Director of Data Quality and Evaluation in Durham

About Communities in Schools: At Communities In Schools, we are “all-in” for kids. It is our passion-- it is our mission. As the State Office for North Carolina, we deliver CIS programs across the state and collaborate with local affiliate organizations to provide resources and create communities of caring adults who work hand-in-hand with educators to ensure young people have the tools they need to stay in school and achieve in life. Communities In Schools is the nation’s largest dropout prevention organization, serving 1.5 million students in 2,400 sites across the country. We achieve this mission by hiring bright, creative, and innovative team members who have a passion for what we do. At CISNC, we value relationships, collaboration, learning, integrity, and commitment.

Position Overview: Leads data strategy, quality, and evaluation for the organization, driving a culture of evidence-based decision making across CISNC and the CIS network in North Carolina. Serves as the organization’s subject matter expert on data systems and data quality. Oversees the full data lifecycle, from collection and cleaning to merging, analysis, and visualization, ensuring stakeholders at all levels have access to timely, accurate, and actionable information. Leads evaluation initiatives and applied research efforts, partnering with the National team, affiliate network, and third-party evaluators to measure impact and drive continuous improvement.

The Director of Data Quality and Evaluation is a member of the Network Support Team who drives quality student supports and promotes sustainable and strong affiliate operations. This team deepens the impact of CIS across North Carolina by training, coaching, and providing technical assistance to staff across our network of affiliated organizations. This position focuses on supporting the entry and use of data.

Essential Functions:

• Build data collection, quality assurance, and reporting capacity of local affiliates and the state office by providing ongoing training and technical assistance for the CIS Data Management system (CISDM) and all CISNC program data management platforms.
• Establish and maintain data quality standards to ensure accuracy and completeness across all data sources.
• Build and maintain partnerships with school districts and external data providers to facilitate secure data access, sharing, and analysis.
• Negotiate data sharing agreements and ensure compliance with applicable data privacy regulations (e.g., FERPA), where applicable.
• Design and deliver custom and standardized reports and interactive dashboards on student attendance, enrollment, service delivery, outcomes, demographics, and other key indicators for program areas, departments, and network members.
• Translate complex data into clear, accessible visualizations that support data-driven decision making at all organizational levels.
• Cultivate a strong data culture across the network by developing affiliate capacity and championing best practices in data literacy, quality, and ethical use of data at all levels of the organization.
• Analyze data and synthesize current research and trends related to chronic absenteeism, student behaviour, graduation, college and career readiness, and recidivism to identify patterns, opportunities for system change, and strategies for advancing student outcomes.
• In partnership with CIS network, national offices, and internal teams, develop innovative data storytelling approaches, including dashboards, infographics, and narrative reports, to communicate CIS’ impact to diverse audiences and amplify student and family stories in a compelling, data-informed way.
• Serve as an internal data consultant: collect, manage, analyze, and interpret data to support research, evaluation, assessment, and data sharing activities across state office and network teams.
• Lead the affiliate end-of-year reporting and external validation process and ensure data submissions meet quality and completeness standards.
• Identify, obtain, clean, and integrate data from existing and new sources, including public datasets, district systems, and program databases, to enrich analysis, strengthen the CIS narrative, and support grant reporting and stakeholder communications.
• Act as a liaison for CISNC involving research, evaluation, and data, with staff at the affiliate and national levels.

Must be willing to travel. Must be able to see, hear, speak and move about the office as well as various school-based sites. All other duties as assigned. Must be able to lift 20lbs. Must possess a valid driver’s license.

Core Competencies: Student-Centered, Integrity & Accountability, Collaboration, Impact-Driven Excellence, Respect.

Job Specific Competencies: Adaptability & Flexibility, Analysis / Reasoning, Communication, Planning & Organizing, Self-Management, Technology Skills, Relationship Building, Creative & Innovative Thinking, Development & Continual Learning.

Required Education/Experience: Minimum of a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences; two years’ experience in applied research setting.

Necessary Skills: Technologically proficient in all office technology systems including spreadsheeting, word processing, email, and Skype. Excellent computer skills with Microsoft Office products. Ability to express ideas concisely and clearly both verbally and in writing. Effectively present complex information during training sessions, workshops, and presentations for a wide range of audiences. Strong interpersonal skills and the capacity to work well with various individuals at all levels, inside and outside the organization. Experience with non-profit entity strongly preferred.

The above information is intended to describe the most important aspects of the job. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required in order to perform the work.

We are an equal employment opportunity employer and do not discriminate against any person because of race, colour, creed, religion, sex, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law (referred to as "protected status"). This nondiscrimination policy extends to all terms, conditions, and privileges of employment as well as the use of all company facilities, participation in all company-sponsored activities, and all employment actions such as promotions, compensation, benefits, and termination of employment.