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 18 Director of Institutional Research job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 424 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 $112,475.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $112,475.

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 $100,363.

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	35.61%
Master's Degree	85.85%
Doctoral Degree	36.79%
Other	2.12%

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	9.82%
3 to 5 years	72.62%
6 to 8 years	14.58%
9+ years	2.98%

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 (76.18%)
Research (72.88%)
Decision Making (70.28%)
Leadership (61.08%)
Strategic Planning (59.67%)
Communication (56.37%)
Management (45.99%)
Writing (39.15%)
Coordinating (28.07%)
Detail Oriented (25.94%)

Defining Skills

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

Statistical Analysis (29.69%)
Dashboard (37.29%)
Data Integrity (20.67%)
Data Governance (31.35%)
Data Collection (47.74%)
Data Visualization (30.4%)
Data Management (32.54%)
Data Warehousing (26.6%)
Data Analysis (58.91%)
Research Methodologies (21.14%)
SPSS (Statistical Software) (42.28%)
Institutional Research (99.52%)
Statistical Software (20.9%)
Surveys (35.87%)
Project Management (25.65%)
SQL (Programming Language) (32.3%)
Power BI (22.33%)
Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (35.63%)
External Reporting (26.13%)

Necessary Skills

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

Statistical Reporting (5.23%)
Ad Hoc Reporting (6.65%)
Compliance Reporting (6.89%)
Educational Assessment (11.64%)
Workflow Management (6.65%)
Academic Affairs (18.76%)
Database Management (6.65%)
Student Services (11.64%)
Strategic Decision Making (8.31%)
Student Learning Outcomes (11.16%)
Policy Development (14.96%)
Program Development (5.94%)
Annual Reports (4.75%)
Liberal Arts (4.75%)
Strategic Prioritization (5.46%)
Microsoft Access (12.11%)
Course Evaluations (8.31%)
Data-Driven Decision Making (7.13%)
Business Intelligence Tools (4.28%)
Business Intelligence (14.25%)
Benchmarking (9.5%)
Python (Programming Language) (6.41%)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (14.01%)
Educational Research (12.35%)
Data Extraction (5.94%)
Data Modeling (4.99%)
Dissemination (5.94%)
Data Quality (9.03%)
Information Systems (11.4%)
Computer Science (11.4%)
Relational Databases (16.39%)
Decision Support Systems (9.03%)
Economics (6.65%)
R (Programming Language) (22.09%)
Finance (9.74%)
Information Management (3.8%)
Higher Education (16.86%)
Program Evaluation (10.93%)
Qualitative Research (12.59%)
Student Information Systems (16.63%)
Resource Allocation (7.36%)
Microsoft SQL Servers (6.89%)
Research Design (17.58%)
Program Assessment Rating Tool (6.41%)
Operational Planning (4.51%)
Process Improvement (3.56%)
Enrollment Management (18.05%)
Predictive Modeling (4.51%)
Reporting Tools (10.69%)
Quantitative Research (13.06%)
Social Sciences (18.76%)
Statistics (18.29%)
Psychology (6.41%)
SAS (Software) (20.19%)
Performance Metric (5.46%)
Data Science (15.2%)
Internal Reporting (15.2%)
Student Engagement (4.28%)
Qualtrics (14.01%)
Survey Research (7.84%)

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 (33.24%)
External Reporting (29.26%)
Data Analysis (65.96%)
Data Collection (53.46%)
Data Governance (35.11%)
Data Warehousing (29.79%)
Research Methodologies (23.67%)
Power BI (25%)
SQL (Programming Language) (36.17%)
Statistical Software (23.4%)

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
Assistant Director
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

Morton College (6)
Delta College (5)
University of Pennsylvania (5)
The College Of Wooster (5)
Marian University (5)
Stony Brook University (5)
University of Houston (5)
Ieee Branch Of The University Of Bridgeport (4)
Felician University (4)
Kern Community College District (4)

North Carolina

Pitt Community College (2)
Johnson C. Smith University (2)
Davidson College (2)
Guilford College (2)
Atrium Health Floyd (1)
Atrium Health (1)
Southwestern Community College (1)
University of North Carolina (1)
Nash Community College (1)
Halifax Community College (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