Title:
Institutional Research and Data Specialist
Division:
President’s Office
Department: Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
Location:
Law Building Room 604, Portland Campus
Schedule:
Flexible and Full Time – 12 months
Reports to: Director, Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
Supervises: Database Developer
Coordinates with: University of Southern Maine (USM) Executive Staff, Deans, Directors,
Department Chairs, Chief Officers, data stewards, faculty, staff, and students; Division of
Information and Technology; University of Maine System (UMS) Information Technology
Services; Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA).
Statement of the Job
The Institutional Research and Data Specialist (IRDS) is responsible for building and
maintaining the data infrastructure that sustains campus decision-making and reporting. S/he
will plan, design, implement, and manage an Institutional Information Database (IIDB) that
integrates and warehouses essential reporting information from across all functional areas of
USM’s Oracle/Peoplesoft information system. S/he will extract census-date data tables from
Oracle/Peoplesoft, warehouse the historical tables on a server managed by Information
Technology, and build queries and macro processes to standardize the data and import it into
relational data tables in the IIDB. S/he will also develop queries in the IIDB to produce
standardized, annually occurring reports. The IRDS will work to enhance and improve the
OIRA web site and build an interface that will allow end-users to build customized reports
based on the official institutional data housed in the IIDB. S/he will advise and train OIRA
staff so they can maximize their use of the information environment. S/he will work
independently and in teams on projects involving considerable detail, complexity and
precision. This person will remain current with new technologies and use this expertise to
implement “best practices” to ensure that reliable and accurate information is readily
available for institutional decision making. S/he will work closely with functional and
technical teams of data stewards to develop and implement processes to optimize the
reporting environment and maintain a high degree of data integrity.
Essential Functions
1. Plan, design, implement and manage the information reporting systems and databases that
supply data and reports to OIRA and the campus community.
2. Develop and maintain complex queries that will extract information from the
Oracle/Peoplesoft environment and transform it into standardized data elements in the
relational tables in the IIDB.
3. Build IIDB queries to produce standardized, annual reports for internal and external
constituencies.
4. Interface with Information Technology to warehouse extracted historical Oracle/Peoplesoft
tables on the IT managed server.
5. Optimize and enhance the OIRA website.
6. Conduct studies involving the identification, integration, analysis, interpretation, and
reporting of information for campus constituencies.
7. Serve as an information reporting liaison between USM and UMS to enhance
communication, relay campus reporting and information requirements, and coordinate the
development of system-wide queries, reports, data bases, and processes.
8. Collaborate with USM data stewards, committees and councils to identify campus
information needs, validate data values, identify sources of data inconsistencies, and develop
procedures to eliminate them.
9. Provide expertise to OIRA and IT in the application of advanced technologies to develop,
design, write, test, implement, document, and maintain queries and processes to extract and
warehouse institutional data.
Marginal Functions
1. Serve on USM and UMS committees representing the Office Institutional Research and
Assessment.
2. Establish and maintain the collaborative exchange of information and data with the OIRA
team, IT staff, data stewards, committees, and councils to support plan, assess, and evaluate
decisions made to advance the university’s mission.
Supervisory Responsibilities: Supervise the work of the Data Applications Specialist.
Budget Responsibilities: Monitor the costs associated with the technologies used to develop
and enhance the IIDB and the OIRA computing, networking and web environment.
Public/Professional Activities: Stay current with knowledge of complex data systems and
trends in the fields of information reporting and information systems. Serve as an OIRA
representative on university committees and councils. Participate in professional
associations by attending seminars and workshops and networking with peers. Conduct
ongoing reviews of relevant materials and issues, and lead campus consumers through the
appropriate use of data, information, and information systems.
Internal/External Contacts:
1. USM Academic and Administrative Colleges and Departments
2. U Maine System
3. University Institutional Technology and Computing Technologies staff
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:
1. Strong ability to plan, design, organize, implement, and maintain complex information
systems.
2. Ability to write complex programs and provide information to a variety of end users using a
variety of means.
3. Demonstrated competence in importing and exporting data between data information
systems, software applications, the Internet, and MS Office (Word, Excel and Access).
4. Fluency and flexibility in the use of Structured Query Language.
5. Ability to relay technical concepts to individuals unfamiliar with them and perform end-user
communications.
6. Ability to prioritize tasks and complete them in a timely manner.
7. Ability to enhance and improve OIRA website.
8. Ability to write, speak, and present effectively to a wide variety of audiences.
9. Ability to forge collaborative relationships with peers and to work effectively and
collaboratively with diverse stakeholders at various organizational levels.
Required Qualifications:
1. Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer or Information Sciences, Information Management,
Information Systems or a related field.
2. A minimum of three years of experience in an Information Reporting or Information Systems
setting.
3. Demonstrated working knowledge of database concepts, queries, reports, macro-processes,
and tools.
Preferred Qualifications:
1. Knowledge of higher education information concepts and data.
2. Direct experience with Oracle/PeopleSoft and Microsoft Access databases.
For Office Use Only:
Approved:
Revised: 3/2012
Job Family:
01
Salary Band:
104
Unit:
UMPSA
Job Number:
2594
Employee:
TBD
Position#:
00011973