Data Manager

Education touches every aspect of human activity. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), we believe studying and improving the enterprise of education are central to the health and future of society.

The Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University is a unique partnership among districts, states, foundations, and university-based researchers designed to leverage the overwhelming amount of newly available school-, teacher-, and student-level data to address previously intractable policy questions in education and improve educational outcomes for all students. CEPR is looking to hire a talented Data Manager to oversee our core data management functions. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to, and to help develop, one of the education sector’s leading research centers. By managing CEPR’s data infrastructure, the Data Manager will help support research that strives to improve the prospects of K-12 students in public school systems across the country.

The Data Manager will have overall responsibility for maintaining and directing the ongoing development of the data infrastructure that serves as the foundation for Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) . The Data Manager will oversee CEPR’s core data management functions, such as acquiring/transferring all research-related data; processing and preparing data to ensure that they are of the highest quality; ensuring compliance with all data security requirements and contractual agreements with CEPR’s partner education agencies; serving as the primary liaison between CEPR, Harvard University IT (HUIT) and Harvard Graduate School of Education IT (HGSE IT); and coordinating the work of the various information technology specialists, consultants, contractors and CEPR staff that support the Center’s data-related work. Additional responsibilities include developing and tracking data project timelines, preparing status reports and data reports for both internal and external use, managing data resources, and serving as the primary thought leader on the design of new data-related tools and processes that could enhance CEPR’s research. **Specific accountabilities include:** * Managing the extract, transform, load (ETL) data processes and the secure acquisition and transfer of research-related data; Enhancing current processes for the efficient, secure transfer of encrypted data. * Developing data-related procedures and systems that comply with federal, state and local regulations governing personally identifiable information and protection of human subjects. * Ensuring compliance with all data security requirements. Working with CEPR administrative staff to create processes for monitoring compliance with the Data Use Agreements. * Overseeing the maintenance of CEPR’s internal data infrastructure, including maintaining data access rights and developing processes for sound data preparation, analysis and storage (e.g., consistent file-naming conventions, program documentation, standards regarding programming best practices, archiving of data from completed projects, etc.). Collaborating with CEPR’s research staff to ensure that the Center’s data are of the highest quality. * Collaborating with CEPR’s Principal Investigators and research staff to produce “data specs” to guide research acquisition. * Supervising and developing a small team of Data Analysts. Working with data and research staff to create a center-wide process for cleaning raw data and preparing it for research use (including performing various data quality and plausibility checks). * Serving as lead liaison between CEPR, HUIT, and HGSE IT to ensure that CEPR is meeting the University’s security and data requirements. * Developing strategic plans regarding CEPR’s IT and data resources to ensure that the Center is well positioned to perform its work as efficiently and effectively as possible moving forward. * In collaboration with CEPR COO, developing and maintaining an ongoing costing model of CEPR’s data and IT functions, providing a basis for quantification of the full-scope of services * Overseeing server administration tasks and the maintenance of the data warehousing environment, including supervising staff, consultants, contractors, etc. who provide related services.

**Basic Qualifications** * BA or BS and a minimum of 3 years of experience managing large scale data projects for the purposes of supporting research or analysis. * Demonstrated expertise with database management, ETL processes, and dealing with large volumes of data. * Experience programming in one or several data management and statistical programming software packages (e.g., SQL, SAS, STATA, R). **Additional Qualifications** Graduate degree in social science or information science. The more experience dealing with large volumes of data the better. The ideal candidate will be highly productive working under pressure with time constraints, possess the ability to work independently, with supervision, or in collaboration as a team. Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail. STATA programming experience; experience working with K-12 public education data, such as human resource, financial, student, and school data. Preference for candidates interested in state or local education policy research and experience working with K-12 public education student information systems (e.g., PowerSchool). Experience in a social science research setting a plus.