outcomes.

This position, as well as the function, is new at the BAC. As a result, we are seeking a strong leader with an entrepreneurial spirit, who is interested in designing a new approach to data analysis and building a new function. In addition, the individual needs to be comfortable performing this role as a department of one at the beginning, working toward a longer-term strategy while ensuring that minimum required regulatory reporting is maintained.

The Data & Analytics Officer (DAO) is the senior executive responsible for supporting the effective use and analysis of internal and external data at the BAC in support of the colleges strategic plan, operational and research goals, and regulatory reporting requirements.

As chief data and analytics strategist for the college, the DAO oversees the data governance and policy infrastructure necessary. The DAO must be able to work collaboratively with the BACs leadership and management teams to facilitate the design and development of effective data analysis models, including strategic goal measures, KPIs, and dashboards to support the achievement of the BACs strategic plan, enable data-informed decision making, and support operational and research needs. The DAO will promote a culture that relies upon data to assess the effectiveness of all programs, services, and processes as well as the college's overall progress in reaching its strategic goals. To that end, the DAO should be adept at telling stories with data and using data for visualization. The DAO will work with university data stewards and with IT professionals responsible for the implementation and management of the technology infrastructure to build and sustain an enterprise data strategy that can help the BAC achieve its goals. The DAO will be a key player in establishing and sustaining a campus-wide data governance infrastructure that fosters a culture of trust and shared responsibility for the ethical use of data for institutional strategic purposes.

PRIMARY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Data Strategy (25%)

Principally responsible for defining, developing, and implementing an enterprise data strategy.
Support strategic decision making by building the nexus between strategic questions, data modelling and analysis, data sources and technological solutions.
Advise the president and senior leadership team on data needs and recommended data analysis models for institutional planning, analysis, and assessment purposes.
Work with leadership to recommend, design and implement KPIs, analysis models and dashboards.
Identify new kinds, types, and sources of data to enable administrative innovation throughout the organization.
Address data information and decision support needs of all segments of the BAC community; understand currently existing data and its relevance for answering institutional questions; assist stakeholders in developing and refining strategic, operation and research questions.
Keep apprised of local and national trends and conversations about higher education. Anticipate questions and implications for the BAC community based on review of data, information, and research and policy studies.
Work in close collaboration with data users and institutional data stewards to establish an enterprise data road map and data management processes that enable information sharing, collaboration, compliance, and security in support of the overall data strategy.
Create and oversee a Data Analysis & Research Center of Excellence that can serve the BACs data needs holistically across the organization.

2. Data Analysis and Research (45%)

Identify and utilize applied research and sound data science methods to model and analyze data to provide information for decision making, including appropriate interpretation of analysis results.
Collaborate with various college units on operational, budgetary, and strategic planning.
Develop dashboards and translate data analysis to present data analysis results and significance through broadly relatable stories using data visualization and business intelligence tools.
Design and conduct quantitative and qualitative data collection through instruments such as surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups.
Identify external sources of data for benchmarking and other comparisons and analytics.
Develop a process for sourcing external data to ensure quality, traceability, timeliness, usability, and cost-effectiveness.
Complete and report/submit required data for regulatory reporting.

3. Data Governance (20%)

Establish and sustain a data governance system that aligns data stewardship with the overall data strategy.
Organize and lead a data and analytics governance committee to provide executive sponsorship for and oversight of data governance policy creation and compliance.
Identify and standardize the use and governance of data and analytics, have oversight, and ensure that standardized data governance tools including data requirements documents, data lineage workflows, metadata forms, data models, etc. are used across the organization by all relevant stakeholders in support of the college's strategic plan and its business strategy.
Define, manage, and advance enterprise information management principles, policies and programs for stewardship, advocacy and custodianship of data and analytics, in concert with legal, information security, and corporate risk and compliance offices.
Train campus constituents in the use of data, data access tools, and assessment where necessary to promote self-service or self-sufficiency in decision support.

4. Other Special Projects as Required (10%)

STANDARD EXPECTATIONS:

Team and Interpersonal Skills: Success in this position requires positive relationships with other team members including support staff, senior leadership, and colleagues across the college.

Communication and Critical Thinking: The Data & Analytics Officer must have excellent written, verbal, and data visualization communication skills, and analytical and problem-solving skills.

Detail and Organization: The Data & Analytics Officer must show attention to detail and possess exceptional organizational skills.

Personal Mastery: Success in this position requires the ability to work well collaboratively, take initiative, be self-motivated and maintain collegiality and productivity under pressure.

Partnership Orientation: Success in this position requires a partnership and service perspective in which, to the greatest extent possible, students and all college stakeholders are treated in such a way that they feel well served by a professional representative of the BAC.

Confidentiality and Discretion: Success in this position requires the ability not only to maintain the confidentiality of student and employee records, but also the ability to discern when it is appropriate to divulge privileged or confidential information.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: TBD with design of new function

EDUCATIONAL criteria: Masters degree required in statistics, social sciences, behavioral sciences, research and data analytics or related field. Doctoral degree a plus.

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:

Preferred: Ten or more years of experience in institutional research and data analysis strategy, with recent experience at or near the executive level.
Preferred: Five or more years of progressive leadership experience in leading successful cross-functional teams and enterprise-wide programs, operating and influencing effectively across the organization and within complex contexts.
Higher education institutional research or data analytics management experience required.
Knowledge of state and federal requirements for the gathering, reporting, and dissemination of data from higher education institutions.
Demonstrated knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods and statistics.
Business intelligence (BI), data governance, data classification, data strategy, data quality management, and regulatory compliance.

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