Senior Researcher for Workforce Data

Title: Senior Researcher for Workforce Data

Employee Classification: Executive/Admin & Managerial

Institution: System Office

Department: Office of Research & Innovation

Campus Location: Tennessee Board of Regents System Office

Job Summary

TBR—The College System of Tennessee serves community colleges and colleges of applied technology across the state. The Office of Research and Innovation works at the front lines of TBR’s efforts to support innovation that advances postsecondary access and student success. Through the Office of Research and Innovation, TBR turns data, research, and field-based learning into actionable information for system leaders, colleges, and partners.

TalentTN (Tennessee Accelerated Learning for Education & New Technology) is a statewide initiative funded through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Strengthening Community Colleges program. TalentTN will expand the state’s capacity to develop, enhance, and continuously improve short-term academic programs. The initiative brings together colleges and workforce partners to ensure that programs are informed by labor-market demand and connect students to continuing education and employment opportunities. This position offers an opportunity to build the data infrastructure behind a statewide initiative that will help colleges create stronger pathways from education to workforce opportunities.

The Senior Researcher will lead data, reporting, and research required to implement TalentTN successfully. The person in this role will help shape how Tennessee uses education, workforce, and labor-market data to inform postsecondary programs and expand opportunity for students across the state. This position will develop data dashboards, analytic tools, and research products that help project leaders and colleges design programs that meet workforce needs and monitor education-to-employment trends for postsecondary programs. The Senior Researcher for Workforce Data will also lead efforts to strengthen linkages between education records, employment and wage data, and labor market information.
Working closely with the TalentTN Consortium Director and participating colleges, the Senior Researcher will ensure that project data are accurate, timely, and useful. The position will provide technical assistance to colleges, coordinate data access for evaluation and continuous improvement, and help project partners use evidence to strengthen program design and implementation.

This is a full-time, grant-funded position dedicated to TalentTN implementation contingent upon sustained grant funding.

This position may have the opportunity to work remotely within the state of Tennessee, with periodic visits to the TBR System Office (Nashville, TN) at the employee’s expense, and potential travel to TBR colleges in Tennessee.

Job Duties

• 30% - Lead analyses that help colleges understand regional workforce opportunities, employment outcomes for students who complete postsecondary programs, and skills alignment between industry needs and academic programs. - (Essential)
• 25% - Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, and other data products that translate education-to-employment and labor-market information into actionable resources for program design, project monitoring, and continuous improvement. - (Essential)
• 20% - Lead participant tracking for students enrolled in TalentTN-supported programs. Establish consistent collection processes across participating colleges and coordinate the use of TBR data to understand enrollment, progression, and completion in TalentTN-supported programs - (Essential)
• 20% - Provide technical assistance to participating colleges on participant tracking, reporting, and use of workforce information. Build productive relationships with institutional research, institutional effectiveness, workforce development, academic affairs, and student success staff. - (Essential)
• 5% - Perform other duties as assigned. - (Marginal)

Minimum Qualifications

• Graduate degree in data analytics, statistics, economics, public policy, higher education, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and professional experience.
• Three or more years of progressively responsible professional experience in data analytics, institutional research, workforce data, or a related field.
• Experience working with complex administrative or longitudinal data from multiple systems or organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with higher education or workforce data in collaboration with colleges, state agencies, institutional research or effectiveness staff, workforce partners, evaluators, or research organizations.
• Experience linking education records with employment and Unemployment Insurance wage-record data.
• Experience developing business-intelligence products and using tools such as Power BI, SQL-based environments, statistical software, data visualization platforms, or comparable technologies.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Knowledge of higher education and workforce data, including enrollment, progression, completion, credentials, labor-market demand, and post-college employment and wage outcomes.
• Ability to analyze complex administrative, education-to-employment, and labor-market data and translate findings into clear, actionable insights.
• Experience developing dashboards, reports, data visualizations, and analytic products for technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills, including the ability to coordinate interdependent workstreams, document processes, meet deadlines, and deliver high-quality work across a complex statewide initiative.
• Demonstrated ability to build effective working relationships and provide technical assistance across colleges, system offices, state agencies, workforce organizations, employers, evaluators, and research partners.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work independently while contributing effectively to a collaborative, multidisciplinary team.

Physical Demands / Working Conditions

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