Senior Advisor for Research and Innovation

Tennessee Board of Regents • Nashville, TN

4d • Remote

About The Position

The Senior Advisor for Research and Innovation manages a portfolio of cross-functional projects focused on how the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) and its colleges understand, use, and share research and data. The role serves as a convener, strategist, and program leader, bringing structure to complex challenges, engaging stakeholders with different areas of expertise, and moving initiatives from broad ideas toward shared solutions and sustained implementation.

A major focus is building shared understanding and data resources across TBR and its colleges. The Senior Advisor works with college leaders, institutional research and effectiveness professionals, technical experts, system staff, and partners to define common concepts, develop reusable data resources, and document knowledge distributed across people and institutions. This work supports preparation for changes in enterprise systems, reporting requirements, research practices, and the broader higher education data environment.

The Senior Advisor also helps redesign how research and data insights reach stakeholders. The role assesses audience needs and explores how reports, interactive tools, and multimedia products can work together to provide useful insights. It coordinates preparation for AI-enabled analytics by developing a practical roadmap for experimentation and adoption. Success requires curiosity about research, data, and higher education, along with strong project management, communication, and relationship-building skills. The position works with TBR leaders, college presidents and teams, and state partners to turn collective knowledge into resources and practices that strengthen TBR’s research and data capacity.

The position may be performed remotely within Tennessee, with periodic visits to the TBR System Office in Nashville at the employee’s expense and potential travel to TBR colleges in Tennessee.

Requirements

• Graduate degree in higher education, public policy, organizational leadership, data analytics, statistics, or a related field.
• Seven or more years of progressively responsible experience leading strategic initiatives, transformation programs, research or data initiatives, enterprise projects, or comparable cross-functional work.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex initiatives involving multiple organizational units, stakeholder groups, and senior leaders.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating stakeholder engagement, building consensus, and translating diverse perspectives into decisions, recommendations, shared resources, or implementation plans.
• Strong ability to communicate effectively with executive leaders and technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Ability to lead complex, cross-functional transformation initiatives by translating broad priorities into workplans, milestones, decisions, and sustainable implementation strategies.
• Exceptional project management, facilitation, and consensus-building skills, including engaging diverse stakeholders, navigating competing perspectives, managing dependencies, and moving complex work forward.
• Strong understanding of higher education research and data environments, including the relationships among data definitions, reporting logic, business processes, technical systems, analytics, and organizational decision-making.
• Ability to assess stakeholder needs and guide development of shared data resources, modern research and data products, and responsible applications of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
• Exceptional relationship-building and communication skills, including establishing credibility, leading through influence, and clearly communicating complex research, data, and technology issues to varied audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working within a higher education system, college, university, or state agency.
• Experience leading organizational change, strategic planning, or technology-enabled initiatives.
• Experience working with college presidents and cabinets, system executives, institutional research and effectiveness professionals, state-agency leaders, governing bodies, or other senior stakeholders.
• Knowledge of higher education data, institutional research, student success analytics, workforce data, or federal and state reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead a portfolio of high-priority research and data transformation initiatives in partnership with the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation; develop project charters, stakeholder-engagement strategies, and implementation roadmaps, maintain momentum, and prepare initiatives for transition and long-term implementation.
• Contribute to collaborative development of shared data and research resources with TBR colleges, system teams, and partners; facilitate discussions, translate perspectives into decisions and recommendations, and develop adoption and continued-use plans.
• Lead a stakeholder-centered redesign of how TBR organizes and shares research, data, and insights; assess audience needs, evaluate dashboards, reports, and communication channels, and coordinate development and testing of recommendations.
• Coordinate TBR’s preparation for responsible AI-enabled analytics and data access within the Office of Research and Innovation.
• Build trusted relationships with TBR leaders, college presidents and cabinets, institutional research and effectiveness teams, TBR staff, and partners; design and facilitate engagement, communicate complex ideas to technical and nontechnical audiences, build support for new approaches, and develop documentation, training, and shared resources.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior