Director of Data & Analytics

Pension + Amazing Benefits + High-Impact Leadership Role + Build a Newly Redesigned Function + Strong Work-Life Balance

This Jobot Job is hosted by: Carrie Powell
Are you a fit? Easy Apply now by clicking the "Apply Now" button and sending us your resume.
Salary: $89,000 - $100,000 per year

A bit about us:

We are a well-established public higher education organization serving students and communities throughout Southwest Michigan. Our environment combines the stability and mission of public education with a significant technology and data transformation currently underway.

Following several retirements, leadership made the decision not to simply recreate the former department. Instead, the organization redesigned its data, research, reporting, and compliance function around where it needs to go next. At the same time, a major ERP environment is being migrated to a SaaS/cloud model, creating an opportunity for the next Director to help shape processes, governance, reporting, team structure, and how institutional data is used across the organization.

This is an especially good opportunity for a technically strong analytics professional who has already begun leading others and is ready for broader ownership.

Why join us?

• Step into a true leadership opportunity without needing to already carry a Director title.
• Build the function: The team and structure have been redesigned, and the new Director will have input into how responsibilities are ultimately organized.
• Lead a major transformation: Join during an active ERP/SaaS migration rather than after all of the decisions have already been made.
• Stay technical: This is not a Director role that removes you from the data. Technical credibility and understanding of how the work gets done matter.
• Visible impact: Reporting, analytics, governance, compliance, and data quality touch nearly every area of the organization.
• Executive exposure: The role reports into the CIO organization and has regular cross-functional visibility.
• Small team, meaningful leadership: Develop two team members while creating structure, accountability, priorities, and sustainable processes.
• Strong stability and benefits: Public-sector benefits, retirement, time off, and a culture that places real value on work-life balance.

Job Details

The Opportunity:

The Director of Data & Analytics will lead a small but important team responsible for enterprise reporting, data analysis, institutional research, regulatory/compliance reporting, data governance, and data quality.

This individual will inherit an environment that is actively changing. The department has been rebuilt following retirements, a new analyst is joining the team, reporting and governance processes need greater structure, and the organization is in the middle of moving its ERP environment into a SaaS/cloud model.

The right person does not need to come from higher education or already be a Director. We are interested in someone who has been doing sophisticated data, BI, reporting, or analytics work, has demonstrated leadership capability, and is ready for the next step.

What You'll Own:

• Lead and develop a small data/research team while creating clear priorities, accountability, and expectations.
• Establish sustainable operating processes for analytics, reporting, research, and compliance.
• Build and maintain a structured compliance and recurring-reporting calendar.
• Ensure institutional reporting is accurate, complete, reconciled, and delivered on time.
• Provide leadership around data validation, quality, governance, definitions, ownership, and stewardship.
• Partner across departments to improve the consistency and reliability of data used for decision-making.
• Translate technical information and analysis into clear information for leaders and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Oversee dashboards, recurring reporting, ad hoc analysis, and executive-level decision support.
• Partner closely with technology leadership during an active ERP/SaaS modernization.
• Help improve integrations, reporting processes, and data accessibility as systems move into the cloud.
• Identify opportunities to reduce manual processes and improve automation.
• Create sustainable processes rather than relying on institutional knowledge or one-off solutions.
• Ensure appropriate controls and documentation exist around compliance-sensitive reporting.
• Help determine the long-term structure and responsibilities of the newly redesigned team.
• Build stronger collaboration between data/reporting resources and departments throughout the organization.

Technology Environment:

• SQL Server
• Oracle
• Power BI - primary reporting/visualization platform
• Tableau
• Informer
• Ellucian Colleague ERP
• Microsoft Azure
• SaaS/cloud migration currently underway

Heavy programming or software-development experience is not required. The stronger priority is someone who understands relational data, reporting, data validation, reconciliation, BI tools, governance, and how to ensure that information can actually be trusted.

What We're Looking For:

• Strong hands-on background in data analytics, business intelligence, reporting, institutional research, enterprise data, or a related discipline.
• Experience working with relational databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, or comparable platforms.
• Strong BI/reporting background; Power BI experience is particularly valuable.
• Understanding of data validation, reconciliation, data quality, and governance.
• Experience leading people, projects, or functions - including prioritization, accountability, coaching, development, and difficult conversations.
• Ability to create structure in an environment where everything will not be handed to you.
• Experience operating through technology, organizational, or process change.
• Strong communication skills and enough presence to work credibly across an entire organization.
• Ability to translate technical concepts and findings to nontechnical stakeholders.
• Comfortable balancing hands-on technical understanding with leadership responsibilities.
• Someone who looks beyond completing today's task and thinks about how processes should operate long term.

Particularly Helpful, But Not Required:

• Previous formal management experience.
• Higher education or institutional research experience.
• Regulatory/compliance reporting experience.
• ERP or SaaS migration experience.
• Azure/cloud experience.
• Ellucian Colleague experience.
• Tableau or Informer experience.
• Experience building a governance framework or compliance calendar.

Interested in hearing more? Easy Apply now by clicking the "Apply Now" button.

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