Job Description

At a glance

Stanford University is seeking a Director of Institutional Research in Palo Alto, CA—an intellectually rich opportunity to lead with impact at one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. This high-profile role offers analytical leadership across institutional priorities—from admissions modeling and financial aid optimization to AI/ML-driven research that informs decisions by executive leadership and the Board of Trustees. You'll guide a highly respected team within a collaborative, trusted environment known for excellence and innovation. Relocation support is available—inviting experienced institutional research leaders nationwide to bring their expertise to Stanford’s world-class campus.

Description: What you'll be doing

The Office of Institutional Research & Decision Support (IR&DS) at Stanford University has an opening for a Director of Institutional Research to join their team. Flexible hybrid work schedule requiring two days (Tuesdays and Thursdays) onsite weekly.

This role sits within the Office of Institutional Research & Decision Support (IR&DS), a highly respected unit that plays a critical role in shaping data-informed decision-making at Stanford. IR&DS supports a culture of inquiry and continuous improvement by delivering high-quality data, analysis, and insight to university leadership and stakeholders across campus. With a strong reputation for innovation and collaboration, the department partners closely with academic and administrative units to ensure that Stanford’s mission and strategic goals are advanced through evidence-based planning and evaluation.

About the role:

The Director of Institutional Research leads the institutional research function for Stanford University, exercising analytical leadership over:

• Research studies on the university’s performance of its mission. Examples include studies into student success and degree pathways, predictive analytics, and comparative studies leveraging peer data.
• Creation of dashboards and decision support tools.
• Reporting of core institutional metrics, such as population headcounts and degree completions. The Director of IR oversees reporting to governmental agencies and external bodies on Stanford’s behalf.
• In collaboration with the Data Governance Program Director, establishes data definitions and terms of appropriate use for data related to students and the educational mission.

The audiences for the work of the institutional research team include the Board of Trustees and executive university leadership. Increasingly, however, the Director of IR leads efforts to provide information and insight to all university constituencies, including faculty, students, and staff.

Collaborating with other directors in IR&DS, the Director of IR determines which findings to share publicly through the IR&DS website ( The Director of IR ensures that university stakeholders receive timely, rigorous, and accurate reporting and analysis. The Director of IR achieves the mission and goals of the group through the management of six institutional research analysts.

The Director of IR reports to the Associate Vice Provost and Director of IR&DS.

Your Day Will Likely Include:

• Proactively identify the issues/challenges having the most value to the university and determine methodologies for collecting and analyzing data from multiple sources on these issues.
• Create multi-year strategic plans to ensure that the university will have access to data and findings needed for decision support and program evaluation.
• Advise senior management on programmatic and policy development. Provide input to university leadership on policies and organizational practices.
• Advise and consult on analytical efforts outside of the organization, including for other university units and for peer consortia.
• Drive collection of new data and the refinement of existing data sources. Assures reliable and consistent data is maintained and available for both ad hoc and longitudinal inquiries
• Create research designs and analytical plans. Use statistical or other techniques to analyze data.
• Create communication plans and strategies for ensuring that university stakeholders and decision-makers receive information in the manner that is most suited to the audience.
• Create quality assurance plans and strategies to ensure that the findings produced are accurate.
• Interact with and influence senior university leaders, faculty, and/or the faculty senate with written summaries and/or presentations.
• May need to collaborate with other organizations to gather data. Proactively seek and locate data, including outside benchmarks or comparative data, to support or refute proposed decisions.
• Direct staff and provide leadership to achieve goals and vision of the organization. Responsible for hiring and retaining staff, career coaching, professional development, and accountable for the performance of direct reports.

Experience You Will Bring to The Organization:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree and seven years of relevant experience in administrative and financial management, or combination of education and relevant experience.
• Preferred: Advanced degree and seven years of extensive, relevant experience or combination of education and relevant experience solving analytical problems using quantitative and qualitative approaches preferred. Knowledge and experience of data science, statistics, education research, or social science research.
• Demonstrated leadership, supervisory, planning, and change management skills.
• Advanced analytical and research skills.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Flexible analytical approach crafting multiple options with supporting arguments for the same goal and allowing for results at varying levels of precision.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. Able to influence people, solve problems, troubleshoot, think creatively, and resolve conflicts.
• Facilitation skills to conduct meetings to achieve the desired outcome and manage projects within time constraints.
• Facility in manipulating and analyzing complex, high-volume, high-dimensionality data from varying sources.
• Extensive experience in and strong passion for empirical research and answering hard questions with data.
• Ability to use data retrieval and manipulation tools such as SQL, R, or similar.
• Ability to use data visualization tools, such as Tableau, to communicate findings through visualization.
• Advanced proficiency with statistical tools such as SPSS, Stata, R or similar.
• Subject matter expertise in higher education research, student analytics, or university planning.
• In depth knowledge of university administrative organization, policies, procedures, and practices for institutional research-oriented roles.

Why Stanford is for You

• Freedom to grow. We offer career development programs, tuition reimbursement, or audit a course. Join aTedTalk, film screening, or listen to a renowned author or global leader speak.
• $6,000+ in tuition and training assistance annually
• Up to 50% of Stanford's annual tuition cost applied to your child's undergraduate tuition
• A caring culture. We provide superb retirement plans, generous time-off, and family care resources.
• A healthier you. Climb our rockwall, orchoose from hundreds of health or fitness classes at our world-class exercise facilities. We also provide excellent health care benefits.
• Discovery and fun. Stroll through historic sculptures, trails, and museums.
• Enviable resources. Enjoy free commuter programs, ridesharing incentives, discounts and more!
• 18+PTO/Vacation days per year
• Up to 5% of your base pay contributed automatically to your 403(b) + a generous match
• 100% of your retirement account is fully vested immediately

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is $198,098 - $240,000. Relocation assistance available.

Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Stanford welcomes applications from all who would bring additional dimensions to the University’s research,teachingand clinical missions.

Another Source works with their clients, on a retained project basis. We are committed to building inclusive candidate pools as we partner with hiring teams. Veterans, women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply. As you read through the job posting and review the list of qualifications (required and/or preferred), please do not self-select out if you feel you do not meet every qualification. No one is 100% qualified. We encourage you to apply and share your story with us.

#AS1

Job Tags

Similar Jobs