Pay Grade/Pay Range: Minimum: $54,000 - Midpoint: $67,500 (Salaried E8)
Department/Organization: 212701 - Special Education
Normal Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm
Note to Applicants: Position is eligible for hybrid work subject to University policy.
Job Summary: The Data Analyst I gathers, audits, analyzes, and reports low- to moderate-complexity data under general supervision. Ensures data integrity. May perform ad-hoc analyses and reporting to inform decision-making, or design predictive modeling or other data mining capabilities.
Additional Department Summary: The University of Alabama, College of Education, Department of Special Education invites applications for a Data Coordinator to lead research data collection and management activities for Project LIFT: Literacy Improvement through Focused Tutoring, an $11.2 million, five-year Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-Phase grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Project LIFT is scaling Friends on the Block (FOTB), an evidence-based early literacy intervention, to 75 primarily rural elementary schools across Alabama. The project supports K-12 struggling readers, including students with disabilities, across three implementation cohorts and includes a rigorous randomized controlled trial independently evaluated by Oregon Research Institute (ORI).
This position leads all research data collection activities at UA and in the field. Coordinates data collection and management. Analyzes quantitative and qualitative data to measure project effectiveness and student reading outcomes. Tracks intervention fidelity and implementation. Supports IRB approval and adherence. Assists with budgeting, reporting, and dissemination activities.
Required Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's degree or higher and some data analysis experience.
Additional Required Department Minimum Qualifications: Must have valid U.S. driver's license. Must be at least 19 years of age at time of hire and have an acceptable Motor Vehicle Report that is in compliance with University policies. Applicants under the age of 21 will have some driving restrictions.
Skills and Knowledge: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience communicating clearly with school leaders, teachers, research partners, and federal sponsors about data collection timelines, completion rates, and compliance requirements. Exceptional organizational and project management skills, including demonstrated ability to manage multiple simultaneous deadlines, track data collection completion across many sites and conditions, and proactively identify and resolve data quality issues. Strong quantitative data skills, including experience with SPSS, R, SAS, or equivalent statistical software for data preparation, cleaning, transformation, and quality review prior to analysis. Proficiency with secure data environments, including VPN, two-factor authentication, encrypted storage platforms (UA Box, SharePoint, or equivalent), role-based access controls, and federal data security standards for research involving student-level data. Proficiency with Qualtrics or a comparable enterprise survey and data collection platform, including programming complex surveys with skip logic, embedded data, response validation, and automated reporting. Familiarity with the Alabama educational context, Alabama Literacy Act, Alabama Reading Initiative, or Alabama school district operations. Familiarity with human subjects protection requirements, including FERPA, IRB protocols, informed consent procedures, CITI certification, and federal data security requirements applicable to educational research; demonstrated ability to apply these requirements independently in day-to-day operations. Ability to maintain strict confidentiality of participant information in compliance with IRB, FERPA, and federal human subjects protection requirements; demonstrated track record of responsible data stewardship. Ability to travel regularly to participating schools and districts across Alabama.
Preferred Qualifications: Master's degree in education, psychology, data science, public health, statistics, information systems, or a closely related field and seven (7) years of relevant professional experience. Experience as a lead or senior data coordinator on an IES-, EIR-, OSEP-, NIH-, or NSF-funded randomized controlled trial or large-scale implementation study in education or public health. Leadership experience coordinating data collection and data management for a federally funded research study (IES, NIH, NSF, OSEP, EIR, or equivalent), including managing multi-site data collection, training and supervising data collection staff, and maintaining data integrity across multiple time points and conditions. Experience managing IRB-regulated multi-site data collection, including maintenance of consent documentation, regulatory files, and amendment submissions across a multi-year federally funded study. Experience with REDCap, SPSS, R, or SAS for data management and preparation, including merging datasets across sources and time points, applying variable transformations, and generating analysis-ready datasets. Experience programming and managing Qualtrics research instruments for large-scale studies, including workflow automation, contact list management, and integration with secure data storage environments. Expertise in research data management, including designing and maintaining data dictionaries, developing data quality assurance and cleaning protocols, managing large datasets, and preparing clean, documented datasets for analysis and sharing under data use agreements. Experience with IES or U.S. Department of Education research requirements, including WWC design standards, ED 524B reporting, and federal data sharing and management plan compliance. K-12 school or district experience (e.g., teacher, assessment coordinator, data coach, special education administrator, interventionist, or district data manager). Experience with the science of reading, early literacy assessment (e.g., WIAT-IV, DIBELS, CTOPP, CUBED), high-impact tutoring, or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). Experience working with students with disabilities, students in high-need rural schools, or populations receiving special education services. CITI Program certification in Human Subjects Research (Social and Behavioral Sciences) or equivalent. IRB certifications.
Background Investigation Statement: Prior to hiring, the final candidate(s) must successfully pass a pre-employment background investigation and information obtained from social media and other internet sources. A prior conviction reported as a result of the background investigation DOES NOT automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration for this position. A candidate with a prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags will receive an individualized review of the prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags before a hiring decision is made.
Equal Employment Opportunity: The University of Alabama is an Equal Employment/Equal Educational Opportunity Institution. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment or volunteer status without regard to any legally protected basis and will not be discriminated against because of their protected status. Applicants and employees of this institution are protected under Federal law from discrimination on several bases. More information is available in the EEOC’s Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal poster.
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