Research Analyst

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $80,000 - $90,000

Position Summary

The Office of Planning and Institutional Research (OPIR), part of the Office of the Provost, supports Columbia's senior leadership through the collection, analysis, and reporting of data on issues of institutional importance. The Research Analyst collaborates with other team members and stakeholders across the institution to help realize the office's goals of fostering a healthy data culture, securing data integrity and governance, extracting actionable insights from institutional data and translating it for diverse audiences. The Research Analyst will work independently to execute research projects that address strategic questions for the University while also ensuring that data reported to external bodies is both timely and accurate.

We are seeking creative problem-solvers to join our versatile, collegial team. The successful candidate will be a strong communicator, able to effectively manage multiple time-sensitive priorities. Collaborative, lifelong learners, who leverage opportunities for continued growth to improve processes, will thrive in this environment.

Responsibilities

• Produce research reports and briefs utilizing data including student enrollment, the faculty pipeline, research funding, surveys, and student outcomes (among other topics)
• Share actionable findings with internal and external audiences using a variety of tools and approaches tailored to audiences (narrative, visual, static, dynamic)
• Wrangle data from disparate data sources, using best documentation practices and version control
• Design and update ad hoc and automated reports for University constituents, using appropriate programming languages (R, SAS, Python, or similar) and reporting software (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Drupal, Excel).
• Contribute to the continued development and maintenance of the OPIR Internal Data Mart for University constituents.
• Respond to surveys and requests for information about the University and its schools from various external entities including but not limited to the Middle States Commission, New York State Education Department, and the federal National Center for Education Statistics (NCES/IPEDS).
• Collaborate with colleagues across the University on projects to collect and summarize data for external reporting and internal decision support.
• Assist with the design, documentation, development, maintenance, and oversight of the OPIR database, including developing and documenting new ETL processes with SQL Server Integration Services. Serve as backup oversight of automated processes.
• Ensure data integrity and consistency across multiple institutional data systems through systems design, planning and data cleaning/reconciliation, often in collaboration with administrative teams around the University.
• Other related duties, as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in statistics, computer science, information technology, social science or a related discipline.
• Two to three years of relevant business intelligence reporting and/or quantitative research experience required, preferably in higher education.
• Strong writing skills and an aptitude for analytics that incite action.
• Exceptional attention to detail and ability to progress multiple projects in parallel.
• Experience with statistical and empirical analysis and related software (e.g., Stata, SPSS, SAS, R or Python).
• Experience in SQL and database management (particularly SQL Server), including process automation, data warehousing, working with relational databases, data dictionaries and metadata, ETL, and version control.
• Experience producing graphical reports and interactive dashboards (e.g., R, BI software, Drupal).
• Interest in large datasets and producing analyses from multiple data sources.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in statistics, computer science, information technology, social science or a related discipline strongly preferred.
• Project management experience.
• Knowledge of web application tools (R Shiny, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and web application frameworks).
• Familiarity with higher education data systems and ERPs, a plus.
• Survey design and analysis background.
• Ability to work effectively across functions, disciplines and levels.
• Commitment to mentorship and collaboration.
• Demonstrated respect and promotion of inclusion & diversity.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.