Director, Data Management and Analytics

Position: Director, Data Management and Analytics

Location: Remote, preferably within California

Description of Job: The Director, Data Management and Analytics at CCSA, will play a vital role in improving educational outcomes for California charter students by building and managing the data infrastructure that powers our insights and decision-making. The Director ensures accurate and timely collection, processing, and analysis of vast amounts of school data from the California Department of Education and other sources.

Overview of Responsibilities

This position reports to the Managing Director, Education Data Analytics. The Director will be responsible for building and managing the data infrastructure that powers CCSA's insights and decision-making. Success in this role will be measured by the ability to design and implement robust, scalable data pipelines, build a high-performance data platform, ensure data quality and governance, and automate processes for efficiency. The Director will also be a key collaborator with data analysts and business users, ensuring their data needs are met and technical concepts are clearly communicated. In addition to building our data platform, the Director will be conducting data mining, cleansing, and in-depth analysis of quantitative data pertaining to California charter schools and summarizing and extracting key insights from the data to inform decision-making processes. This role is also helping us get our own data warehouse in order so we can more efficiently scale our data services to support other clients and generate revenue for CCSA. Ultimately, success will be reflected in the improved quality and accessibility of data for CCSA and CCSA’s clients, leading to better informed decisions and increased revenue.

Essential Duties

• Ensure efficient and reliable data flow from the California Department of Education, CCSA, and CCSA's client’s data sources into a central data warehouse/lake.
• Choose and implement appropriate data storage technologies (relational databases, NoSQL, data warehouses, data lakes) to meet organizational needs.
• Create robust data models for efficient querying and analysis. Improve data storage and retrieval performance.
• Establish and enforce data quality standards, policies, and procedures. Implement data validation, cleansing, and enrichment processes. Contribute to data governance frameworks.
• Automate data pipeline tasks, workflows, and batch processing. Implement monitoring and alerting mechanisms to address issues proactively.
• Conduct data mining, cleansing, and in-depth analysis of quantitative data pertaining to California charter schools.
• Highlight charter trends and successes in the areas of enrollment, academic achievement and progress, and non-academic outcomes. Articulate for lay audiences the structure, meaning, and significance of public education data, ranging from enrollment and academic outcomes to nonacademic measures of school culture and student engagement.
• Generate comprehensive reports, concise summaries, and visually engaging data visualizations based on research outcomes and analytical findings. Prepare and deliver presentations that effectively communicate findings to stakeholders, utilizing a blend of written reports, visual aids, and verbal communication skills.
• Work with data analysts, scientists, and business users to understand their data needs and provide technical guidance.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to fulfill data requests.
• Continuously learn and adapt to the evolving data engineering landscape.
• Maintain an awareness of state and local level policy developments that impact charter schools; Model the implications of new and proposed policies and communicate these impacts to CCSA member schools and advocacy staff in a digestible way.
• Supports CCSA sponsored events and activities as needed, including CCSA’s annual Charter Schools Conference.
• Provides support as appropriate to CCSA Advocates—CCSA’s tandem 501(c)4 organization—with campaign efforts at the local and state level.

What Success Looks Like:

This Director, Data Management and Analytics, role at the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) is crucial for improving educational outcomes for charter students across the state. The Director Data Management and Analytics will play a vital role in making data accessible and actionable for stakeholders at CCSA, transforming the way we understand and improve education in California's charter school sector. By building a collaborative data platform and streamlining data processes, the Director will empower our analysts, researchers, and educators to work together more effectively, driving positive change for charter students. By building and maintaining key strategic data infrastructure within the organization, the Director not only supports CCSA’s analytical needs but also ensures our ability to generate earned revenue through effective data services to other entities that support CCSA’s long-term sustainability and organizational strength.

Competencies

• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams, including data analysts and business users.
• Ability to analyze complex data requirements and design appropriate data solutions.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills to identify and address data-related challenges.
• Strong attention to detail and a systematic approach to data engineering tasks.
• Willingness to continuously learn and stay up to date with the evolving data engineering landscape.
• Committed to promoting the value of individual differences to create a diverse, respectful, and inclusive workplace.

Required Capabilities

• A bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Information Technology, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field plus 5 years of professional experience, required
• Experience in:
  • Database managing systems: Oracle, mySQL, AWS, Google Cloud, Snowflake, or Azure
  • Programming: SQL (preferred), Python
  • ETL: Data cleaning, normalization, enrichment
  • Data security and encryption
  • Communicating with technical and non-technical stakeholders

Preferred Capabilities

• A master’s degree in a related field is a plus, demonstrating advanced knowledge and experience.
• Certifications in data engineering, cloud computing, or specific technologies (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer).
• Experience in:
  • Data Modeling: Dimensional modeling, schema-on-read/write
  • Data Visualization: Tableau, Power BI