Director, Institutional Research at Laramie County Community College, WY

About the Department

• Hours of Work: Monday – Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm. 

• Screening will begin ASAP and continue until the position(s) is filled.

• Start date to be determined, but as soon as practicable after the hiring/interview process.

Salary and Benefits: This is a full-time, benefited Managerial 5 level position. Starting salary range: $82,820.00 - $93,623.00/annually, depending upon experience.

• Educational Benefits for the employees and dependents

• Tuition Reimbursement

• 17 Paid Holiday/Closure Days

• Three Paid Personal Days

• Healthcare/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

• Generous Retirement Benefits - 14.62% Employer Paid/4% Employee Paid

• Paid Vacation and Sick Leave

• Onsite Childcare Center

• Professional Development Opportunities

JOB SUMMARY: 

The Director, Institutional Research (IR), is a full-time benefited position responsible for the leadership and development of a comprehensive IR department to support the College’s mission and strategic initiatives. This individual leads the efforts of IR staff to empower LCCC’s internal and external stakeholders to use and understand data objectively, consistently, and with integrity for planning and decision-making purposes. The IR Director supports the Performance & Planning Division in data use for performance measurement functions throughout the College.

Position Duties

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: – this position is exempt and is not eligible for compensatory or overtime pay provisions of the FLSA.  This listing of essential duties is not all-inclusive, but representative, other duties may be assigned).

Decision Support & Official Reporting

• Under direction of the VPPP, lead analysis and visualization of student, academic, and administrative data to inform strategy, resource allocation, and CQI.
• Own official reporting (e.g., IPEDS, WCCC/state, federal/state accountability files) and institutional effectiveness outputs; maintain a reproducible workflow.
• Build and maintain executive dashboards and recurring KPI reports with documented metric definitions, refresh cadence, and QA checks.
• Triage and fulfill ad-hoc requests using a transparent intake and prioritization process aligned to strategic priorities.
• Own survey and instrument design for institutional studies (e.g., course evaluations policy standards, climate, engagement, ad-hoc studies): define constructs, write/validate items and scales, and set methodological design, administration, and response-rate targets.
• Oversee survey analytics and reporting: produce summary reports for leaders and departments, with clear KPI definitions and longitudinal trend analyses.
• Coordinate survey calendars with Academic Affairs and units; approve instruments and changes; monitor fieldwork and response-rate campaigns; conduct post-mortems to improve future cycles.

• Support the data governance framework: data standards, definitions, stewardship roles, and change control by serving on appropriate data councils. 
• Implement data quality controls (e.g., validity, completeness, timeliness) with documented checks, monitors, and exception handling.
• Ensure lawful/ethical use of data (FERPA, privacy); manage access models and audit trails in coordination with ITS.
• Serve as LCCC data liaison to state bodies (e.g., WCCC Data Governance & IR Council) and coordinate required technical alignments.
• Publish and enforce survey governance, including release standards, and documentation in the Institutional Data Dictionary. 

• Supervise day-to-day IR operations; select, train, coach, and evaluate staff.
• Publish an annual IR operational plan (roadmap, milestones, owners) and manage backlog and delivery cadence.
• Maintain SOPs and reproducible code/assets (version control, documentation, peer review).
• Prepare and manage the IR budget, steward analytic tools and licenses.
• Ensure reproducible survey workflows; oversee vendor/platform alignment (e.g., Watermark) in partnership with the Executive Administrative Specialist (operational admin). 

• Partner with Academic Program Review, Institutional Assessment, and service units to design applied studies that support CQI.
• Offer consults/training (e.g., IR Office Hours, clinics on KPI definitions, interpreting dashboards, and data ethics) with post-session resources and follow-up.
• Participate in relevant committees and professional associations to keep practice current and bring back actionable improvements.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

Knowledge of:

• Higher-ed data and reporting cycles (e.g., census/freeze dates, KPI dashboards, IPEDS/WCCC/state submissions) and standard metric definitions.
• Applied research and evaluation methods: study design, sampling, survey basics, quantitative analysis, and results interpretation.
• Data governance and quality (definitions, lineage, validation, change control) and metadata management.
• Data privacy and security requirements in higher ed (e.g., FERPA, GLBA) and ethical use of data.
• Continuous improvement principles and how IR supports APR, assessment, and operational decision-making.
• Awareness of current policy issues affecting community colleges (funding, outcomes, reporting expectations).

Skills and Abilities:

• Proficient in SQL for querying/joining large datasets; experience with R/Python/SAS for analysis preferred.
• Business intelligence/dashboarding with Tableau/Power BI/Looker (or similar), including KPI documentation and refresh processes.
• Advanced spreadsheets (Excel) for data prep, auditing, and quick analysis.
• Data documentation: data dictionaries, metric catalogs, SOPs, and reproducible workflows (version control/peer review).
• Communicate complex findings clearly—writing, visuals, and presentations—for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Manage multiple projects with deadlines; prioritize through an intake process and deliver on time with quality controls.
• Translate ambiguous questions into analyzable problems; select appropriate methods and tools; validate results.
• Build collaborative relationships across Academic Affairs, Student Services, IT/IS, and external/state partners.
• Exercise sound judgment and discretion with sensitive information; uphold institutional values and regulatory obligations.
• Work independently and lead teams; coach analysts and foster a continuous-improvement mindset.

PHYSICAL/MENTAL DEMANDS:

• There may be occurrences of interacting with employees and/or students, past employees and/or students, members of the general public, and others who express opinions, may exhibit strong emotions, which will require the employee to interact professionally, diplomatically, and appropriately in such situations
• While performing the essential duties of this position, an employee would frequently be required to move around the assigned work areas as well as within hallways, meeting rooms, and other parts of the campus facilities
• There may be multiple/daily instances of prolonged sitting, standing, and personal computer use, which would include keyboard and/or mouse usage as well as viewing a computer monitor
• An employee must be able to lift and/or move up to 20 pounds 
• Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus
• The overall work environment requires the mental ability to shift focal point quickly due to interruptions; an employee must be able to mentally track multiple projects and tasking as well

NOTE: This position description is a general description; it is not intended as an employment contract, nor is it intended to describe all duties someone in this position may perform.  All employees of the College are expected to perform other tasks as assigned by their respective supervisor/manager regardless of job title or routine job duties.

Minimum Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in a research-intensive discipline (e.g., statistics, economics, data science, mathematics, social/behavioral sciences, public policy, educational research/measurement, information/data sciences, computer science) from a regionally accredited institution. 
• 3+ years full-time experience in institutional research, educational analytics, or assessment in a higher-education setting (institution, system office, or state agency). 
• 2+ years leading end-to-end research design for continuous improvement, including quantitative methods and program evaluation experience. 
• Demonstrated proficiency with SQL and SAS, R, Python, or similar analytic tool for data prep/analysis and a modern BI tool (e.g., Power BI or Tableau) for dashboarding.
• Experience with official reporting (e.g., IPEDS/state submissions), data quality reconciliation, and maintaining standard definitions/metrics.

*In lieu of the required degree, candidates with equivalent professional experience, industry certifications, or a combination of education and relevant work experience may be considered. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• A doctoral degree in statistics, economics, data science, mathematics, social/behavioral sciences, public policy, educational research/measurement, information/data sciences, or computer science
• 5+ years of directly related experience working in Institutional Research in higher education 
• Experience supervising personnel, developing a departmental budget, and establishing/maintaining IR policies/SOPs.

Other Qualifications

If you are selected for the position, your appointment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check. LCCC reserves the right to end this employment agreement should the results of your background investigation not be successful.

LCCC DOES NOT SPONSOR H1B VISAS.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Laramie County Community College is an EEO/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA institution in the provision of its education and employment programs and services. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of, race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, or covered veteran status.

The college has a designated person to monitor compliance and to answer any questions regarding the college's nondiscrimination policies. Please contact: Title IX, Title VI, and ADA Coordinator, Suite 205, Clay Pathfinder Building, 1400 E College Drive, Cheyenne, WY 82007, 307.778.1144,[email protected]. Contact information for the regional Office for Civil Rights is: Office for Civil Rights, Denver Office, U.S. Department of Education, Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Building, 1244 Speer Boulevard, Suite 310, Denver, CO 80204-3582, 303.844.5695,[email protected]. Updated 6/2025.

http://lccc.wy.edu/

http://www.lccc.wy.edu/about/humanresources 

The mission of Laramie County Community College is to transform our students' lives through the power of inspired learning. Our over-arching goal is that our accomplishments as a community college will distinguish LCCC from others in the nation, in turn benefiting our communities and bringing pride to the Great State of Wyoming.  Our core values include Passion, Authenticity, and the Desire to Make a Difference.