Director of Data Analytics & Institutional Research

Description

Boston Architectural College Director of Data Analytics & Institutional Research

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Reports to: President

Position Type: Full-time

Compensation: $110,000-$125,000

 

About the Boston Architectural College

Founded in 1889, the Boston Architectural College (BAC) is a private, independent, specialized institution of higher education with a distinctive model that integrates academic learning with professional practice.

For 137 years, the BAC has challenged conventional boundaries in design education, expanding access to students whose educational and professional pathways often differ from those found at traditional colleges and universities. Its undergraduate and graduate programs serve students on campus, online, and through a model that allows them to learn while engaged in professional practice.

The BAC is experiencing a period of growth and institutional transformation, guided by an ambitious vision for the future of design education. As the College expands its reach and educational offerings, it is strengthening the institutional systems needed to support student success, academic excellence, operational effectiveness, and sustainable growth.

We are seeking a senior institutional research and analytics professional who can help lead this next stage of institutional development.

 

The Opportunity

The BAC seeks a Director of Data Analytics & Institutional Research to establish and lead a comprehensive, institution-wide approach to data analytics, institutional research, assessment, and performance improvement.

Reporting directly to the President, the Director will serve as the College's principal institutional research and data analytics strategist, working across academic and administrative functions to strengthen how the institution collects, integrates, interprets, and uses data.

This is a leadership position with a substantial implementation responsibility.

The successful candidate will be expected to build institutional capabilities, establish reliable systems and processes, develop meaningful analyses, and work directly with institutional leaders to translate evidence into decisions and measurable improvements.

The BAC has already invested in a data warehouse, student-success analytics, institutional performance reporting, and emerging data-governance practices. The Director will build on this foundation, integrating existing capabilities into a coherent institutional research and analytics function.

Our ambition is to make the BAC a national model for how data can drive institutional performance in higher education.

 

Key Responsibilities

Institutional Research and Performance Analytics

• Lead institutional research and analysis in support of the College's mission, strategic priorities, academic programs, and organizational performance.

• Develop a comprehensive framework of institutional performance indicators, benchmarks, and longitudinal measures.

• Conduct rigorous analyses of enrollment, persistence, retention, academic progression, graduation, student learning, and post-graduation outcomes.

• Develop disaggregated analyses to identify differences in educational outcomes across student populations, academic programs, enrollment patterns, and instructional modalities.

• Apply appropriate statistical methods to small cohorts, nontraditional student pathways, and complex longitudinal datasets.

• Identify barriers to student success, investigate contributing factors, and evaluate the effectiveness of institutional interventions.

• Translate findings into actionable recommendations for academic and administrative leadership.

 

Enterprise Data Strategy and Governance

• Develop and implement an institution-wide data strategy that connects academic, financial, operational, enrollment, human resources, and other institutional data.

• Assess existing data systems and identify opportunities to improve integration, accuracy, accessibility, and reporting efficiency.

• Provide analytical leadership for the BAC's existing ZogoTech data warehouse and its transition to the CoreCampus enterprise platform.

• Establish and maintain an institutional data dictionary, including standardized definitions, calculation methods, and reporting conventions.

• Develop policies and procedures for data quality, stewardship, validation, access, confidentiality, privacy, and ethical use.

• Work with IT and departmental data stewards to establish dependable data integration and reporting processes.

• Reduce fragmented reporting practices and institutional dependence on individually maintained datasets.

 

Strategic Planning, Dashboards, and Executive Decision Support

• Design and maintain performance dashboards and recurring institutional reports for the President, Cabinet, academic leadership, administrative departments, and Board of Trustees.

• Align institutional performance measures with strategic planning, resource allocation, budgeting, and institutional priorities.

• Establish baselines, targets, historical comparisons, and appropriate external benchmarks.

• Develop analytical tools and reporting systems that support forecasting, scenario analysis, and institutional planning.

• Present complex findings clearly through data visualization, concise analytical narratives, and executive reporting.

• Work with institutional leaders to establish regular processes for reviewing performance, identifying problems, assigning responsibility, and evaluating improvement.

 

Academic Assessment and Educational Effectiveness

• Collaborate with Academic Affairs and faculty leadership to integrate student learning assessment, program assessment, and institutional research.

• Help establish systematic measures of educational effectiveness across undergraduate, graduate, online, and practice-integrated programs.

• Evaluate student learning and success in relation to institutional and program learning outcomes.

• Develop methods for assessing the effectiveness of online education, including student engagement, academic community, student support, and learning outcomes.

• Work with academic leadership to evaluate curricular changes, academic interventions, and program performance.

• Connect the BAC's distinctive Practice Component and Student Learning Contracts with broader analyses of student learning and professional development.

• Support an institutional culture in which assessment findings inform academic improvement.

 

Student Employment, Graduate Outcomes, and External Benchmarking

• Develop systematic approaches to understanding student employment, professional practice, career development, and graduate outcomes.

• Integrate available internal and external data concerning employment, earnings, career progression, and the return on education.

• Use data from sources such as the National Student Clearinghouse, IPEDS, College Scorecard, NACE, and other relevant databases.

• Develop peer-institution and competitive benchmarking frameworks that distinguish academic, market, and aspirational peer groups.

• Analyze institutional performance in relation to student characteristics, educational models, workforce needs, and broader higher education trends.

• Support evidence-based evaluation of the BAC's distinctive educational value and professional outcomes.

 

Faculty and Organizational Analytics

• Develop institutional reporting on faculty composition, teaching assignments, instructional capacity, and length of service.

• Support analysis of adjunct faculty engagement, participation in academic activities, and contributions to curricular development.

• Collaborate with Finance, Human Resources, and other administrative units to develop measures of organizational effectiveness.

• Support analysis of financial sustainability, operational performance, staffing, resource allocation, and institutional growth.

• Help institutional leaders connect academic and organizational performance with resource decisions.

 

Accreditation, Regulatory Reporting, and Institutional Accountability

• Coordinate institutional research and analytical support for NECHE accreditation, specialized accreditation, and other external reviews.

• Ensure reliable, consistent, and timely data for IPEDS, federal and state reporting, and institutional accountability requirements.

• Support reporting to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and other regulatory bodies.

• Develop organized, readily accessible repositories of institutional evidence and supporting analyses.

• Establish reporting calendars, validation protocols, documentation standards, and clear responsibilities for recurring submissions.

• Work with academic and administrative leaders to ensure that accreditation and regulatory reporting are supported by ongoing institutional assessment rather than periodic data-gathering exercises.

 

Leadership and Institutional Capacity Building

• Establish the operating structure and processes for a sustainable institutional research and analytics function.

• Lead and coordinate cross-functional teams responsible for institutional data and reporting.

• Work closely with the President and Cabinet to embed the use of data into institutional management and decision-making.

• Build analytical capacity across departments through training, mentoring, documentation, and collaborative projects.

• Encourage a culture of intellectual curiosity, critical inquiry, transparency, and continuous improvement.

• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-enabled analytical tools, for their appropriate application to institutional research and performance improvement.

• Oversee external consultants and technical partners as appropriate.

Qualifications

Qualifications

Required

• Master's degree in institutional research, higher education, statistics, data science, business analytics, educational research, public policy, or a closely related field.

• At least five years of progressively responsible professional experience in institutional research, higher education analytics, institutional effectiveness, or a related leadership function.

• Demonstrated experience conducting institutional research within a college or university.

• Substantial experience with student-success analytics, longitudinal analysis, institutional assessment, and performance reporting.

• Strong knowledge of higher education data sources, reporting conventions, and regulatory requirements, including IPEDS and federal student-outcomes reporting.

• Experience developing or implementing institutional dashboards, performance measures, and analytical reporting systems.

• Demonstrated ability to work with institutional databases, data warehouses, statistical or analytical tools, and business intelligence platforms.

• Experience establishing data definitions, quality controls, governance procedures, and reporting standards.

• Ability to conduct analyses independently, interpret complex findings, and communicate results to nontechnical audiences.

• Experience working collaboratively with academic leaders, faculty, administrative departments, and senior executives.

• Strong project-management skills and a demonstrated record of implementing organizational improvements.

 

Preferred

• Doctoral degree in a relevant field.

• Senior institutional research or institutional effectiveness leadership experience.

• Experience working directly with presidents, provosts, cabinets, or governing boards.

• Familiarity with NECHE accreditation standards and institutional assessment expectations.

• Experience with specialized or professionally oriented higher education institutions.

• Familiarity with data warehouse platforms, including ZogoTech, and enterprise student information systems.

• Advanced proficiency in SQL, statistical analysis, data visualization, or business intelligence tools such as Power BI or Tableau.

• Experience integrating academic, enrollment, financial, operational, and workforce datasets.

• Experience with online education assessment, career-outcomes analysis, or competency-based learning assessment.

• Familiarity with applied AI and automation in institutional analytics.

• Experience establishing or transforming an institutional research function.

 

The Successful Candidate

The successful candidate will combine the judgment of an institutional leader with the analytical and technical abilities of an experienced researcher. We are particularly interested in someone who:

• Can see the institution as an interconnected system rather than a collection of separate departments and datasets.

• Understands that useful analytics begins with asking the right questions.

• Is comfortable examining imperfect data, resolving inconsistencies, and building reliable analytical processes.

• Can move between strategic planning and hands-on analytical work.

• Appreciates the complexity of educational outcomes, particularly among working, part-time, transfer, and nontraditional students.

• Can explain what the data reveal, what they cannot establish, and what further investigation is warranted.

• Is collaborative, intellectually curious, and comfortable challenging assumptions with evidence.

• Measures success by improvements in institutional decisions and outcomes, rather than the volume of reports produced.

 

Initial Priorities

During the first year, the Director will be expected to:

1. Assess the institutional data environment and establish a prioritized roadmap for strengthening institutional research, analytics, and governance.

2. Standardize core institutional measures and reporting practices, including data definitions, validation procedures, and ownership.

3. Develop integrated executive and institutional dashboards covering student success, academic effectiveness, enrollment, financial and operational performance, and strategic priorities.

4. Strengthen accreditation and regulatory reporting capabilities, with particular attention to evidence of educational effectiveness, online learning, student outcomes, faculty capacity, and institutional performance.

5. Establish systematic disaggregated and longitudinal analyses of student success, educational outcomes, and institutional interventions.

6. Build an institutional research and analytics operating model that can be sustained through appropriate staffing, distributed data stewardship, documentation, and leadership engagement.

 

Why Join the BAC?

The Boston Architectural College offers an unusual opportunity to help shape the future of a distinctive institution with a 137-year history of challenging conventional approaches to higher education.

The Director will have direct access to the President, opportunities to work across the institution, and the responsibility to build a function central to the College's future.

This is an opportunity for someone interested in the larger question of how higher education institutions can use evidence to improve learning, expand opportunities, make better decisions, and operate more effectively.

We are seeking someone who wants to build that capability and demonstrate what it can accomplish.

 

Application Process

Interested candidates should submit a résumé or curriculum vitae and a cover letter describing their relevant experience in institutional research, data analytics, and institution-wide performance improvement.

We particularly welcome examples of analytical systems, dashboards, governance frameworks, or institutional improvement initiatives that candidates have personally designed, implemented, or led.