If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Pay Range: $88,300.00 - $132,400.00

Job Description

Job Profile Summary

The Institutional Analytics and Research (IAR) team supports and enables most WGU teams, departments, and colleges to make data-informed decisions that lead to better student outcomes. Our analysts, scientists, researchers, and managers are distributed across several teams: Faculty Experience Analytics, Institutional Research, Learning Analytics, Outreach Analytics, and Student Success Analytics.

Joining the Institutional Research team, the Lead Research Analyst will drive much of our internal research agenda. Leveraging both qualitative and quantitative methods, they will be responsible for the design and execution of research projects. They will deploy a range of methods and tools to deliver strategic insights and will serve as consultants to various partners across the institution.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Drive our internal research agenda, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods, with high levels of autonomy, confidence, and collaboration with peersOwns and manages our Qualtrics ecosystemManages relationships with various departments and partners, setting expectations, timelines, scope, and communicating updatesWorking with key stakeholders, within IAR and beyond, builds survey instruments for a variety of strategic projectsCollaborates with Data Engineering, Salesforce Admins, and other data & analytics partners to define standards, definitions, and efficient data flow from and to our warehouse and systemsRequirements Analysis: Drives the documentation of data, analytics, and research needs in projects of high complexity with a student and equity-centered lens, collaborating with peers, cross-functional partners, faculty staff, and leaders. Leads the translation of user stories into technical requirements.Expectation Management: Sets and manages expectations about complex research tasks and activities through clear, timely, and effective communication with partners and stakeholders.Data Querying & Manipulation: Answers complex business questions requiring extensive knowledge of the university's data assets across several domains and departments. Identifies adequate data sources and data sets to evaluate hypotheses, build forecasts, and support findings of research projects and experiments. Collaborates with Data Engineering in the development of complex ETL/ELT processes and data pipelines.Data Quality & Troubleshooting: Identifies, investigates, and solves complex data issues, contributing to the accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, and validity of the university's data.Collaborates with Data Engineering and other data & analytics partners to define standards and best practices that increase data quality across the university.Data Visualization & Storytelling: Combines data analysis, visualization, and narrative structures to convey information in compelling ways that instigate deliberate action. Participates in the definition of data visualization standards and best practices and promotes their adoption across IAR and the university.Workflow & Automation: Utilizes software, scripts, and algorithms to perform data-related tasks (e.g., importing, cleaning, transforming, analyzing, displaying) without human intervention.Mentoring: Plays a prominent role in other team members' development through constructive feedback and sharing of technical and institutional knowledge.Communication: Conveys information effectively to peers, partners, and senior leaders, using a variety of resources and formats (synchronous and asynchronous, verbal and written) such as e-mails, presentations, meetings, and workshops. Defines and owns communication plans for complex projects and programs.Knowledge Management & Documentation: Creates and organizes information about processes, projects, operations, data assets, and insights from analyses and research, making it accessible in ways that increase the university's knowledge and efficiency. Writes and interprets technical documentation (e.g., Entity-Relationship, Conceptual, Logical, and Physical data models). Contributes actively to the development of the university's data management platforms (e.g., data dictionaries, catalogs, etc.).Project & Initiative Leadership: Drives tasks, activities, and medium-scale projects with high levels of autonomy, confidence, and collaboration with peers and partners.Research Execution: Performs analysis tasks and follows research plans under minimal guidance and supervision. Supports research planning and design, in collaboration with peers and partners (e.g., research scientists).Literature Review: Efficiently organizes, critically reads, and clearly synthesizes across findings and limitations.

Other Relevant Responsibilities

Project Execution: Breaks down complex goals into concrete tasks and activities, and actively supports leaders in project planning. Tracks and reports own progress, dependencies, and challenges diligently.Continuous Learning: Works actively to improve own skills and knowledge through internal and external, formal and informal, structured and unstructured learning. Is a lifelong learner and embodies a growth mindset. Stays abreast of innovative developments in their area work, and plays an active role in deploying them at IAR and the university.Data Security & Privacy: Understands and abides by the relevant policies and methods to access, use, transform, store, and delete data in responsible, secure, and compliant ways. Identifies data security risks when dealing with concrete data sets and takes adequate mitigation actions.Performs other related duties as assigned

Job Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree7 or more years’ experience in a related field such as Data Analysis, Business Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics, Decision Intelligence, Research, or a related domain. This experience should include survey management, Qualtrics administration, and integrations.

Preferred Qualifications:

Master’s degreeExperience leading survey administration for an enterprise/organization

Work Location

This position is in-office in Salt Lake City, UT.Schedule: 4 days onsite, 1 day work from home

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Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. #DEI