Data and Research Specialist

Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development
Nashville, TN
Date Posted:  November 22, 2022
Closing Date:  December 22, 2022

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development’s mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. To grow and strengthen Tennessee, the department seeks to attract new corporate investment to the state and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth.

The Center for Economic Research in Tennessee (CERT) provides key research to support informed decisions and strategic competitiveness in economic and community development. CERT supports TNECD’s business recruitment and community development efforts through providing business intelligence, research for strategic initiatives and trends impacting economic and community development, and research for companies’ competitive relocation and expansion projects. CERT also works with TNECD staff to set goals in alignment with the department’s strategic plan, track programmatic information within the department’s centralized CRM database, and report upon the department’s goals through dashboards and other methods.

The Data and Research Specialist is responsible for professional statistical analytics and research work that supports internal processes and programs with the department:
• Compiles and analyzes data to address research questions on behalf of companies, communities, legislators, and internal ECD leadership and staff. Creates custom reports, as needed, to respond to requests.
• Develops customized reports and/or business lists to highlight information on key decision points for the prospective businesses.
• Analyzes and writes reports on topics and trends related to the economy, business development, and rural and community development. These may include research reports on target industry clusters, foreign direct investment, trends in economic growth or decline, and other topics.
• Provides analytical support to fulfill TNECD’s legislative requirements.
• Conducts internal research and analysis in support of the department’s policy needs.
• Supports CERT managers with the development of economic and fiscal impact analysis studies for ECD’s grant programs and the State’s business tax credits.
• Identifies and recommends process improvements, focused on improving data quality for the department.
• Works with stakeholders across state government and within TNECD to provide data and information, as well as to communicate about data quality.
• Supports the department in maintaining accurate information on current and prospective Tennessee businesses within ECD’s Client Relationship Management (CRM) system as well as providing technical assistance for the department’s CRM users.
• Verifies the accuracy and validity of data entered in databases.
• Manages and maintain current data for ECD’s website, county profile tool, target industry clusters, the state’s transparency website, and other marketing materials.
• Builds custom views/queries/dashboards to aggregate existing datasets for development of data visualizations.
• Utilizes departmental data, along with SQL and Tableau skillsets, to build appealing visualizations for the department’s key performance indicator (KPI) platform.
• Queries databases to perform descriptive, predictive, and inferential statistical analyses; develops methodology pertinent to research projects.
• Coordinates activities of research projects such as timelines and staff responsibilities.
• Oversees completion of projects.

EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:
• Graduation from an accredited college or university with a bachelor’s degree in economics, statistics, applied statistics, mathematics, business, business administration, public administration, or public policy.
• Minimum two years full-time professional work in field related to research and analysis, such as statistical research, market research, business or economic analysis, public policy research, or other related fields. Master’s degree, exceptional internship or fellowship work may be substituted for full-time work experience.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Working knowledge of federal economic datasets.
• Demonstrated background with impact analysis and various statistical/data modeling programs.
• Aptitude with a CRM software system.
• Ability to utilize visual analytic tools like Tableau.
• Knowledge of SQL.
• Strong oral and written communication skills. A writing sample may be required.
• Mastery of Microsoft Office products (Excel, Access, Word, Outlook).
• Strong critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Ability to work as part of a small team.
• Strong time management skills.

If you’d like to apply for this position, please send your resume and cover letter to: katherine.scott@tv.gov with a cc: leslie.hathaway@tn.gov with the subject line: Data and Research Specialist