Director of Analytics

Essential Functions

• Serves as the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) Director of Analytics, directing all of IDEC’s program analytics and reporting functions and ensuring timely, accurate, and actionable insights on children, families, programs, and agency performance.
• Designs and manages the development of advanced analytical models, dashboards, and visualizations to forecast trends, monitor impact, and communicate findings to diverse audiences, including policymakers, providers, and families.
• Oversees data collection, quality, integration, and IDEC’s data governance processes, ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations (e.g., FERPA, HIPAA) and promoting ethical, secure, and transparent data use.
• Drives collaborative engagements with IDEC leadership, providers, researchers, and external partners to foster data-informed decision-making, aligning analysis with innovative and strategic goals that support IDEC's data-driven priorities.
• Serves as a full-line supervisor.   
• Explores and applies emerging technologies (e.g., machine learning, AI) to enhance predictive analytics, efficiency, and accessibility of insights related to complex early childhood datasets.
• Explores and applies emerging technologies (e.g., machine learning, AI) to enhance predictive analytics, efficiency, and accessibility of insights related to complex early childhood datasets.
• Performs other duties as required or assigned, which are reasonable within the scope of duties enumerated above.

Minimum Qualifications

• This position requires knowledge, skill, and mental development equivalent to completion of four (4) years of college with coursework in business or public administration, data science, and/or data engineering or analytics or closely related fields.
• This position requires four (4) years of progressively responsible administrative experience in a public or private organization in data science, data engineering, education policy, statistics, and/or economics or closely related fields.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prefers five (5) years of experience developing, implementing, and evaluating data policies and procedures that promote equity and transparency, including the application of advanced analytics to inform strategic decisions.
• Prefers five (5) years of experience with the validation, standardization, and integration of complex data from diverse sources..
• Prefers four (4) years of experience developing compelling visualizations and spatial analyses in order to effectively communicate and present complex information and actionable recommendations for diverse audiences.
• Prefers that you possess a Master’s degree with coursework in Data Analytics, Data Science, Education Policy, Statistics, Economics, or a closely related field.
• Prefers that you possess four (4) years of experience designing and enforcing data governance policies and practices that ensure data integrity, privacy, security, and compliance with state and federal regulations (e.g., FERPA, HIPAA, GDPR).
• Prefers four (4) years of experience working with data related to Early Childhood services/education.
• It is preferred that you possess experience with predictive analytics, machine learning techniques and/or analytics for education data, research, or similar disciplines.

Conditions of Employment

• Requires a criminal history check.
• Requires the ability to use state issued equipment, such as a cell phone or laptop.
• Overtime is a condition of employment, and you may be requested or required/mandated to work overtime including scheduled, unscheduled, or last-minute overtime. This requires the ability to work evenings and weekends.
• Requires the ability to travel with overnight stays.
• This position has been found to meet the requirements in section 4A-101 of the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act requiring the occupant/employee to file a Statement of Economic Interest. The Illinois Governmental Ethics Act (5 ILCS 420/4A et seq.) requires certain state officials and employees to file annual Statements of Economic Interest with the Office of the Secretary of State that will be made available for examination and copying by the public. All employees required to file a Statement of Economic Interest are also required to file the Supplemental Statement of Economic Interest with the Executive Ethics Commission. (See Executive Order 15-09) Fines and penalties apply to untimely filings.
• Certain provisions of the revolving door restrictions contained in 5 ILCS 430/5-45 apply to this position. As a result, the employee should be aware that if offered non-State employment during state employment or within one year immediately after ending State employment, the employee shall, prior to accepting any such non-State employment offer, notify the Office of the Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Illinois Governor (OEIG) or may be subject to a fine.

The conditions of employment listed here are incorporated and related to any of the job duties as listed in the job description.

About the Agency

The Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) was signed into law in June of 2024 with the focus of making early childhood education and care services simpler, better and fairer for families with young children across the state. During fiscal years FY25 and FY26, IDEC will be working through transitioning data, programs and services from three state agencies – the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), – to IDEC in order to be fully operational by July 2026.    

Illinois strives to be the best state in the nation to raise a family with young children and IDEC is committed to continue putting children and families center while reducing complexities and finding efficiencies in the system and advancing equity.