Research Associate

National Student Clearinghouse
Herndon, VA
Date Posted:  October 5, 2021

Description

Are you looking for more than just a job and want to make difference? If so, then join the National Student Clearinghouse talent community and discover your impact today!  

 We are a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization and the leading provider of educational reporting, data exchange, verification, and research services. Serving the education, workforce and learner communities has been at the heart of our mission for over 25 years. Our work — performed in a trusted, secure, and private environment — provides numerous time- and cost-saving benefits to students, schools, administrators, and requestors. 

About the Role:

Do you believe in changing lives through research? Is data-driven storytelling your talent? Are you someone who thrives in a team environment?

As a member of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, this role will contribute to the development of research publications to advance the postsecondary educational opportunity and attainment, by engaging a variety of audience of schools and colleges, policymakers, and students and families in evidence-based research.

How You Contribute:

  • Demonstrate NSC’s competencies, which align with our corporate value Manager will provide more detail to candidates as needed.
    • Core Competencies include: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.

Customer Focus:

  • Contribute to the development and refinement of the Research Center’s quantitative research publications by manipulating large-scale data, conducting analysis, and creating data-driven storytelling with data visualizations.
  • Develop and communicate data insights and research findings appropriately to diverse audiences.
  • Triangulate and validate research results with relevant external sources of data.
  • Use data visualization tools including dashboards and presentation formats to help others understand and utilize Clearinghouse data.

Optimizes Work Processes:

  • Effectively manage multiple research projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.
  • Establish and implement quality assurance processes to ensure all publications are delivered in an accurate and timely manner.
  • Optimize data visualization tools including data dashboards and publication formats.

Collaborates:

  • Provide timely communication, coordination and collaboration on overlapping projects and deadlines and across departments, especially with the communications and marketing units.
  • Work closely with teams to identify opportunities and ideas to innovate research efforts as appropriate.

Communicates Effectively:

  • Analyze key postsecondary student outcomes using the Clearinghouse data and effectively communicate the insights from data through objective and impactful narrative and data visualization.

Be Open and Authentic:

  • Demonstrate openness to new perspectives and ideas.
  • Build trust with internal and external stakeholders by demonstrating consistency between words and actions.

Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

What You Bring to the Table:

  • Master’s degree in Higher Education, Information/Data Science, Social Sciences, Statistics, or a related field.
  • 3-5 years of professional experience in conducting quantitative research projects, including manipulating, and analyzing large-scale data, administering quality assurance processes, and writing research findings.
  • Experience with SAS programming or other command line driven programming (Python, R, STATA, SPLUS, or SPSS syntax).
  • Working knowledge in Tableau or other data visualization software.
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and the demonstrated ability to communicate technical terms to a diverse audience.
  • Exceptional attention to detail, time management, and analytical skills.
  • Team player and the demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively on a team.
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively manage projects, prioritize and work on multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced team environment.
  • Demonstrates the Clearinghouse’s core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic.
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and other collaboration tools.
  • Live within a commutable distance of Herndon, VA.

Additional Desired Requirements:

  • Strong research planning and project management capabilities with a demonstrated ability to conceptualize the design and develop the implementation plans to complete work timely.
  • Content knowledge in historical and current context of inequities in postsecondary education access and outcomes.
  • Experience working with large SAS databases.
  • Familiarity with national and state data sources in secondary and postsecondary education.