Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the third-largest school district in the United States, serving over 330,000 students in 600 schools and employing nearly 36,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Internal Audit and Compliance (IAC) provides assurance and advisory services through independent and objective reviews to continuously improve systems and processes across the district that better prepare every child for success in college, career, and civic life.

Job Summary:

Reporting to the Director of Internal Audit and Compliance, the Data Strategist is responsible to develop, execute and maintain the data analytics frameworks and its activities in compliance with applicable audit standards, regulations, governmental requirements and policies consistent with CPS’ strategic and operational objectives, mission and vision. The Data Strategist plays an integral role in partnering with IAC senior leadership in using data analytics to identify material risks and underlying process deficiencies that require the attention of CPS senior leadership (Directors and above including C Suite leadership). This coordination will require cross functional collaboration with all IAC tracks including but not limited to: School Audits, Central Office Audits, Risk Committee initiatives and periodic reporting to the CPS Board of Directors.

The Data Strategist is responsible for a disciplined approach to decision making that is risk based, data driven, agile to shifting demands and expectations of CPS’ obligations, knowledge, skills, and experience necessary in the performance of internal audit services. All IAC audit projects are conducted in compliance with the Institute of Internal Audit Standards (IIA); therefore, the Data Strategist must demonstrate compliance with the standards and participate in periodic IIA Quality Assessment Reviews.

The Data Strategist will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

Develop, execute, and maintain IAC data analytics framework and its activities. (60%)

• Proactively identify repeatable data analysis that can be used by the internal audit team in making strategic, informed decisions. Specifically, to support planning and scoping of audits and risk assessments.
• Demonstrate a practical understanding of data analysis concepts and basic programming techniques. Provide technical expertise on data extraction, data cleansing, data mining and analysis.
• Develop new business intelligence (BI) solutions and maintain existing solutions to support data extraction (for end users).
• Demonstrate ability to understand complex and diverse technology and identify sources and tools needed to deliver analysis and reports.
• Build relationships with business partners across the organization for data gathering, data initiative and data governance purposes.
• Maintain existing data analytics projects and develop new projects that support the execution and administration of the IAC’s mission and annual audit plan.
• Proactively hold discussions with the Internal Audit leadership to brainstorm on the complex analysis, develop the logic and script/code/workflows, and discuss limitations and any potential issues.
• Provide quality service to stakeholders, which includes obtaining and demonstrating a strong understanding of the business process and associated data.
• Identify and develop new analytics (descriptive, diagnostic and prescriptive) to support risk and control conclusions.
• Perform data validation to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the data extracted and maintain the integrity of the extracted data if it is stored on the IAC’s shared drive.
• Maintain and update the existing data analytics projects - refresh the data and generate new reports to support continuous auditing/monitoring.
• Develop new and conduct existing training on a regular basis to encourage and facilitate the widespread use of analytics within the internal audit team.
• Coordinate and communicate effectively with internal auditors, CPS management, and other key stakeholders, as necessary, to meet above objectives and with the support of the Internal Audit leadership engage in special projects, critical process reviews, and investigations as necessary.

Serve as the resident expert and liaison to all others serving in data analytics (DA) functions. (20%)

• Maintain knowledge of best practices by participating in educational opportunities, reading professional publications, performing benchmarking, maintaining networks, and participating in professional organizations.
• Collaborate with various DA and IT teams to ensure integrity of data.

Perform internal audits as part of a team. (20%)

• Contribute as a Senior Auditor on audit engagements and partner with IAC leadership to effectively plan and scope all audit and risk management engagements with data analytic considerations, providing data expertise and insights.
• Provide support and guidance to encourage and facilitate the widespread use of analytics within the internal audit team.
• Conduct interviews and inquiries with auditees to understand business process, technology, and data to support audit scope and objectives.
• Design, test, and deliver useful data insights (i.e., trends, patterns, outliers), to support the development of the scope and objectives and to identify risk and control weaknesses.
• In the execution phase, develop complex data analysis with the support of Internal Audit leadership. Also provide continual guidance to the staff/senior auditors (i.e., understand the data, perform 100% population testing, and/or perform robust statistical sampling).
• Communicate effectively with the internal audit team at the audit, department, and leadership level to present test results (findings) and control remediation recommendations that align with the COSO framework and Institute of Internal Audit (IIA) Standards.

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Data Strategist must possess the following qualifications:

Education Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance/Business Administration, Computer Science, MIS, or another relevant field.
• Relevant certification is preferred (e.g., CPA, CFE, CIA, CISA, CISM, or any data analytics or programming certification).

Experience Required:

• Minimum of five (5) years of data analysis is required; internal or external audit, or experience in public accounting is highly preferred.
• Experience performing analysis on large data sets with emphasis on internal audit projects (including data extraction, data mining, test data creation, data validation, data manipulation, profiling, and visualization) applying the Institute of Internal Audit standards.
• Experience using one or more of the following data sources: Oracle and MS SQL (or a comparable audit tool).
• Experience using Alteryx business intelligence tool is a plus.
• Experience with one or more data visualization tools is a plus.
• Experience in education and public sector is a plus.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to understand complex and diverse technology infrastructure as it relates to data flows and business processes.
• Strong analytic, data management skills, and problem-solving skills including the ability to combine complex datasets, identify and conduct appropriate analyses.
• A wide knowledge and understanding of data collection methodologies, analysis, principles, and techniques.
• Effective communication, leadership, and time management skills with the ability to act autonomously while being a team player. Ability to communicate data and methodological details clearly and accurately to non-technical audiences.
• Strong planning and organizational skills.
• Able to act independently and be self-motivated.
• Broad business acumen – ability to engage in a wide variety of business discussions and quickly learn new and/or complex concepts.

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions.
• Be Fully Vaccinated or Submit to Weekly COVID-19 Testing - Employees are required to be fully vaccinated within 30 days of their hire date. Full vaccination is defined as at least two weeks after your second shot of a two-shot vaccination course, or at least two weeks after a one-shot vaccination course. Unvaccinated staff must submit to weekly testing.

CPS Non-Union Job Grade: S07

Estimated Annual Salary Range: $64,000 - $82,000

Final salary offers are dependent upon candidate qualifications