Data Scientist for Enrollment Management

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Job Summary

Reporting to the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, the inauguralData Scientist for Enrollment Management is a member of the Undergraduate Admissions senior management team and understands admissions and financial aid strategies for undergraduate students and how to harness data and analytics to shape, influence, and model admission decisions, enrollment, and student success. The Data Scientist will gather, interpret, monitor, and analyze information relating to undergraduate admissions recruitment, policies, procedures, and outcomes. The Data Scientists will help to build and maintain data pipelines and processes to support these processes. This position will collaborate closely with admissions officers, faculty, and leadership to develop and refine data-driven strategies to inform enrollment and ensure leadership has the data and analysis needed to make informed decisions that advance institutional and division goals.

The Data Scientist will be a critical source of expertise on enrollment management analytics for leaders across the Institute. They will have a strategic understanding of the role of enrollment analytics in the support of new student enrollment, student success, student retention and will work diligently to improve data structure and integrity, allowing for more efficient, expeditious, and accurate reporting that informs division strategy and planning. The Data Scientist will use software engineering, statistics, and machine learning to automate processes and develop solutions to enrollment challenges. Working alongside the Senior Associate Director of Operations, this position will also support the analysis of existing processes, identify modernization opportunities, and provide streamlined solutions to support end-users in Slate.

Essential Job Duties

• Design and conduct complex data analyses using student application data, demographic information, financial aid data, student success data, and other relevant sources.
• Design, build and maintain data pipelines and processes to inform admissions decisions and outcomes.
• Collaborate on various research teams with Caltech faculty, the Student Success Analytics Working Group, and members of the Institutional Research Office.
• Develop and implement predictive models to inform recruitment, selection, yield, and student success strategies.
• Use data reporting tools available through third parties such as the National Student Clearinghouse, College Board, ACT, and COFHE data sharing to analyze trends and inform strategies.
• Analyze indicators to understand how enrollment management supports student success.
• Create useful data visualizations and reports to effectively communicate complex findings to both highly technical and non-technical audiences.
• Partner with Enrollment Management, Admissions, Financial Aid, and Marketing teams to translate data insights into actionable strategies.
• Acquire a deep understanding of relevant aspects of undergraduate admissions at Caltech. Develop relationships with key stakeholders across campus, become familiar with data relating to admissions priorities, and stay abreast with national context (including current events, court cases, and academic research
• Stay up-to-date on the latest trends and techniques in data science and enrollment management.
• Maintain data security and integrity and ensure compliance with all FERPA regulations.
• Responsible for comprehensive enrollment reporting in partnership with Caltech's Institutional Research Office.
• Proactively seek and locate data, including outside benchmarks or comparative data, to support or refute proposed decisions. May need to collaborate with other organizations to gather data.
• Drive the collection of new data resources and refinement of existing resources. Research and propose options for the collection and warehousing of new data, particularly data that is new to the admissions ecosystem. In partnership with Institutional Research partners, determine appropriate methodology for data extraction, transformation, storage, and usage. Develop processes for loading and updating data that are efficient and re-usable. Document all data and transformations thoroughly.
• Set the research agenda for the department, working with the senior management team to ensure an on-going commitment to understanding and evaluating our work.
• Develop and implement sophisticated predictive models to identify high-potential applicants with a strong likelihood of success at Caltech.
• Contribute positively to other duties and projects as assigned.

Basic Qualifications

• Master's degree in data science, statistics, computer science, or a related quantitative field.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in a data science role.
• Strong programming skills in Python, R, or similar data analysis languages.
• The ability to construct large SQL databases and query them.
• Expertise in building useful and complex data visualizations.
• Extensive experience in and strong passion for empirical research and answering hard questions with data.

The ability to:

• Work independently within basic guidelines and parameters and with minimal supervision.
• Manage complex projects and meet critical deadlines.
• Establish & maintain effective collaborative working team relationships.
• Work effectively on several projects simultaneously.
• Engage in proactive and creative problem solving.
• Experience with data wrangling, scraping, cleaning, and manipulation.
• Expertise in sophisticated statistical analysis and machine learning techniques.
• Exceptional communication, data presentation, and collaboration skills, with the ability to present complex findings in a clear and concise manner. Demonstrated ability to explain sophisticated analyses and technical concepts and conclusions to a non-technical audience.
• Demonstrated ability to work with a wide variety of stakeholders and to develop productive professional relationships across a complex, faculty-led institution of higher education.
• Ability to handle confidential information with a high degree of discretion and tact.
• A strong analytical mind with a problem-solving approach.
• A passion for education and a commitment to using data to improve student success.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD.
• Data science experience in the education sector.
• Previous experience working in higher education admissions or related field with organizational processes preferred.

Required Documents

• Resume.
• Cover Letter.