Associate Director of Data Analytics and Platform Services

About the role

The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at the University of Virginia seeks an experienced and strategic data professional to serve as the Associate Director of Data Analytics and Platform Services. This position will lead a small team responsible for maintaining and advancing a production-grade Microsoft Fabric data platform while delivering high-quality analytics and reporting that support operational excellence, strategic planning, and institutional decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Partner with school leadership and academic units to align analytics and reporting with institutional priorities.
• Create and maintain dashboards, visualizations, and reports for strategic metrics using Power BI and related tools.
• Perform trend analysis and forecasting using large, complex datasets across enrollment, faculty, research, and financial domains.
• Lead the school's institutional reporting efforts, including IPEDS, ASEE, and US News survey submissions.
• Support operational decision-making through data-driven insights and ad hoc analysis.
• Maintain and enhance the school's Microsoft Fabric data platform, including lakehouse/warehouse architecture, PySpark notebooks, and T-SQL pipelines.
• Define and advance the school's data architecture, strategy, and long-term platform roadmap.
• Manage data governance and ensure data integrity, performance optimization, and reliability of data pipelines in compliance with university policies.
• Explore and implement emerging technologies, including AI/LLM tools, to enhance data access and insight delivery.
• Collaborate with central UVA IT and enterprise data governance partners to align data practices and integrate institutional data sources.
• Manage API integrations and data ingestion from external systems (e.g., Slate SFTP, Airtable, Google Scholar).
• Lead and develop a small team of data analysts and engineers; serving as a player-coach who balances hands-on technical work with people leadership.
• Navigate stakeholder relationships across academic departments, associate deans, faculty affairs, and administrative units.
• Maintain documentation, runbooks, and knowledge management practices to ensure platform continuity.

Qualifications

• Experience managing a team of data analysts or engineers.
• Strong proficiency in Python (PySpark), SQL (T-SQL), and data transformation frameworks.
• Experience with Microsoft Fabric, Azure, or comparable modern cloud data platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to design and manage ETL/ELT pipelines and data architectures.
• Experience developing dashboards and reports using Power BI or similar tools.
• Strategic thinking, project planning, and the ability to influence analytics adoption across an organization.
• Demonstrated innovation in analytics methodologies and technologies.