Data Analytics Specialist (entry- or mid-level)

Now Hiring: Data Analytics Specialist (entry- or mid-level), Opportunity Culture® Portal and Data Services

Start Date: Winter 2026, as soon as possible

Public Impact is a national education management consulting firm, based in Chapel Hill, N.C. Our mission is to improve education dramatically for all students, especially students whose needs have not yet been well met. We collaborate with teachers and school and system leaders to implement changes that will help the students they serve, and believe that if we focus on a core set of promising strategies for change, we and our partners and clients can make bold improvements for all students, with long-term financial sustainability and success.

Toward that end, we:

• Extend the reach of excellent teaching to all students, through Opportunity Culture School Design, an initiative to redesign staffing, pay and instruction for higher-growth learning and educator satisfaction. Multiple third-party studies have shown that students supported by Multi-Classroom Leader® educators (an Opportunity Culture role) add an extra half year of learning annually, on average. Teachers in these schools are about twice as likely to recommend teaching compared to other teachers nationally, and teacher turnover and vacancies have declined in studied schools. Schools in seventeen states and Washington, D.C. now have Opportunity Culture schools.
• Use data, research, and curious problem-solving to create and spread high-impact innovations and solutions for education policy and management challenges.

See all our work at publicimpact.com and www.opportunityculture.org

Role: The Analyst will join the Opportunity Culture® Portal and Data Services team, a small technical group whose purpose is to provide tools and information to support the success of the Opportunity Culture initiative. They will work primarily on analytical projects collecting and analyzing information about Opportunity Culture schools, districts, and educators. The person in this role may also support occasional projects related to the maintenance and improvement of our Opportunity Culture Portal, a platform used internally and externally to support Public Impact consultants and clients. Responsibilities will include a combination of some or all of the following:

• Data Analytics Projects (estimated 80% of role)
  • Support annual data collection efforts of internally-collected and publicly-available sources, and prepare summary reports for internal and external audiences
  • Conduct analyses to explore relationships between student outcomes and various implementation, survey, or contextual factors; contribute to dashboards and other public-facing data products
  • Perform data analyses and reporting to support team and organizational priorities
  • Create clear, compelling data visualizations—including dashboards, charts, and summaries—and communicate findings to diverse audiences
  • Develop, maintain, and enhance data maintenance processes to ensure data accuracy, integrity, and timeliness
  • Help ensure secure data storage, backups, and responsible data management practices
  • Document, refine, and improve data processes, protocols, and analysis workflows to support quality and consistency
  • Adhere to established data management protocols and standards
  • Effectively manage and support multiple data-related projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines
  • Leverage Public Impact-approved AI tools, when applicable, to streamline data collection, accelerate analysis, and enhance the clarity and efficiency of reporting and dashboard generation
  • Utilize AI-assisted technology to optimize data maintenance, automate routine analysis workflows, and refine documentation while adhering to security and data standards, in alignment with Public Impact’s AI use policy.
• Opportunity Culture School Excellence Portal Support (estimated 20% of role)
  • Provide technical support and assistance for Opportunity Culture consultants and clients using the web application, including supporting team members and external users in troubleshooting and resolving common issues
  • Support with testing web platform features to ensure high-quality functionality and refine user experience
  • Collaborate with teammates to integrate internal and external tools to promote team-wide efficiency and enable future research efforts on Opportunity Culture initiative effectiveness
• Collaborate on technical projects such as those above with own manager, the Co-Presidents, and teammates
• Share knowledge and train other technical and non-technical team members to increase impact and scope with efficiency over time
• Gain exposure to a wide variety of national education reform issues and organizations
• Participate as team member on flexible client/colleague project teams to do all of the above

Technical Qualifications:

• BA or BS; Associates degree or other training in relevant area
• Preferred undergraduate or graduate majors: Data Science, Statistics, Information Technology/Systems, Business Administration with focus in statistics, Statistics and Operations Research (STOR), Computer Science, Economics, or similar
• Years/type of experience
  • Entry-level candidates: approx. 0–2 years of relevant experience performing analytical work through work, internships, academic experiences, other similar projects
  • Mid-level candidates: approx. 3–5+ years of relevant experience managing end-to-end analytical projects, preferably in education, policy, or nonprofit settings
• Advanced proficiency with Excel and Google Sheets, including proficiency writing macros and scripts, handling array functions, and creating charts and graphs
• Analytical skills expectations
  • Entry-level candidates: Ability to perform basic analysis techniques with guidance and support from manager, increasingly level of independence and expertise over time
  • Mid-level candidates: Demonstrated ability to autonomously design, conduct, and quality-check complex data analyses from start to finish
• Proficiency with any statistical software (e.g R, Stata, SAS, or comparable software) and willingness to learn new
• Basic HTML, CCS, and/or JavaScript proficiency
• Proficiency with modern AI tools (ex. Claude, Gemini, similar) to assist with code generation, data cleaning, and workflow optimization
• Ability to leverage generative AI tools to accelerate analytical tasks while verifying data accuracy, security, and underlying logic
• Optional but desirable:
  • Proficiency with R statistical software
  • Proficiency with SalesForce database functions and Tableau

Leadership, Team, and Interpersonal Skills Qualifications:

• Achievement: Demonstrated ability to implement change or improvement, with a bias for impact.
• Commitment to Accuracy: obsession with meeting a high standard of accuracy in data work
• Quality Focus: willingness to give and receive significant feedback to produce outstanding work
• Flexibility: ability to juggle multiple projects and do what it takes to accomplish tasks
• Impact Orientation: acts deliberately based on cost-benefit analysis, with a bias towards positive impacts on students and teachers
• Teamwork: ability to act as supportive and collaborative team member, follow through on work responsibly and in a timely manner
• Analytical/Critical Thinking: Ability to interpret data with level-headed, critical eye and grasp major concepts in field
• Communication: Able to communicate complex ideas simply. Strong communicator through written and verbal work
• Creative, flexible thinker who enjoys learning new tools to develop helpful ways to address tough, persistent problems
• Demonstrated interest in our mission to improve academic outcomes for K-12 students, through paid or volunteer work

Location: Work from home in approved U.S. states. We have many team members currently living in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. area and in the Charlotte, N.C. area. Please see the map of states, with highlighted states where we are both currently working and willing to hire, or where team members live already. Several new states are in discussion to launch, so please apply even if your state is not listed. Pay levels are set for the Chapel Hill, N.C. area.

Public Impact provides partial reimbursement for internet and phone, as well as other supports to help team members work productively at home.

Travel: Travel is not a consistent expectation for this role, but may be required to attend occasional in-person team events, likely in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill, NC area.

Compensation:

Entry-Level Analytics Specialist

Total target starting pay range of $63,800 – $74,800 includes:

• Base salary of approximately $58,000 – $68,000 (commensurate with qualifications and experience).
• Target 10% discretionary firmwide annual bonus, dependent on teamwide performance on a variety of factors aligned with our goals for students and educators.

Mid-Level Analytics Specialist

Total target starting pay range of $77,000 – $90,200 includes:

• Base salary of approximately $70,000 – $82,000 (commensurate with qualifications and experience).
• Target 10% discretionary firmwide annual bonus, dependent on teamwide performance on a variety of factors aligned with our goals for students and educators.

Benefits: Current benefits include the following:

• Health Insurance: Public Impact pays 100% of monthly premiums for a high-deductible plan with a health savings account or approximately 85% of monthly premiums for a PPO 80/20 plan for employees and their children
• Short Term Disability, Long-Term Disability and Term Life Insurance
• Dental, Vision, Voluntary Life, Critical Illness, Accident Insurance, Dependent and Health Care FSAs
• 401(k): 3% automatic employer contribution
• Flexible Personal Leave
• Remote work setup with occasional opportunities to connect with colleagues in person at our office in Chapel Hill, N.C., at client sites, and/or co-working in areas where multiple PI employees reside

Position Classification: Full-time; Permanent; Exempt

Work Hours: We aim for professional workweeks of 45 hours or less, but some weeks will be just 40, and some occasionally will be more due to project/work area needs especially during peak program analysis season and times of high OC® Portal use; team members work primarily during Eastern Time Zone hours.

TO APPLY: Please complete the online application and attach the following:

1. Resumé, highlighting skills and experiences related to the job described above.
2. Cover letter, including a description of why you are interested in working at Public Impact®.
3. Response to one of the following prompts (250 words max):
   • Explain how you have used data to achieve a measurable outcome.
   • Describe a project where you combined data analysis with web development to solve a real world problem. What was the challenge, what tools did you use, and what impact did your solution have?
4. Two work samples of your choosing that best demonstrate the skills, mindsets, and/or contributions you have achieved in previous work, school, or extracurricular experiences that you would bring to our team. The work samples may include submissions such as a data analysis report, interactive dashboard or visualization, database or data pipeline project, web application or front-end build, code sample or github project, technical documentation or process guide, or any other similar submission you feel would benefit our hiring team in understanding your potential to contribute to the type of work described in this job description supporting the Public Impact® mission. At least one example using statistics/data analytics is preferred. Work samples may not be edited by others, or created using AI, though you may have used AI for research and basic quality checks, as you would in normal work in this area.

NOTE: At this time, it is our policy not to hire Multi-Classroom Leader® educators or principals leading Opportunity Culture schools in districts where we are currently working, or educators in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools or Chatham County Schools. Thank you for your understanding as we work in partnership with school and district leaders and in our local community.

Public Impact® is an Equal Opportunity Employer that does not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity), marital status, veteran status, genetic information, arrest record, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment.

Public Impact promotes and maintains a drug-free workplace.