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Job Category:
Academic Staff
Employment Type:
Regular
Job Profile:
Policy and Planning Analyst I
Job Summary:
The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education is one of the nation's leading schools of education, recognized for excellence across the arts, education, and health. Guided by the Wisconsin Idea, the School advances teaching, research, and public service through 10 academic departments and a broad network of research, outreach, and administrative units that support students, faculty, staff, and communities across Wisconsin and beyond.
Reporting to the Director of the Office of Data and Analytics (ODA), the Data Analyst supports strategic planning and decision-making across the School through analysis of academic, budget and finance, human resources, research, and student data. Using institutional data and information from a variety of campus sources, the analyst develops and maintains reports, dashboards, and analytical tools that provide actionable insights for School leadership, academic departments, and administrative units. This role is ideal for a detail-oriented and analytical professional who is a critical thinker, self-starter, and collaborative partner with a passion for using data to support informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
Examples of areas of responsibility include:
- Develop, maintain, and enhance dashboards and reports that support School of Education leadership, academic departments, and administrative units’ decision-making.
- Analyze trends and patterns across academic, student, research, financial, and other operational data.
- Support reporting and analysis related to enrollment, retention, scholarships, post-graduation outcomes, course access, graduate education, research activity, and departmental and budget metrics.
- Prepare analysis and reporting for program review, accreditation, rankings submissions, and strategic planning initiatives.
Key Job Responsibilities:
- Tracks sources of information relevant to policy development affecting the higher education sector
- Works with business intelligence/analyst function in computing services to develop data visualization and business intelligence capability
- Designs and develops policy analyses and briefing papers for unit leadership
- Provides project support for, and further enhancement of, unit initiatives
- Reviews, monitors, and evaluates policies and data analyses to present as evidence-based support for unit bids, applications, and decision-making
- Assists in establishing guidelines and procedures to ensure adequacy, quality, and reliability of information sources
Department:
School of Education, Office of Data and Analytics
Compensation:
The minimum starting salary is $75,000, with flexibility based on qualifications and experience.
Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as:
- Generous vacation, holidays, and paid time off
- Competitive insurance and savings accounts
- Retirement benefits
Please review the summary of benefits for more information.
Required Qualifications:
- One year of professional experience analyzing large datasets to answer organizational, operational, policy, or research questions and produce reports and analyses.
- Proficiency querying relational databases using SQL or similar database programming languages.
- Experience working with large datasets from operational data systems.
- Experience assessing data quality, validating analytical results, and identifying and investigating discrepancies across data sources and reporting systems.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and responsibilities while maintaining a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office, particularly Excel (including data analysis tools such as Pivot Tables and Power Query) and PowerPoint.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience using data and analytical methods to evaluate policy or program outcomes and inform policy development and program evaluation.
- One year of experience working in higher education administration.
- One year of experience applying statistical analysis methods and/or developing reproducible data analyses using statistical software such as R, Python, SAS, Stata, or SPSS.
- Experience developing end-user focused dashboards, reports, and data visualizations using Tableau, Power BI, or Qlik or similar business intelligence tools.
- Experience with high-stakes reporting and responding to compliance and regulatory requirements.
- Experience working with stakeholders to define analytical questions, clarify requirements, and translate business needs into data analyses.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate complex analytical results to technical and non-technical audiences through written reports, presentations, and data visualizations.
- Experience developing and maintaining analytical and technical documentation, including the use of version-control tools such as GitLab.
- Interest in exploring the appropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve efficiency in workflows.
- Demonstrated ability to develop and sustain productive working relationships.
- Demonstrated ability to learn new software, analytical methods, and skills.
Education:
Required: Bachelor's degree.
Preferred: Master's degree and/or a degree in higher education administration, education policy, applied social sciences, or a related field.
How to Apply:
To apply for this position, select either "I am a current employee" or "I am not a current employee" under Apply Now. You will then be prompted to upload your application materials.
To be considered for this position, applicants must upload the following materials:
- Resume/Curriculum Vitae
- Cover Letter
Your application materials should highlight your experience relating to the qualifications referenced above.
Important: The application has only one attachment field. Please upload all required documents in that field, either as a single combined file or as multiple files in the same upload area. All required application materials must be submitted for your application to be considered.
Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without need of employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment.
The application deadline is 11:59pm on 11/15/2026.
Contact Information:
Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.
Institutional Statement on Diversity:
Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.
To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.
Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.
The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).
The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.