Research Analyst

Position Title:

Research Analyst

Compensation:

$40,000 - $50,000

Department:

Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support_B

About this opportunity:

Ball State University is seeking a collaborative and analytically driven Research Analyst to join the Office of Institutional Research. This position offers the opportunity to work with complex university data, conduct impactful analyses, and communicate insights that directly influence institutional strategy and student success initiatives. The successful candidate will partner with campus leaders and stakeholders to support planning, assessment, accreditation, and reporting efforts while contributing to a culture of data-informed decision-making. This is an exciting opportunity for a professional passionate about higher education analytics, research, and transforming data into meaningful action.

Candidates for searches must have current authorization to be employed in the United States without employer sponsorship.

What you'll do and what you'll bring:

Position Function:

Responsible for directed and self-guided research to find key insights that may shape policy, providing stakeholders with actionable information, and helping to develop the analytics needed for decision-making. This position will help manage and utilize complex datasets stored in the Ball States data warehouse. Address issues of interest and create visualizations that will be used in institutional research presentations, briefs, and reports for the consumption of various Ball State constituencies (Board of Trustees, senior leadership, the provost/president, and state agencies).

Duties/Responsibilities

• Design and conduct analyses to address institutional questions, including defining methodology, selecting appropriate data sources, and applying statistical techniques.

• Interpret analytical findings and communicate data-informed insights in clear, accessible, and actionable formats for various campus audiences and stakeholders.

• Compile, analyze, interpret, and report institutional data to support strategic planning, decision-making, assessment, accreditation, and compliance initiatives across the university.

• Collaborate with campus stakeholders to define research and reporting needs, recommend appropriate analytical methodologies, and develop customized data reports and insights to support institutional decision-making.

• Document research methodologies, data queries, processes, and analytical assumptions to promote transparency, consistency, and reproducibility in institutional research and reporting activities.

• Utilize Data Insider blog as a repository for and communication of completed research projects.

• Apply institutional data definitions and contribute to discussion on data governance efforts.

• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in data analytics, data science, business analytics, operations research, statistics, psychology, computer science or a related quantitative research field.

• At least two years of experience conducting data analysis using statistical tools such as SPSS, SAS, Stata, R, etc.

• Ability to interpret or code SQL from relational databases.

• Demonstrated ability to clean, analyze, and interpret complex datasets and communicate findings to non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters degree in psychology, computer science, data analytics, data science, business analytics, operations research, statistics, or related field.

• Higher Education institutional research experience.

• Knowledge of Higher Education ERP systems (e.g., Banner).

• Technical expertise in data management, statistical analysis, qualitative/quantitative research methods.

• Experience in predictive modeling and/or machine learning techniques (e.g., clustering, decision trees, random forests, etc.).

• Ability to analyze complex topics, problem solve, synthesize, and communicate results clearly both orally and in writing to various audiences.

• Tableau visualization experience.

How to apply:

For inquiries, please contact:

Drew Miller, Director of Institutional Research, at the following email address: drew.miller@bsu.edu

Please apply via the online Ball State University job portal .

Please list three professional references within the online application.

Supporting Documents Upload Instructions:

Important: Do not use the Autofill feature when uploading your resume.

Required Document:

Resume

Optional Document:

Cover Letter detailing your qualifications for the position.

What we offer:

At Ball State University, we understand the importance of balancing professional responsibilities with personal well-being. That's why we offer paid 24 vacation days, 12 sick days and 10 holidays a year. Plus, our paid parental leave (6 weeks) is there for life's most significant moments. We offer affordable health and dental insurance, robust long-term disability and life insurance plans, as well a range of retirement benefits to provide financial security to you and your family. These benefits ensure that you can focus on your work and personal growth without worrying about the unexpected.

When you work for us, you are family. And to show our support of your family, we will cover 90 percent of your child's (or children's) undergraduate college tuition at Ball State. We do the same for you. In fact, we'll cover 100 percent of the tuition costs for you to earn your undergraduate degree and 80 percent of your graduate tuition. This offer is good from the very first day you start. It's just one way we do our part to uplift you.

Let's fly together toward a secure and prosperous tomorrow.

Curious about our excellent benefits package?

We have developed a calculator that shows you the value of our core benefits. Select the Total Compensation Calculator - Professional and download the spreadsheet. If you are applying for a 10-month position or one with Burris or Indiana Academy, please select the corresponding calculator.