Senior Research Associate - Data Analytics (Part-Time Temporary Position)

Hanover Research

4d•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Research Associate, Data Analytics works with client data to create dashboards that help higher education institutions understand resource allocation across academic portfolios, including program costs, revenue, and profitability. The role also supports other education-related analytics projects, such as student success and retention analyses, enrollment-funnel progression, financial aid optimization, non-matriculant analyses, and donor analyses. Hanover Research serves a wide range of institutions, from community colleges to large university systems in the United States and internationally. The position involves preparing and analyzing higher education datasets, developing Power BI dashboards, applying statistical and econometric methods, and communicating findings clearly. Employees are expected to be intellectually curious, ambitious, and interested in taking on increasing responsibility. This is a part-time, temporary, remote opportunity based in the United States, with an office located in Arlington, Virginia.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience working with common academic and institutional datasets, such as course section, faculty workload, student enrollment, compensation, or staffing data, and understanding how those data are generated and used in academic operations.
Ability to assess whether analytical outputs make sense in a higher education context, investigate unexpected patterns or anomalies, and recommend reasonable methodological adjustments.
Experience preparing real-world higher education datasets for analysis, including identifying, reshaping, or merging data.
Experience with data visualization software, including Power BI.
Intermediate-level proficiency with statistical analysis software, particularly Stata and R.
Ability to apply econometric and statistical methods to practical research problems.
Willingness and ability to learn new quantitative skills and apply them in new contexts.
Demonstrable problem-solving skills and willingness to tackle complex, unfamiliar research requests.
Ability to collaborate and strategize with senior-level research directors.
Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Ability to prioritize and manage multiple short- and long-term projects to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
Strong work ethic and ability to accept feedback and constructive critique positively.
Strong command of English and demonstrated writing and editing skills, including experience writing or presenting for a business or non-technical professional audience.
High comfort level with Microsoft Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
A master's or doctoral degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Data Analytics, a Social Science or Higher Education discipline with quantitative training, or a related quantitative discipline is preferred; promising candidates with a bachelor's degree in one of these disciplines and higher education industry experience may be considered.
Two to five years of full-time work experience, or equivalent academic work, conducting quantitative research and analysis in a higher education setting is preferred.

Nice To Haves

Experience with programming languages such as Python, database systems and SQL, or spatial mapping and analysis tools such as ArcGIS.

Responsibilities

Efficiently process and clean datasets for analysis.
Create dashboards in Power BI.
Perform statistical modeling and regression analysis on education-related data.
Form hypotheses and locate compelling support for arguments under tight deadlines.
Write up findings and key takeaways clearly and concisely.
Provide project managers with regular progress updates and proactively raise potential challenges and questions.