Research Data Analyst II

The University of Utah’s Prison Education Action Research Lab (PEARL) conducts research on postsecondary education in prison and educational justice. The Research Data Analyst II supports secure, documented data workflows and analysis for PEARL’s national research portfolio, including the Prison Education Research Initiative, and assists with qualitative research.

Responsibilities:

• Perform routine statistical analyses on research datasets and begin to provide insights for research studies. Use software such as Excel or Tableau to manipulate data, create visualizations, and generate summaries. Assist with writing sections of research reports and manuscripts, contributing to the interpretation of results. Work independently on smaller analysis tasks and support more complex projects under supervision
• Perform routine statistical analyses on research datasets and begin to provide insights for research studies. Use software such as Stata, Excel, R, or Python to manipulate data, create visualizations, and generate summaries. Assist with writing sections of research reports and manuscripts, contributing to the interpretation of results. Work independently on smaller analysis tasks and support more complex projects under supervision
• Support the secure receipt, cleaning, validation, standardization, recoding, and documentation of incoming administrative and survey datasets from multiple institutions and external organizations
• Maintain organized folder structures, file naming conventions, and version control practices
• Create and help maintain data dictionaries, codebooks, variable crosswalks, and workflow documentation
• Produce reproducible, report-ready tables, figures, and descriptive summaries
• Contribute to PERI data tasks under the direction of the senior Research Data Analyst and the Senior Research Associate, Quantitative
• Assist with data pipeline, integration, and relational database tasks, building skills in reproducible workflows
• National dataset (approximately 45%): lead and support the acquisition, cleaning, validation, documentation, and preparation of PEARL's national administrative and survey data
• PERI (approximately 45%): contribute to the Prison Education Research Initiative, working alongside and learning from the senior Research Data Analyst and the quantitative research team
• Qualitative research (approximately 10%): support qualitative research activities, including assisting with interviews and contributing to qualitative data analysis

Requirements:

• Requires a bachelor's (or equivalency) + 4 years or a master's (or equivalency) + 2 years of directly related work experience
• Bachelor's degree in data science, statistics, economics, mathematics, education, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent professional experience
• Two years of professional experience in research data management, statistical programming, or quantitative analysis
• Demonstrated commitment to and knowledge about educational equity and justice
• Proficiency in at least one statistical or data programming environment (e.g., Stata, R, or Python) for data cleaning, validation, transformation, and analysis, with the ability to learn new tools as needed
• Exposure to SQL, relational databases, or secure data environments, or an interest in developing these skills
• Experience managing raw or inconsistently structured datasets from multiple institutions, agencies, or external organizations
• Strong understanding of data confidentiality, secure data handling, and quality assurance practices
• Excellent organizational skills with strong attention to detail
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Experience supporting social science, education, criminal justice, public policy, or longitudinal research
• Interest in mixed-methods research, including qualitative data collection and analysis
• Knowledge of postsecondary education research and data infrastructure