Why work at BYU?

As the flagship higher education institution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young University (BYU) strives to be among the exceptional universities in the world. At BYU, we are devoted to our faith and to our students. We take an active role in the university's mission: "To assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life.

Our unique mission, deeply rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, provides countless ways to serve and make an impact. This, along with our remarkable culture of belonging, weekly devotionals, and endless opportunities for learning and growth, all situated within a beautiful and historic campus, make it hard to imagine a more inspiring place to work.

Job Summary

This position is responsible for designing, developing, testing, and maintaining products to support critical BYU Enrollment Services functions. These products will include reports and dashboards, predictive models, and research and analysis. Responsibilities include customer consultation, requirement analysis, engineering, implementation, integration, and technical services and support. Products may be internal or public facing. The position will also be responsible for ensuring Enrollment Services systems protect confidential data and securely integrate with other university systems as needed. Customers include the Admissions Office, Financial Aid Office, Registrar¿s Office, Enrollment Services Office, the advisement community, administration, and other campus entities at BYU.

The Data Scientist will gather, analyze, and manipulate large sets of structured and unstructured data using computer science, statistics, and mathematics to interpret and then present the results to create actionable plans that may include supporting enrollment, admissions, scholarship awarding, and student support initiatives across the entire student life-cycle.

It is imperative this position have a strong knowledge of the higher education life cycle and machine learning techniques. It also requires the ability to ingest data, analyze the data, and present user-friendly results.

Essential Functions

• Data & Software Engineering

• Design, develop, and maintain complex predictive modeling and other data tools for use in the division and the university.
  • Develops and codes software programs, complex algorithms, and automated processes to cleanse, integrate, and evaluate large datasets from multiple disparate sources
  • Support the development and maintenance of infrastructure systems that connect internal data sets
  • Creates data mining architectures/models/protocols or other data collection frameworks for structured and unstructured "big data", statistical reporting, and data analysis methodologies to identify trends in large data sets and to generate actionable insights and solutions for client services and program enhancement
• Finds and identifies relevant data sets and sources including Enrollment Services data, Learning Management System data, U.S. high school demographic and performance data, and standardized testing data.
  • Interacts with Enrollment Services (Admissions, Scholarships, Registrar, Enrollment Services Office) and other campus offices (such as advisement centers) to identify questions and issues for data analysis and experiments
  • Conducts research and explorative analyses to uncover potentially useful data trends which will provide strategic insight into student engagement and academic achievement and support, and gaps between student subpopulations
• As needed, in collaboration with the CommTech and Innovation team, assist in architecture development, documentation, and testing
  • Complex data structuring (data modeling)
  • Data dictionaries
  • Complex system design and testing
• Perform root cause analysis, troubleshoot and resolve
• Data maintenance

2. Data Analysis

• Applies and integrates statistical, mathematical, predictive modeling and business analysis skills to manage and manipulate complex high-volume data from a variety of sources in order to analyze how BYU students are navigating through various academic programs and experiences and identify and predict when students need extra support to be academically successful.
• Analyze data and trends to provide strategic insight as needed in the division and university.
  • Use statistical modeling, predictive modeling, and business analysis skills
  • Explain results clearly and effectively to inform decisions made by Enrollment Services Executives and other stakeholders
  • Evaluates and identifies trends in BYU student enrollment, engagement, and achievement
  • Analyzes the effectiveness of student success and support initiatives
• Create and maintain detailed documentations for data collection, analysis procedures, methodologies, and results to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and knowledge transfer within the team and with stakeholders.
• Analyze the effectiveness of various initiatives.
• Fulfill ad hoc data analysis requests

3. Reporting & Predicting

• Design, develop, and maintain reports, visualizations, and dashboards.
• Explains variances, trends, and provides insights to Enrollment Services Executives and critical stakeholders for use in strategic planning and specific business performance issues.
  • Identifies and implements data mining protocols as well as manipulates data, identifies visualizations and data modeling techniques that will lead to proper translation and presentation of desired information
• Creates visualizations of complex relationships and big data sets in a user-friendly and easy-to-understand way to facilitate business decision making (Tableau, etc.)

4. Product and Personnel Management

• Project team member/leader for multiple projects
• Trains users on predictive tools and models
• Supervision of student employees as assigned

Education/Experience

• Minimum required:
  • MS in Computer Science, Mathematics, Information Technology, Information Systems, Statistics, or related field AND 2-4 years of experience in data science, technology, and/or data analysis OR equivalent combination of education/industry experience (Bachelor's AND 4-6 years).
• Preferred:
  • PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics, Information Technology, Information Systems, Statistics, or a related field AND 4-6 years of experience in data science, technology, and/or data analysis OR equivalent combination of education/industry experience
  • 2 or more years of experience in higher education

Skills, abilities, knowledge, licenses, certifications:

• Required:
  • Python, R, or other programming language (C/C , Java, etc)
  • Some experience with relational databases (MSSQL, MySQL, Oracle, etc.)
  • Understanding of machine learning algorithms (including boosting algorithms like XGBoost, BART, etc)
  • Statistical analysis and data visualization
  • Data wrangling and data exploration
  • Data extraction/mining, data transformation/cleaning, and data loading/munging
  • Ability to work with structured and unstructured data
  • Understanding of business and business intelligence, with the higher education strategy in mind
  • Ability to communicate complex ideas and make data-driven organizational suggestions
  • Ability to work through unfamiliar or unstructured data sources
  • Ability to work through unfamiliar or unstructured data sources
• Preferred:
  • One additional programming language: Python, R, SQL
  • Advanced machine learning
  • Experience with at least one reporting tool (Tableau, Power BI, etc.)
  • Knowledge of leading-edge use of predictive analytics in Higher Education
  • Exposure to big data processing frameworks (Hadoop, Spark, Hive, or other)

Employee Class: Staff (Full-Time)
Work Location: Provo Campus
Environment: General office or other equivalently good environment
Physical Exam Required: N
Physical Exam Details:
Desired Start Date: As soon as possible
Job Close Date: 05/21/2024
Pay Level: 55T
Approximate Starting Salary: $96,500 - $125,000
Documents Required at time of Application:
Required: Cover Letter, Letter of Recommendation 1, Letter of Recommendation 2, Resume
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must hold and be worthy to hold a current temple recommend.
Brigham Young University is an equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veteran status.
Brigham Young University (BYU) is widely recognized not just for its world-class education, but for its deep commitment to inspired religious values. Gathered together in a Christ-centered atmosphere, BYU employees are a vital part of a community of belonging, where we value the experiences, perspectives, and talents of each individual. If you share in our devotion to faith and to excellence, we have a place for you here at BYU!