Title: Senior Director Research
Location: US-CA-Monterey
Reporting to the Vice President, Research and Product Development, this position is responsible for directing a staff of psychometricans (scientists), programmers, and research support staff in support of complex, technical measurement tasks associated with CTB/McGraw-Hill's shelf and custom products and services. The person in this position must have extensive knowledge of the field of test measurement, understand the application of measurement principles to the test publishing environment, and possess the ability to direct senior staff in the application of these principles. The director must give psychometric guidance and counsel to other departments at CTB and must be able to uphold CTB's reputation for excellence and leadership in the industry. Performance in this position directly affects the company's financial success and competitive position in the market. This individual is responsible for fostering continual improvement, setting and maintaining high standards of performance, and ensuring quality in all research practices, policies, and procedures, reflecting McGraw-Hill's Code of Business Ethics, and upholding CTB/McGraw-Hill's Mission, Values, and Principles.
Essential Accountabilities:
* Provide measurement direction and technical leadership for shelf and custom product publishing programs. Ensure that research activities and functions are well designed and that research commitments on these programs are completed as planned.
* Conceptualize and design research plans for new shelf products and statewide, custom testing programs. Work with senior Research staff and other senior staff from across CTB to create test and product designs that maximize return, meet customer needs, and expand CTB's place in the market.
* Track and monitor on-going work to quickly identify and resolve technical problems and issues. Institute feedback mechanisms to ensure immediate, effective problem resolution. Notify and negotiate with internal departments and/or customers when new or out-of-scope work arises.
* Provide strong leadership and guidance to a staff of approximately 80 full-time regular research staff. Directly manage senior research managers. Work with these managers to determine staffing needs and assignments, attract talented staff, develop resources, meet research commitments, and organize the department to meet the evolving research needs of the company and its customers.
* Lead efforts and set models and standards in place for Research's integrated role and function within testing programs and teams of CTB staff. Encourage team work and department exploration of complex issues to reach resolutions and make decisions.
* Build capacity within Research through on-going recruiting of talented individuals and the exploration of other staffing models, including remote research consultants and research subcontractors.
* Meet cost center and program budget commitments. Develop, monitor, and direct three cost center budgets as well as multi-year shelf and custom program budgets. Track expenses and analyze variances to control costs and communicate results to senior management.
* Be a technical resource to resolve questions and address issues within CTB, for McGraw-Hill, and directly with customers, fostering continual improvement by setting and maintaining high standards of performance, ensuring quality in all research practices, policies, and procedures, and encouraging innovation in the way work is done.
* Consistently demonstrate excellent people management and research management skills that foster a professional work environment and workforce, reflect McGraw-Hill's Code of Business Ethics, and uphold CTB/McGraw-Hill's Mission, Values, and Principles.
Knowledge & Experience:
* Ph.D. or Ed.D required.
* 10 years post degree experience in educational measurement or testing. Must include membership in the National and Standards Council.
* Advanced knowledge in Psychometrics (including validity, reliability, item analysis, IRT, scaling and equating, etc).
* Expert proficiency in statistical knowledge and application understanding.
* Intermediate proficiency in data analysis and programming (must have the ability to apply and understand/interpret basic statistics and statistical/measurement procedures).
* Technical writing (with minimal oversight) required at an advanced level
* 5 years experience managing and leading a team of professional level employees. Including the ability to solve complex conceptual and implementation problems, negotiating strategies, supervisory and team-building skills, long-term planning capability, experience in managing professional staff, preferably in an educational assessment environment.
* 6 years experience in managing budgets with increasing revenue responsibility; including project budgets, department budgets, and portfolio budgets.
* Advanced proficiency in written and oral communication skills required. Must be able to plan, direct, and deliver presentations.
* Ability to solve complex conceptual problems; and implement problem solutions proactively.
* Established connections with educational professionals and organizations is required
* Must possess strong customer-relations skills and demonstrated ability to foster positive, long-term internal and external customer relationships and foster competitive advantages.
Preferred:
* SAS programming knowledge.
Job Type: Analytical/Research
