United Spinal Association Jobs

Working/Functional Title

University Advancement Data Analyst

Position Summary

The mission of University Advancement is to secure support for Michigan State University in terms of money, talent, service, and advocacy by delivering an integrated program of communications, marketing, and engagement. Our objective is to build deep and long-term relationships with alumni and other stakeholders and potential partners that will ensure increased support in the future.

Basic Function

A valued member of the Business Process Improvement & Analysis Team within University Advancement, the Data Analyst role is responsible for providing strategic and actionable data-driven insights to support the Fundraising and Alumni Relations efforts at Michigan State University.

The Data Analyst will contribute to achieving the strategic objectives of University Advancement by taking on analysis projects of financial and engagement data, conducting campaign performance analytics, market and economic research, customer analysis, web analytics, and behavioral analysis.

Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting to the Associate Director of Business Analytics, key responsibilities of the Business Analyst include, but are not limited to the following:          

Data Analysis and Modeling:

• Develop and refine predictive models, analytical datasets, and data visualizations to inform business strategies for University Advancement stakeholders.
• Collaborate with central and unit-based Alumni and Fundraising teams to design and produce analytics deliverables summarizing performance metrics and constituent behavior trends.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis and mining to extract valuable insights from University Advancement data sources.
• Actively identify, collect, and collate external data that supports the business processes/outcomes of Alumni Relations and Fundraising, such as economic indices or peer-benchmarking studies within the Big 10 or the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Data Engineering and Reporting:

• Design and implement reporting and analytical datasets using SQL to support UA data work.
• Provide technical specifications and coding for data warehousing, reporting, and advanced analytics requirements.
• Assess and recommend improvements to data quality and clarity within the alumni donor database.

Analytics Thought Leadership:

• Stay current with emerging trends, techniques, and tools in the data analytics field.
• Leverage expertise to enhance in-house analytical projects and disseminate learnings to senior leadership.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in analytics and "power user" of analytics tools, providing training and guidance to team members.

Work Environment

Standard office environment.  The job requires moderate physical effort and involves sitting and interacting with a VDT 50-75% of the time.

Responsibility for the Work of Others

Second level supervision of:

• Student Workers

Unit Specific Education/Experience/Skills

Knowledge equivalent to that which normally would be acquired by completing a four-year college degree program in Business, Economics, Research Methodology, Statistics or Mathematics with relevant course work in computer programming; three to five years of related and progressively more responsible or expansive work experience in programming, statistical methods, data base management or data collection; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Desired Qualifications

Bachelor's degree (Master's preferred) in information systems, computer science mathematics, statistics, or