Director of Data Analytics & Institutional Research

Boston Architectural College Director of Data Analytics & Institutional Research

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Reports to: President

Position Type: Full-time

Compensation: $110,000-$125,000

About the Boston Architectural College

Founded in 1889, the Boston Architectural College (BAC) is a private, independent, specialized institution of higher education with a distinctive model that integrates academic learning with professional practice.

For 137 years, the BAC has challenged conventional boundaries in design education, expanding access to students whose educational and professional pathways often differ from those found at traditional colleges and universities. Its undergraduate and graduate programs serve students on campus, online, and through a model that allows them to learn while engaged in professional practice.

The BAC is experiencing a period of growth and institutional transformation, guided by an ambitious vision for the future of design education. As the College expands its reach and educational offerings, it is strengthening the institutional systems needed to support student success, academic excellence, operational effectiveness, and sustainable growth.

We are seeking a senior institutional research and analytics professional who can help lead this next stage of institutional development.

The Opportunity

The BAC seeks a Director of Data Analytics & Institutional Research to establish and lead a comprehensive, institution-wide approach to data analytics, institutional research, assessment, and performance improvement.

Reporting directly to the President, the Director will serve as the College's principal institutional research and data analytics strategist, working across academic and administrative functions to strengthen how the institution collects, integrates, interprets, and uses data.

This is a leadership position with a substantial implementation responsibility.

The successful candidate will be expected to build institutional capabilities, establish reliable systems and processes, develop meaningful analyses, and work directly with institutional leaders to translate evidence into decisions and measurable improvements.

The BAC has already invested in a data warehouse, student-success analytics, institutional performance reporting, and emerging data-governance practices. The Director will build on this foundation, integrating existing capabilities into a coherent institutional research and analytics function.

Our ambition is to make the BAC a national model for how data can drive institutional performance in higher education.

Key Responsibilities

Institutional Research and Performance Analytics

• Lead institutional research and analysis in support of the College's mission, strategic priorities, academic programs, and organizational performance.

• Develop a comprehensive framework of institutional performance indicators, benchmarks, and longitudinal measures.

• Conduct rigorous analyses of enrollment, persistence, retention, academic progression, graduation, student learning, and post-graduation outcomes.

• Develop disaggregated analyses to identify differences in educational outcomes across student populations, academic programs, enrollment patterns, and instructional modalities.

• Apply appropriate statistical methods to small cohorts, nontraditional student pathways, and complex longitudinal datasets.

• Identify barriers to student success, investigate contributing factors, and evaluate the effectiveness of institutional interventions.

• Translate findings into actionable recommendations for academic and administrative leadership.

Enterprise Data Strategy and Governance

• Develop and implement an institution-wide data strategy that connects academic, financial, operational, enrollment, human resources, and other institutional data.

• Assess existing data systems and identify opportunities to improve integration, accuracy, accessibility, and reporting efficiency.

• Provide analytical leadership for the BAC's existing ZogoTech data warehouse and its transition to the CoreCampus enterprise platform.

• Establish and maintain an institutional data dictionary, including standardized definitions, calculation methods, and reporting conventions.

• Develop policies and procedures for data quality, stewardship, validation, access, confidentiality, privacy, and ethical use.

• Work with IT and departmental data stewards to establish dependable data integration and reporting processes.

• Reduce fragmented reporting practices and institutional dependence on individually maintained datasets.

Strategic Planning, Dashboards, and Executive Decision Support

• Design and maintain performance dashboards and recurring institutional reports for the President, Cabinet, academic leadership, administrative departments, and Board of Trustees.

• Align institutional performance measures with strategic planning, resource allocation, budgeting, and institutional priorities.

• Establish baselines, targets, historical comparisons, and appropriate external benchmarks.

• Develop analytical tools and reporting systems that support forecasting, scenario analysis, and institutional planning.

• Present complex findings clearly through data visualization, concise analytical narratives, and executive reporting.

• Work with institutional leaders to establish regular processes for reviewing performance, identifying problems, assigning responsibility, and evaluating improvement.

Academic Assessment and Educational Effectiveness

• Collaborate with Academic Affairs and faculty leadership to integrate student learning assessment, program assessment, and institutional research.

• Help establish systematic measures of educational effectiveness across undergraduate, graduate, online, and practice-integrated programs.

• Evaluate student learning and success in relation to institutional and program learning outcomes.

• Develop methods for assessing the effectiveness of online education, including student engagement, academic community, student support, and learning outcomes.

• Work with academic leadership to evaluate curricular changes, academic interventions, and program performance.

• Connect the BAC's distinctive Practice Component and Student Learning Contracts with broader analyses of student learning and professional development.

• Support an institutional culture in which assessment findings inform academic improvement.

Student Employment, Graduate Outcomes, and External Benchmarking

• Develop systematic approaches to understanding student employment, professional practice, career development, and graduate outcomes.

• Integrate available internal and external data concerning employment, earnings, career progression, and the return on education.

• Use data from sources such as the National Student Clearinghouse, IPEDS, College Scorecard, NACE, and other relevant databases.

• Develop peer-institution and competitive benchmarking frameworks that distinguish academic, market, and aspirational peer groups.

• Analyze institutional performance in relation to student characteristics, educational models, workforce needs, and broader higher education trends.

• Support evidence-based evaluation of the BAC's distinctive educational value and professional outcomes.

Faculty and Organizational Analytics

• Develop institutional reporting on faculty composition, teaching assignments, instructional capacity, and length of service.

• Support analysis of adjunct faculty engagement, participation in academic activities, and contributions to curricular development.

• Collaborate with Finance, Human Resources, and other administrative units to develop measures of organizational effectiveness.

• Support analysis of financial sustainability, operational performance, staffing, resource allocation, and institutional growth.

• Help institutional leaders connect academic and organizational performance with resource decisions.

Accreditation, Regulatory Reporting, and Institutional Accountability

• Coordinate institutional research and analytical support for NECHE accreditation, specialized accreditation, and other external reviews.

• Ensure reliable, consistent, and timely data for IPEDS, federal and state reporting, and institutional accountability requirements.

• Support reporting to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and other regulatory bodies.

• Develop organized, readily accessible repositories of institutional evidence and supporting analyses.

• Establish reporting calendars, validation protocols, documentation standards, and clear responsibilities for recurring submissions.

• Work with academic and administrative leaders to ensure that accreditation and regulatory reporting are supported by ongoing institutional assessment rather than periodic data-gathering exercises.

Leadership and Institutional Capacity Building

• Establish the operating structure and processes for a sustainable institutional research and analytics function.

• Lead and coordinate cross-functional teams responsible for institutional data and reporting.

• Work closely with the President and Cabinet to embed the use of data into institutional management and decision-making.

• Build analytical capacity across departments through training, mentoring, documentation, and collaborative projects.

• Encourage a culture of intellectual curiosity, critical inquiry, transparency, and continuous improvement.

• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-enabled analytical tools, for their appropriate application to institutional research and performance improvement.

• Oversee external consultants and technical partners as appropriate.