Director of Institutional Research

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Director of Institutional Research oversees institutional research and studies for a college or university. Designs and leads studies evaluating the effectiveness of the institution's programs and policies. Manages data collection and analysis with regards to these questions, and directs formulation of research reports.

Job Outlook

There were 14 Director of Institutional Research job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 387 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Researcher / Research Associate industry, which includes the Director of Institutional Research career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Director of Institutional Research jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $131,168.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $131,168.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Director of Institutional Research postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $116,398.

Education and Experience

Posted Director of Institutional Research jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	36.18%
Master's Degree	85.79%
Doctoral Degree	35.4%
Other	2.07%

Posted Director of Institutional Research jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	7.12%
3 to 5 years	73.79%
6 to 8 years	14.89%
9+ years	4.21%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Director of Institutional Research positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Planning (71.83%)
Research (71.32%)
Decision Making (70.54%)
Leadership (67.18%)
Strategic Planning (58.66%)
Communication (53.75%)
Management (48.84%)
Writing (33.59%)
Operations (28.68%)
Presentations (25.58%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Statistical Analysis (27.34%)
Academic Affairs (20.57%)
Data Analysis (57.81%)
Data Collection (51.3%)
Data Management (28.39%)
Data Visualization (32.29%)
Enrollment Management (20.57%)
SPSS (Statistical Software) (40.62%)
Power BI (22.66%)
Statistics (47.66%)
Dashboard (42.45%)
Data Warehousing (24.74%)
Data Integrity (23.7%)
Data Governance (31.25%)
Statistical Software (21.61%)
R (Programming Language) (24.22%)
Institutional Research (98.7%)
External Reporting (26.3%)
Project Management (25%)
Research Methodologies (22.4%)
Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (35.68%)
SAS (Software) (23.18%)
Social Sciences (21.35%)
SQL (Programming Language) (33.85%)
Surveys (37.24%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Database Management (8.59%)
Statistical Reporting (5.99%)
Student Services (11.98%)
Office Equipment (7.55%)
Compliance Reporting (9.64%)
Liberal Arts (4.69%)
Educational Assessment (6.51%)
Data-Driven Decision Making (7.81%)
Strategic Prioritization (7.55%)
Microsoft Access (8.85%)
Business Intelligence (12.76%)
Database Management Systems (2.86%)
Policy Development (10.68%)
Business Intelligence Tools (4.69%)
Continuous Improvement Process (14.58%)
Information Systems (11.2%)
Decision Support Systems (9.11%)
Economics (8.07%)
Computer Science (11.72%)
Data Quality (9.9%)
Dissemination (6.25%)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (15.62%)
Performance Appraisal (5.73%)
Educational Research (11.2%)
Higher Education (15.36%)
Student Learning Outcomes (10.68%)
Data Modeling (7.55%)
Annual Reports (3.91%)
Program Evaluation (8.33%)
Benchmarking (8.85%)
Quantitative Research (11.98%)
Performance Metric (4.43%)
Survey Research (6.51%)
Student Information Systems (14.84%)
Relational Databases (17.71%)
Finance (12.76%)
Qualtrics (9.11%)
Data Extraction (6.25%)
Reporting Tools (7.81%)
Python (Programming Language) (8.59%)
Resource Allocation (7.81%)
Internal Reporting (13.28%)
Qualitative Research (10.42%)
Research Design (18.49%)
Operational Planning (4.69%)
Statistical Methods (7.81%)
Data Science (17.71%)
Stata (4.69%)
Student Engagement (3.65%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Statistical Analysis (29.66%)
External Reporting (28.53%)
Data Analysis (62.71%)
Dashboard (46.05%)
Data Governance (33.9%)
Data Integrity (25.71%)
Data Visualization (35.03%)
Data Warehousing (26.84%)
R (Programming Language) (26.27%)
Project Management (27.12%)
Power BI (24.58%)
SAS (Software) (25.14%)
SQL (Programming Language) (36.72%)
Statistical Software (23.45%)
Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (38.7%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Director of Institutional Research skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness
Associate Director of Institutional Research
Director of Institutional Research and Assessment
Institutional Research Analyst
Institutional Researcher
Director of Institutional Effectiveness
Director of Institutional Sales
Associate Director
Chief Research Officer

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Director of Institutional Research jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Delta College (7)
Morton College (6)
University of Missouri (6)
Antelope Valley College (5)
Marian University (5)
University of Cincinnati (5)
Stony Brook University (5)
State University of New York (5)
Southern University At Shreveport (4)
Felician University (4)

North Carolina

Pitt Community College (3)
Davidson College (2)
Unc Wilmington (2)
Atrium Health Floyd (1)
Atrium Health (1)
East Carolina University (1)
University of North Carolina (1)
Nash Community College (1)
Halifax Community College (1)
University Of Mount Olive (1)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

Science and Research