Senior Research Analyst

Strengthens WPI's capacity to use data thoughtfully and effectively in support of academic and administrative decision-making. This role combines institutional research, advanced statistical analysis, and data visualization to answer complex questions that improve student success, academic planning, and institutional effectiveness.

Responsibilities

• Partner with institutional leaders to define research questions, examine progress on institutional priorities, and conduct quantitative analyses that support strategic planning, accreditation, student success, and institutional decision-making.
• Apply advanced statistical methods, predictive modeling, machine learning, and exploratory analysis to examine student success, enrollment, course pathways, and other institutional questions. Develop, validate, document, and communicate analytical findings and model results. Support the development of advanced analytical capabilities, including educational data mining.
• Translate complex analyses into clear reports, dashboards, visualizations, and presentations for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Extract, integrate, validate, and analyze data from multiple institutional systems while developing reproducible analytical workflows and maintaining clear technical documentation.
• Support institutional survey administration, data integration, analysis, reporting, and process improvement while collaborating with campus partners to improve institutional effectiveness.
• Build collaborative relationships with data stewards, faculty, and administrative offices to improve data quality, analytical capabilities, and evidence-based decision-making across the university.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required; master's degree preferred in statistics, data science, institutional research, education research, economics, mathematics, computer science, public policy, social science, or another quantitative discipline.
• Minimum of three years of progressively responsible experience in institutional research, applied analytics, data science, program evaluation, or a related quantitative field; equivalent combinations of graduate education and professional experience will be considered.
• Demonstrated experience preparing, integrating, validating, and analyzing large, complex datasets with advanced statistical methods, predictive modeling, machine learning, or related quantitative techniques using Python, R, SPSS, SAS, or comparable analytical software.
• Experience developing dashboards and data visualizations, such as Power BI.
• Experience supporting survey analysis, reporting, or process improvement is preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for exploring complex institutional questions through quantitative analysis.
• Ability to independently scope ambiguous problems, learn new analytical methods, and extend existing analytical code and methodologies.
• Strong statistical judgment, critical thinking, and attention to detail.
• Commitment to producing reproducible, well-documented analytical work.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to explain complex analyses to diverse audiences.
• Collaborative mindset with openness to feedback and continuous learning.

This position is not eligible for employer-sponsored work authorization. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship.

Pay

$71,800–$90,000 per year (depending on experience). Salary is based on related experience, expertise, and internal equity; generally, new hires can expect pay between the minimum and midpoint of the range.