Data Solutions Analyst

Full-time

Nashville, TN

About the position

The Data Solutions Analyst will serve as part of the Office of Data & Strategic Analytics (DSA) at Vanderbilt University working to address the data needs of Vanderbilt University’s Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) department. The Data Solutions Analyst will collaborate with Development and Alumni Relations to answer key strategic questions, such as: How should Development and Alumni Relations focus its resources to maximize fundraiser effectiveness? How can Development and Alumni Relations better utilize internal and external data sources to better identify prospects for fundraising initiatives? How can Development and Alumni Relations improve alumni engagement, and how can we reliably measure and score that engagement? The Data Solutions Analyst will be responsible for thinking critically and creatively to tell stories with data and deliver actionable insights to maximize performance of the Vanderbilt University’s development and alumni engagement efforts. The Data Solutions Analyst will be integral to building out a data driven culture within the Development Office and ensuring the future success of the department. This position will report to the Director of Data Analytics for Development & Alumni Relations.

Responsibilities

• Use BI tools such as Tableau, and SQL (Oracle and Snowflake) to provide complex reporting solutions to meet consumer data needs.
• Develop new analytics solutions; support and maintain existing solutions.
• Perform testing and evaluation of new BI analysis and reporting solutions, tool upgrades, enhancements and change requests.
• Identify existing solutions or design new solutions that satisfy information requests.
• Develop and maintain database tables for use in reporting.
• Recommend standardized practices in developing data solutions.
• Explore new techniques and technologies in BI to generate new ideas and insightful analytics.
• Support other team members through organized training and ongoing knowledge transfer.
• Analyze complex, broad data sets to develop actionable insights that can inform DAR strategy and drive development and alumni engagement efforts.
• Gather and clarify requirements to ensure that analytical outputs meet the needs of stakeholders.
• Develop new predictive models, using data from multiple sources, to better refine donor capacity and affinity while identifying new opportunities for donor engagement and increasing the effectiveness of fundraising teams.
• Understand and prepare raw data, apply data models using statistical methods and algorithms, and then extract and communicate useful results in easily digestible formats.
• Identify opportunities to introduce and synthesize data sets from internal and external sources in an effort to answer complex organizational questions.
• Support financial analytics efforts for DAR including fiscal year, campaign, and long-term projections for cash and fundraising progress.
• Ensure a high quality of accuracy in data reported.
• Utilize Data Governance principles to ensure ongoing compliance with internal policies and guarantee data is used in a consistent way.
• Document data sources and flow to guide reporting accuracy.
• Maintain a glossary of business terms and concepts to aid the understanding of data.
• Implement reporting standards for visual consistency.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, business analytics, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education, relevant military experience, and relevant skills.
• Data visualization and reporting tools experience (Tableau or similar) is required.
• Relational database and SQL skills (Oracle and Snowflake) is required.
• Ability to manipulate, transform, or merge datasets using tools such as Excel, R, or python is required.
• Experience in information technology or business intelligence related functions is required.
• Experience working with large relational databases is required.
• Experience managing time-sensitive and/or complex projects with limited supervision is required.

Nice-to-haves

• CRM experience with tools such as Salesforce or Raiser’s Edge is preferred.
• Higher education experience is preferred.