Senior Associate for Data, Research and Advanced Analytics

Lead researcher for the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), the statewide coordinating agency for Kentucky's postsecondary education system.

This position is charged with implementing the CPE research agenda, by not only working in data extraction and analysis, but writing research proposals, literature reviews and delivering final research manuscripts for use by CPE staff, state leaders and policy makers, and Kentucky campus leaders. The Senior Associate will serve as the liaison to CPE partner agency KYSTATS, aligning the CPE research agenda with analytics and research conducted through the statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS). This position reports to the Executive Director.

• Lead researcher for all research deliverables.
• Responsible for the quantitative methods and analysis for all key performance indicators in the strategic agenda, including analysis for target setting.
• Implement CPE research agenda and align it with KYSTATS research agenda;
• Serve as CPE liaison to KYSTATS, working on-site one day per week to attend KYSTATS weekly research meeting and to access information in the SLDS;
• Analyze information, determine conclusions, and write narrative to create continuous output of analytical briefs, white papers, and research manuscripts;
• Responsible for all data validation and approvals for the ADRF research platform.
• Make research presentations to the Council and committee members.
• Identify grant opportunities and submit research proposals to provide additional funding to support CPE research agenda;
• Coordinate CPE internship program, supervising interns for designated research projects;
• Support data collection from Kentucky public and private campuses and the CPE warehousing process;
• Provide postsecondary data analytics to external agencies and maintain documentation for the data and processes involved;
• Work with CPE analytics staff to expand the agency’s reporting capacity using business intelligence tools (SQL Studio, Tableau, SAS, Adobe InDesign);
• Assist analytical staff with data quality issues and validation processes; and
• Perform other duties as assigned by Executive Director.

• Doctorate degree in related discipline required;
• At least one year of progressively responsible experience in data extraction, research design and statistical work involving collection, compilation, and analysis of data. This includes experience managing and querying large relational databases, using programming languages (SQL) to extract data or create and maintain datasets;
• An understanding of practices used for institutional research or applied research in higher education;
• The ability to prioritize competing demands in a changing, collaborative environment; and
• Strong follow-through skills and attention to detail, especially under deadline pressures;
• The ability to build data dashboards in Tableau Software, to be used for analysis and information dissemination to council staff and external community.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with a desire to work as part of a team and to interact with the higher education community;
• A mix of strong analytical, research, writing, and communication skills, with an emphasis on quantitative analysis and the interpretation and presentation of quantitative data;
• Experience with program/policy evaluation or assessment of targeted interventions;
• Knowledge of and skill in the use of advanced statistical methods and computer modeling techniques and analysis software;
• Data quality, data auditing or data management experience.

Interested applicants should send a letter of application, a resume, and the names, titles, and contact information for at least three professional references to:

Rae Smith, Human Resources
Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
100 Airport Road, Second Floor
Frankfort, KY 40601
CPE.HR@ky.gov

The Council on Postsecondary Education is committed to a diverse workforce, equal opportunity and nondiscrimination. CPE prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expressions, ancestry, age, pregnancy or related medical condition, marital or familial status, disability, veteran status, political affiliation, or genetic information.