Assessment and Data Analysis Senior Specialist, Career Development

Smith hasa dynamic opportunity available that is rooted in Career Development work. We're looking for someone with a strong foundation in assessment design who can bring data to life-telling compelling stories that inform strategic decision-making and promote equity in career outcomes. The ideal candidate will be able to translate complex information for non-technical audiences, prioritize tasks aligned with institutional goals, and apply a big-picture lens to daily work. If you thrive on using data to drive progress, collaborate across functions, and contribute to the long-term success of students and alums, we encourage you to apply.

Please note: While this role requires strong data fluency, it is not an IT position. It is housed within the Career Development office and focuses on programmatic and educational outcomes rather than enterprise systems or technical infrastructure.

Job Summary

Collaborates across the Lazarus Center for Career Development and Smith College to provide accurate, relevant data and make recommendations that guide departmental decision making and support Smith's strategic initiative to enhance equitable career outcomes. As the subject matter expert for assessment and data within the department, the Associate Director of Career Development, Assessment and Data Analysis is responsible for leading assessment design and implementation, data analysis, data stewardship, and compilation and analysis of institutional, survey, and other data on the experience of students and alums receiving career services. Additionally, this role collaborates with the Institutional Research (IR) team and staff in the Career Center to develop standardized and customized data tools that allow leaders to better understand the career learning outcomes of students and alums across a 14 year trajectory (entry to 10-years post-graduation), leads analysis of utilization, engagement, satisfaction, and learning impact metrics, and produces/enhances existing equity data packets that disaggregate student data by key demographic attributes and conducting customized follow-up analyses.

Take appropriate actions to support a diverse workforce and participate in the College's efforts to create a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming work environment.

Core Functions

Data Systems Design & Data Collection (20%)

• Manage and enhance standardized methods for supporting centralized data related to work-learning outcomes.

• Develop and automate reproducible systems for reports generated cyclically.

• Support institution-level efforts to elevate career education to high-impact standards, in partnership with academic areas and learning centers, by providing relevant data and metrics in a timely and clear way.

• Collaborate closely with institutional research (IR) to share data, ensure the relevance of career-related questions on cross campus surveys, and broaden institutional narratives around economic mobility outcomes.

• Conduct relevant benchmarking across peer institutions when needed.

Assessment and Analytic Support for Undergraduate Career Learning Outcomes (40%)

• Design, administer, and Analyze assessments including surveys, focus groups, and other active and passive strategies for understanding student experiences and perceptions related to career strategic initiatives.

• administer first destination survey, managing all aspects of survey Design, data engagement, delivery, scraping, analysis, visualization, reporting, and marketing for external visibility.

• Analyze engagement and learning outcome data to identify engagement gaps to be addressed.

• Conduct follow-up studies to explore questions that emerge in planning processes related to current projects.

Communication of Findings (20%)

• Create written reports and presentations that are accessible and have a clear data narrative to audiences with a range of data literacy

• Produce data visualizations for both internal and external audiences.

• Develop actionable data-driven recommendations.

Other Functions

Data Maintenance and Team Support (20%)

• Serve as the departmental data steward and respond to ad-hoc requests for departmental data and peer comparisons from both internal and external sources.

• Maintain regular reports from the Handshake CRM, Salesforce, PeopleGrove and other platforms on utilization and engagement metrics and systematically share with team members where needed.

• Lead internal cross-training and systems development to increase the data knowledge base of the full career center team.

• Collaborate with and provide Support for colleagues reciprocally during busy periods and be ready to adapt priorities and workflow according to shifting institutional needs.

• Supervise and mentor student worker(s) by facilitating and providing feedback on developmentally appropriate projects that benefit both the student and the goals of the department.

• Follow and enforce all best practices regarding data privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity across the department as necessary.

All employees are expected to participate in the College's efforts to create a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming work environment.

Minimum Qualifications (knowledge, skills, education, experience, certifications, licenses)

• Bachelor's degree and 5-8 years' experience working with assessment and/or educational data sets, or an equivalent combination of education and/or experience.

• Experience producing data visualizations using real-world data, preferably in a higher education setting.

• Advanced knowledge of Tableau, R, Qualtrics, SQL and Excel (writing Macros, V-lookups, regression, pivot tables).

• Experience designing, conducting, and analyzing assessments.

• Demonstrated commitment to navigating ethical considerations, ensuring privacy, data security, and ethical use of data in analyses

• Demonstrated experience working on issues of equity and inclusion, including racial and economic justice.

• Experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in related field preferred.

• Skilled in design and data visualization.

• Experience managing multi-stakeholder projects

• Experience supervising student workers.

Skills

Analytic, statistical, and data-related programming, including Tableau, R, Qualtrics

Excellent communication skills, including visual, verbal, and written communication

Understanding of equity and inclusion issues in higher education and knowledge of best practices in higher education research