Director of Market Research

ABOUT US:

All Campus partners with leading, traditional institutions of higher education to expand online enrollment. We provide the up-front marketing investment, expertise, and service level required for success. Guided by our experience interacting with students from a wide variety of fields and backgrounds, we create a customized, specialized service offering to capture any audience. Our extensive list of clients includes the University of Southern California, the University of Arizona, the University of Florida, Purdue University, Boston University, DePaul University, Michigan State University, and many others.

We offer one of the most unique working environments you’ll find in Chicago - the quirkiness of a creative agency and the analytical mindset of a consulting firm. We are looking for team players who are highly motivated to deliver exceptional results for a growing organization. The ideal candidate is someone who enjoys coming up with new ideas, is comfortable communicating them to a variety of stakeholders and other managers, and who is excited by the prospect of working constantly to improve performance. Put simply, we genuinely like working with one another, and it shows—All Campus has been listed a Chicago Crain’s “Best Places to Work,” three years in a row (2018-2020) as well as a top-20 ranking on the 2019 and 2020 Built In Chicago “Best Places to Work” list. 

At All Campus, the passion and talent our employees bring to work every day are at the core of our continued success as a company. The company culture emphasizes diversity, excellence, integrity, appreciation, collaboration, creativity and camaraderie. We are committed to fostering your professional growth, as well as doing everything we can to keep you happy, healthy, and passionate about the work you do. Our competitive and comprehensive benefits package includes health coverage, retirement planning, and work-life balance benefits—in addition to plenty of perks like free food, lively parties, and Summer Friday hours.

SUMMARY:

All Campus creates value for leading universities by expanding their reach and cultivating relationships with students to help them advance their lives through education. We continue to grow quickly and we are looking for a strategic contributor who is an expert in combining research insights with business objectives. Our research drives conversations across our company and our partnerships, informing our consultative approach, marketing strategy, and enrollment efforts. We are seeking a Director of Market Research who will help shape the future of this critical, high-impact team and oversee our market research initiatives.

The Director of Market Research will embody a player-coach role as we grow our research team. This will include providing strategic leadership to the research team and overseeing the design and execution of custom market research studies on the market viability of university programs, trends in online education, and other related aspects of higher education. The Director will oversee research design and data collection while providing professional reporting and insights to both internal and external stakeholders. As our research needs evolve, this individual will have the unique opportunity to transform our research approach while providing actionable, innovative, and custom insights to our partner institutions. Simultaneously, this individual will play a leadership-facing role at All Campus and support the development of internal initiatives that will guide All Campus as a leading higher education company. The successful candidate will be forward thinking, detail-oriented, and proactive with a passion for research and enthusiasm for management and innovation. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership and Strategy

• Lead the vision and strategic direction of the research department.
• Provide operational and content-related leadership and management to the All Campus market research team, focusing on identifying opportunities to provide value to internal and external constituents.
• Collaborate with senior leadership and other departments across All Campus to identify and execute strategic research-related initiatives that support company growth.
• Establish and manage KPIs based on company needs and operational best practices.
• Identify and implement process improvement efforts that will enhance deliverables and help the research team meet or exceed KPIs.
• Lead data collection and reporting to senior leadership to demonstrate ROI on research activities.
• Identify opportunities to innovate in research approaches.
• Contribute to thought leadership initiatives at All Campus in partnership with the senior leadership team.

Management and Operations

• Provide day-to-day leadership and management to the research team, including overseeing the professional development of market research analysts, senior analysts, and managers.
• Provide planned and ad-hoc training to the research team based on identified gaps in skills and knowledge in areas including, but not limited to: research design, implementation, and analysis.
• Manage the delegation of research responsibilities to the research team.
• Monitor resource allocation efforts and orchestrate load balancing as needed.
• Establish KPIs and manage team to KPIs.
• Identify and implement research best practices and process optimizations.
• Lead cross-functional special projects as needed to address partner needs.
• Manage the identification, vetting, and implementation of third-party research tools and databases.

Research Design, Analysis, and Delivery

• Lead scoping meetings with partnership development, partnership services, and marketing teams to understand research project objectives and align projects to known market success indicators.
• Lead program positioning, viability, and curricular analyses to provide partner institutions with key insights and actionable recommendations. Contribute to the creation and review of final deliverables. 
• Present reports to internal and external constituents, who may  include presidents, provosts, deans,and other senior leaders at leading national colleges and universities.
• Oversee the execution of all research projects and ensure that final deliverables provide impactful, accurate, and actionable results.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of the internal research database and associated templates.
• Oversee the full lifecycle of RFP responses in concert with the partnership development team and other stakeholders.
• Leverage outstanding business writing skills to deliver polished, professional final deliverables in a variety of formats (Excel, Word, PowerPoint). 
• Develop and refine deliverables to effectively communicate complex information clearly and concisely; guide the research team in distilling research into actionable insights.
• Provide final sign off on research structure, timelines, and deliverables based on scope documents.
• Establish best practices and implement accountability measures related to data collection and analysis of primary and secondary research.
• Identify trends and provide insight and analysis of competitors’ products and services, market share, and market strategies. 

SUPERVISORY REQUIREMENTS: 

• This position has supervisory responsibilities.

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience will be considered.

• Master’s Degree with focus in Business, Marketing, Finance, Library or Information Sciences, Higher Education, Social Sciences, or related field; Advanced degree (Ed.D. or Ph.D.) preferred.
• At least 7 years of quantitative, qualitative, and/or multi-strategy research experience required including compiling data into reports and other deliverables, with a strong understanding of sound research principles.
• At least 5 years of managerial experience.
• Experience in the higher education industry is preferred.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with an ability to move from data insights to actionable recommendations.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Excellent business writing and editing skills.
• Exceptional organizational and time management skills.
• Working knowledge of search engines and business research tools.
• Ability to rapidly adapt and respond to changes in environment and priorities.
• Self-starter and highly motivated. Must be capable of working independently and collaboratively within a fast-paced environment.
• Experience with primary and secondary research methods and techniques.
• Familiarity with SPSS, SAS, or other statistical software.
• Working knowledge of data warehousing, modeling and mining.
• Extremely detail-oriented.

All Campus is currently a remote work culture, we plan to return to the office in a flexible format, when it is safe to do so.