Mission/Goal of Unit
The mission of the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRDS) is to empower university decision makers, enhance institutional effectiveness, and ensure regulatory compliance by providing accurate, accessible, timely, and actionable information and analysis.

The mission of the IRDS analytics team is to promote the achievement of the university’ sstrategic goals (as outlined in Quest 2025) by developing descriptive, predictive,prescriptive, and explanatory models that generate actionable insights in support of policy design and innovation.

Primary Purpose of This Position In Support of Above Mission or Goal

The successful candidate will work closely with the Director of Analytics (IRDS) and with Technical Services (IT) to support the continued development of predictive analytics and the creation of operational analytic systems to promote the university’s strategic goals. 

The candidate’s primary responsibilities will be to understand the data requirements underlying analytics initiatives, create the technical infrastructure through a collaborative working relationship with the IRDS Business Intelligence (BI) team and Technology Services (IT), produce associated documentation, and finally manage dedicated information systems that supports the development and deployment of analytics projects.

The Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRDS) at Virginia Commonwealth University is looking for a data professional to join our analytics team who is committed to contributing to a culture of learning, and who is passionate about:

• Higher Education
• Data and analytics
•  Problem-solving
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Student Success 

Minimum Hiring Standards

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, information technology, or related field or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrated experience in the design and administration of databases, information systems, and ETL.
• Knowledge of various technologies for storing data, including relational databases, distributed file systems (Hadoop, Spark), etc.
• Familiarity with structured and unstructured data.
• Experience in object-oriented languages such as SQL, R and Python. Proficiency in SQL (ability to write SQL scripts and queries, tuning indexes, troubleshooting performance issues).
• Demonstrated organizational, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to write, edit, and maintain documentation of data systems. Demonstrated ability to exercise initiative when working independently, as well as ability to work effectively within a team.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Commitment to promoting the university’s strategic goals, including those concerning diversity and inclusion. 

Preferred Hiring Standards

While the following qualifications are not required, the successful candidate is likely to have some of the following:

• Master’s degree in relevant field.
• Three years (or more) of professional experience in data
• engineering/management.
• Familiarity with higher education data (Ellucian Banner, Ellucian DegreeWorks, Instructure/Canvas).
• Familiarity with Amazon Web Services and Amazon Redshift.
• Familiarity with data mining techniques, including cluster analysis and machine learning/classification models.
• Knowledge of descriptive and inferential statistics.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Base SAS, SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Visual Analytics, and/or R.
• General experience with business intelligence and reporting tools.
• General experience with data visualization