Research Analyst

Position Title

Research Analyst

$40,000 - $50,000

Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support_B

Ball State University is seeking a collaborative and analytically driven Research Analyst to join the Office of Institutional Research. This position offers the opportunity to work with complex university data, conduct impactful analyses, and communicate insights that directly influence institutional strategy and student success initiatives. The successful candidate will partner with campus leaders and stakeholders to support planning, assessment, accreditation, and reporting efforts while contributing to a culture of data‑informed decision‑making.

This is an exciting opportunity for a professional passionate about higher education analytics, research, and transforming data into meaningful action.

This role requires an on‑campus presence; it is not a remote position.

Candidates for searches must have current authorization to be employed in the United States without employer sponsorship.

What you'll do and what you'll bring:

Responsible for directed and self‑guided research to find key insights that may shape policy, providing stakeholders with actionable information, and helping to develop the analytics needed for decision‑making. This position will help manage and utilize complex datasets stored in the Ball State’s data warehouse. Address issues of interest and create visualizations that will be used in institutional research presentations, briefs, and reports for the consumption of various Ball State constituencies (Board of Trustees, senior leadership, the provost/president, and state agencies).

• Design and conduct analyses to address institutional questions, including defining methodology, selecting appropriate data sources, and applying statistical techniques.
• Interpret analytical findings and communicate data‑informed insights in clear, accessible, and actionable formats for various campus audiences and stakeholders.
• Compile, analyze, interpret, and report institutional data to support strategic planning, decision‑making, assessment, accreditation, and compliance initiatives across the university.
• Collaborate with campus stakeholders to define research and reporting needs, recommend appropriate analytical methodologies, and develop customized data reports and insights to support institutional decision‑making.
• Document research methodologies, data queries, processes, and analytical assumptions to promote transparency, consistency, and reproducibility in institutional research and reporting activities.
• Utilize Data Insider blog as a repository for and communication of completed research projects.
• Apply institutional data definitions and contribute to discussion on data governance efforts.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in data analytics, data science, business analytics, operations research, statistics, psychology, computer science or a related quantitative research field.
• At least two years of experience conducting data analysis using statistical tools such as SPSS, SAS, Stata, R, etc.
• Ability to interpret or code SQL from relational databases.
• Demonstrated ability to clean, analyze, and interpret complex datasets and communicate findings to non‑technical audiences.

• Master’s degree in psychology, computer science, data analytics, data science, business analytics, operations research, statistics, or related field.
• Higher Education institutional research experience.
• Knowledge of Higher Education ERP systems (e.g., Banner).
• Technical expertise in data management, statistical analysis, qualitative/quantitative research methods.
• Experience in predictive modeling and/or machine learning techniques (e.g., clustering, decision trees, random forests, etc.).
• Ability to analyze complex topics, problem‑solve, synthesize, and communicate results clearly both orally and in writing to various audiences.
• Tableau visualization experience.

At Ball State University, we understand the importance of balancing professional responsibilities with personal well‑being. We offer paid 24 vacation days, 12 sick days and 10 holidays a year, paid parental leave (6 weeks), affordable health and dental insurance, robust long‑term disability and life insurance plans, and a range of retirement benefits. We also offer coverage of 90 percent of your child’s undergraduate tuition and 100 percent of your undergraduate tuition and 80 percent of your graduate tuition.