Lead Data Analyst- WGU Academy
Western Governors University
If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Job Description
- Drive the documentation of data, analytics, and research needs in projects of high complexity with a student and equity-centered lens, collaborating with peers, cross-functional partners, faculty staff, and leaders.
- Set and manage expectations about complex analytics tasks and activities through clear, timely, and effective communication with partners and stakeholders.
- Answer complex business questions requiring extensive knowledge of the university’s data assets across several domains and departments.
- Identify adequate data sources and data sets to evaluate hypotheses and produce forecasts.
- Collaborate with Data Engineering in the development of complex ETL/ELT processes and data pipelines.
- Identify, investigate, and solve complex data issues, contributing to the accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, and validity of the university’s data.
- Combine data analysis, visualization, and narrative structures to convey information in compelling ways that instigate deliberate action.
What You'll Bring
- Advanced SQL proficiency, with experience writing queries and subqueries, modifying data (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE), creating views, and knowledge of different join types, filtering, sorting, aggregation, window functions, common table expressions (CTE), and performance tuning.
- Highly proficient and experienced in using tools like Tableau and Power BI to present data and information utilizing charts, graphs, and maps in ways that make it easy to understand trends, patterns, and outliers.
- Ability to interpret and design models that describe how data relate to one another, and to the properties of the real-world entities they represent. Highly experienced in conceptual and logical data modeling, dimensional models, star schema, snowflake schema, and advanced concepts like slowly changing dimensions.
- Experienced with descriptive statistics, causal analysis, and inference. Familiarized with forecasting methods (time series, inferential, and/or regression) and with classification algorithms.
- Comfortable with common project management methodologies and frameworks (e.g., Waterfall, Agile, SDLC).
- Proficient in the MS Office suite, including advanced Excel knowledge.
- Proficient in flowchart and diagramming tools like Miro, Visio, Lucidchart, and similar applications.
Bonus Points if You Have
- Familiarity with the university’s most relevant KPIs, the drivers that affect them, and play an active role in their definition and tracking.
- Ability to apply sound judgment, systems-thinking, and analytical skills to assess risks, perform root-cause analyses, make recommendations, and drive cross-functional decisions that contribute to the achievement of the university’s objectives.
- Ability to perform with very high levels of autonomy, reliability, self-direction, and with a bias for action. Manages conflicting and concurrent activities with minimal need for supervision.
Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is at the discretion of the hiring manager.
At WGU, our mission drives everything we do—including how we hire. Our interview experience is designed to give qualified candidates the opportunity to show their best work through meaningful conversations, practical problem-solving, and authentic collaboration.
- Introductory call (~30 minutes): We’ll walk you through who we are at WGU and learn about your relevant experience.
- Hiring Manager Interview (30-45 minutes)- MS Teams video interview with the hiring leader to get to know you and your goals, discuss the team dynamics, and overall responsibilities of the role.
- Technical interview (~1 hour): Dive deeper into your technical skills and experience.
This is a full-time, in-office position at WGU’s office in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.