Data Analysis & Visualization Operations and Data Analyst, Apply Philly Charter
Job Description
Organization Summary
The Philadelphia School Partnership (PSP) works to give every child in America’s fifth largest city the opportunity to attend a great school. We invest philanthropic funds in high-impact schools so they can serve more low-income students—whether they be in the traditional public, public charter or private sectors. Our aim is to catalyze the creation or transformation of enough schools to ensure better options for 50,000 students, or nearly one in four of all Philadelphia schoolchildren. Since 2011 PSP has invested in more than 50 schools, creating new educational opportunities for 21,000 students. PSP believes that in a city as large as Philadelphia, there is not one best or right kind of school. Two hundred forty thousand children need a wide variety of schools from which to choose. The city has numerous examples of high-performing schools, and they span all three primary sectors: charter schools, district schools and private/Catholic schools. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of quality options in all three sectors. More than 35,000 students sit on waiting lists for the city’s best schools—which include private, charter, district magnet, and district neighborhood schools. Our work centers on leveraging philanthropic capital to attract entrepreneurial leadership and overcome inertia and financial and political barriers so that Philadelphia can have more great schools.
Position Summary
The Philadelphia School Partnership (PSP) believes that helping to empower parents to find, choose, and advocate for higher quality schools of all types (district, charter, and private) is a critical part of our strategy to ensure every child in Philadelphia is enrolled in a great school. Specifically, we are working to better equip families with information to find and choose great schools for their children. In 2018, PSP launched Apply Philly Charter, an online application system that now has grown to serve over 80 charter schools in the city and is the predominant way in which families apply to Philadelphia charter schools. Apply Philly Charter allows families to apply to charter schools from a single website, and all participating charter schools abide by the same application, lottery and notification timeline. Participating charter schools conduct their lotteries on Apply Philly Charter, send seat offers to applicants and manage their waitlists on the system. Families are able to accept seat offers and monitor their placement on waitlists using the system. Last year, over 30,000 applicants from every zip code in Philadelphia used Apply Philly Charter to submit 170,000 applications to participating charter schools. Apply Philly Charter is run on a Salesforce platform.
The Operations and Data Analyst will serve as the system administrator for Apply Philly Charter and will be responsible for providing technical support to participating schools. The Operations and Data Analyst will be responsible for the successful operation of the system, including, but not limited to: intake of applications, oversight of the lottery, waitlist, and seat offer functionality, and general support to schools and families as needed. The Operations and Data Analyst will also serve as the project lead for any technical enhancements made to the system, working closely with our Salesforce developers and vendor(s) to create the project scope and test functionality. Outside of system responsibilities, the Operations and Data Analyst will be responsible for managing, analyzing, synthesizing, and reporting on school-level and city-wide application data for both internal and external initiatives.
This position includes creative opportunities to use technical programs or software to advance the policy initiatives and efficacy of Apply Philly Charter and to support other PSP teams in their data management, analysis and use of Salesforce systems.
This position reports to the Director, Apply Philly Charter. He/she will work closely with the entire Apply Philly Charter team, including the Managing Director, Community Resources, Manager, GreatPhillySchools, and other staff as needed.
PSP is an equal-opportunity employer with good benefits and an entrepreneurial, results-oriented work culture.
Duties and Responsibilities
General:
- Report directly to the Director, Apply Philly Charter to manage day-to-day system administration, data analysis, and customer service to schools
- Manage all technical systems relating to Apply Philly Charter including (but not limited to) Salesforce and Google Analytics
- Provide ongoing technical support to schools and respond to charter school inquiries in a timely manner
- Serve as liaison to the technical vendor to ensure user and system administration concerns are addressed in a timely manner
System Administration:
- Monitor system application and usage data for family and school users to ensure smooth operation of the system, identify technical issues to be resolved
- Develop and run system level reports, create system-level and school-level dashboards
- Report out and analyze system-level data for internal organizational purposes
- Help to manage and support data integrations between Apply Philly Charter and external data systems using Python
- Work with the Apply Philly Charter team and schools to ensure application process benchmarks are hit (i.e. opening and closing of application, lotteries run on the correct day, etc.)
- Perform other system administrator duties, including testing system features in advance of school user and/or family use
Data Analysis and Programming:
- Clean large data sets for further analysis
- Manipulate data in statistical software
- Analyze and report out on key metrics
- Edit scripts (Python and SQL)
Other System Support:
- Support the Director, Apply Philly Charter and other staff in advancing policy goals and decision making
- Support the Director, Apply Philly Charter and other staff in the operation of the Apply Philly Charter Steering Committee, including presenting system-level data to school partners
- Create updated school training materials as needed, including annual updates to the Apply Philly Charter user manual
- Conduct school training sessions, as needed
- Work with and support potential Salesforce administration in other areas of the organization, including supporting the GreatPhillySchools and School Investment teams
- Perform additional duties as assigned
Qualifications
- Commitment to the mission of the Philadelphia School Partnership.
- Experience working with and managing data systems. Salesforce experience preferred.
- Demonstrated proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g. Stata, R, SPSS, Python, C#, etc.)
- Capable of cleaning, analyzing, managing, and processing large data sets using complex functions and programming languages.
- Experience providing technical support to clients and/or partners.
- Strong communication skills and the capability to synthesize data for lay audiences.
- Strong strategic thinking skills.
- Confidence working under pressure of deadlines and managing multiple priorities.
- Ability to work independently, solve problems and be flexible.
- Willingness and desire to participate in unexpected projects.
Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree required
- Minimum of 3 years of professional experience or equivalent.
- Demonstrated experience with CRM database(s), Salesforce preferred.
- Experience with statistical reporting software (R, STATA, SAS, etc.)
- Demonstrated experience in client services and/or providing technical support.
- Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
- Proficient in Google Drive products (i.e., Google Sheets, Google Docs)
- Experience and/or familiarity with charter school application and/or enrollment processes, a plus.
Physical Requirements
Ability to physically perform the duties and to work in the environmental conditions required such as:
- Traveling to schools – valid driver’s license and/or access to transportation when necessary
- Functioning in office space – reaching file cabinets, filing, faxing, scanning, coping, typing, mailing, making phone calls
- Must be able to sit for up to two hours looking at a computer monitor, using a keyboard/mouse and typing
Salary commensurate with experience, along with excellent benefits.
A modest relocation package may also be available for out-of-state candidates.
