Director, Research and Data Science

Summary Description:

The Director, Research and Data Science is responsible for overseeing the department and supports the Council's commitment to disseminating actionable and relevant information about the management education community.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the Research and Data Science department's strategic direction, inclusive of GMAC's survey program, testing analysis/reporting program, and data science function. This is a critical component to:
  • Delivering value to GMAC's membership, who depend on the analysis and benchmarking services the Research team provides to build their recruitment and portfolio/program strategies;
  • Driving organizational direction by identifying and monitoring trends and industry insights and heavily influencing the strategic direction of other functional departments within the organization.
  • Support thought leadership content that will position GMAC as a partner for Business Schools and will enable pipeline creation for candidates
  • Build creative approaches to maximize yield of our data assets and data science capabilities.
• Active partner to building an integrated communications strategy that promotes GMAC's brand as a thought leader in the industry. Proactively identify need and implement new research to react to on-going trends in the marketplace and provide the foundation information and analysis upon which the Council's research white papers are based that are published and presented at industry conferences around the world.
• Provide expertise representing GMAC on data and research activities, a key driver of the organization's strong reputation within the industry.
• Collaborate with other departments to lead and effectively meet their research and data needs.
• Oversee the organization's data science efforts, including conceptualize complex data solutions for GMAC initiatives (e.g., matching, lead scoring, and optimization algorithms [i.e. Website Content Flow]). These efforts are critical to supporting the broader organization's ambitions to deliver against the longer term strategic roadmap and significantly impact GMAC's ability to deliver on mission.
• Implement innovative approaches to design and implement primary data collection efforts to anticipate and meet the needs of key stakeholders, including GMAC, schools, and media.
• Provide data and statistical support for strategic and tactical decision making, including activities to assist in school engagement, candidate marketing, and industry education, responsibilities include survey reports, external reporting of GMAT testing data, ad hoc-request services, and surveys.
• Establish and oversee quality control of all aspects of the survey research and data science programs, including research methodology, questionnaire design, and data analysis procedures and ensure legal and ethical compliance regarding research data.
• Develop, justify, and manage the budgets for the entire department.
• Develop and evolve a high-performance team, inclusive of the Research Survey team and Data Science and Analysis.

• Other responsibilities and duties, as assigned.

Minimum Requirements:

• Master's degree in Statistics, survey methodology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, market research, etc.
• Minimum of 5-7 years of experience in the field of large-scale research and higher education or management education or equivalent combination of education, skills, and experience.
• Minimum of 4 years of progressive managerial experience.
• Oversee, manage, and perform all aspects of survey research function, including research design, sampling methodology, questionnaire development, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, report writing, and dissemination.
• Deep knowledge using Qualtrics- including API and Power BI, R and Python. Data engineering capabilities would be ideal.
• Ability to turn statistical and computational analysis into reports, graphs, charts and interactive visualizations.
• Keen understanding of external and internal data sources, how they are gathered, stored and retrieved.
• Advanced expertise in SPSS statistical and survey implementation software (application interface and syntaxis)
• Strong ‘story telling' capabilities to build a narrative from multiple data sources and analysis.
• Inquisitive mind to continue innovating and finding new angles to add value to the industry, using creativity to capture or analyze data
• Ability to propose and implement strategy to influence and support the Senior Leadership team.
• Superior analytical skills and ability to prioritize objectives.
• Excellent communication skills to be able to interact directly with non-technical stakeholders and act in a business-to-technical translation role.
• Manage research external vendor relationships.
• Ability to successfully lead a team.
• Expertise in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel).

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Desired Skills:

• Strong statistical analysis skills.
• Strong technical skills using SPSS, QUALTRICS, R, Python, Databricks
• Strong strategic and analytical skills.
• Strong people management and interpersonal skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills.

GMAC's value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.

As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or other protected criteria, in accordance with applicable law.

FLSA Status:
Exempt
Report to:
Chief Marketing Officer
GMAC's value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.
As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
Posted 30+ Days Ago

Full time

R0000197
About Us
The Graduate Management Admission Council™ (GMAC™) is a mission-driven association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. Founded in 1953, we are committed to creating solutions for business schools and candidates to better discover, evaluate and connect with each other. We work on behalf of the schools and the graduate management education community, as well as guide candidates on their journey to higher education, to ensure that no talent goes undiscovered.

GMAC provides world-class research, professional development opportunities and assessments for the industry, designed to advance the art and science of admissions. Owned and administered by GMAC, the Graduate Management Admission Test™ (GMAT™) is the most widely used graduate business school assessment, recognized by more than 7,000 programs worldwide. Other GMAC assessments include the NMAT by GMAC™ (NMAT™) exam, for entrance into graduate management programs in India, South Africa, and the Philippines, and the Executive Assessment (EA), specifically designed for Executive programs around the world.

Our flagship portal for graduate management education resources and information, www.mba.com , receives 14 million visits a year and features the School Search matching tool and Graduate Management Admission Search Service™ (GMASS™) database, matching candidates and business schools.

GMAC is a global organization with offices in Hong Kong, China, Gurugram, India, Singapore, London, United Kingdom and the United States. To learn more about our work, please visit www.gmac.com .