Research Director Jobs in Tennessee

The Director of Learner Success serves as the UT System's lead strategist for retention, persistence, and credential completion for postsecondary students enrolled in all types of programs.

This role operates at the system level and has the exciting opportunity to build the infrastructure, evidence base, and cross-campus coordination necessary to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of student success professionals at all UT institutions. The Director does not work directly with students but instead ensures that the people and systems closest to students are well-supported, data-informed, and strategically aligned.

The Director of Learner Success collaborates with academic and student affairs professionals at each UT institution and serves as a key liaison with campus chief student affairs and student success leaders. As one member of the Learner Success team in AARSS, the skills of the incumbent are complimented by team members who have responsibilities for access and affordability, work-integrated learning, and the economic outcomes of program completers. The Director of Learner Success primarily focuses on the student experience between enrollment and completion, ensuring that every learner who enters a UT institution has the strongest possible chance of persisting and completing their desired credential.

Retention and Completion:

The primary responsibility of the individual in this role is to lead system-level retention and completion strategy which can adapt to institutional contexts and student populations. The director will identify and analyze system-wide patterns in learner stop-out, drop-out, and time-to-completion, translating findings into actionable strategy recommendations. They will develop re-engagement strategies for learners who have stopped out, including system-level policies and processes that reduce barriers to return. They will ensure retention and completion strategies are inclusive of the full range of learner populations served by UT, traditional undergraduates, adult learners, graduate students, transfer students, and learners in non-degree pathways. They will collaborate closely with campus leaders to promote evidence-based learner support models and emerging best practices in persistence and completion. They will lead or coordinate system-wide pilots of promising learner success interventions, learn about digital solutions that support student success and develop avenues for knowledge sharing and realizing economies of scale among campus partners.

Strategic Plan Alignment:

In coordination with campus leaders who have responsibility to align to the UT System strategic plan, advance objectives related to credential completion and student progression. Objectives describe increasing the number of students who graduate from in-demand programs, promoting strong retention and completion in industry relevant non-degree credentials or new credentials of value, and identifying structural barriers to progression such as remediation bottlenecks, stop-out triggers and milestone failure points. Developing, expanding or socializing strong practices around credit for prior learning and work-based learning are key job functions requiring strong partnership development across internal and external stakeholder groups.

The successful candidate will possess a bachelor’s degree in a field related to higher education administration, education, liberal studies, communication and (5 years or more) in leadership roles that require organizational change management expertise in a postsecondary setting including communicating the impact of various
learner success strategies.

Additional knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required

Learner Success Research and Practice

• Deep knowledge of evidence-based practices and research on student retention, persistence, and completion.
• Knowledge of evidence-based student support interventions, including proactive/intrusive advising, early alert systems, learning communities, supplemental instruction, and caseload management models.
• Familiarity with the research on wrap-around supports and their relationship to persistence including basic needs insecurity, mental health, childcare, transportation, and other non-academic barriers.
• Understanding of developmental education and remediation reform models (e.g., corequisite remediation, multiple measures placement, accelerated developmental sequences) and their outcomes.
Knowledge of stop-out and re-engagement research, including the characteristics of students who leave and the institutional conditions that facilitate or hinder return.

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Higher Education Systems and Governance

• Understanding of how multi-campus university systems operate, including the distinct roles of system offices versus campus-level administration and the levers available at each level.
• Understanding of how federal and state financial aid policy intersects with student persistence and completion (e.g., satisfactory academic progress, Pell lifetime eligibility, state grant programs).
• Ability to translate broad institutional goals (e.g., "produce more graduates in high-demand fields") into specific, operationalizable strategies with clear milestones and accountability structures.
• Skill in designing frameworks that are coherent at the system level but flexible enough for campuses with different missions, student populations, and resource levels to adapt.
Ability to distinguish between problems that require system-level solutions and those best addressed at the campus level, and to calibrate involvement accordingly.

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Data and Evidence

• Knowledge of the key metrics used to measure student success at the institutional and system level — retention rates, graduation rates, credit accumulation benchmarks, DFW rates, time-to-degree, equity gaps and the methodological choices behind how each is constructed.
• Understanding of institutional research practices, student information systems, and the data infrastructure required to support predictive analytics and early warning systems.
• Skill in analyzing quantitative student success data—identifying patterns, trends, and anomalies in retention, progression, and completion metrics across campuses and student populations.
• Ability to read and critically evaluate published research and translate findings into practical recommendations for campus practitioners.
• Skill in constructing dashboards, progress reports, and data narratives that make complex information accessible and actionable for diverse audiences (campus leadership, student affairs professionals, faculty, board members).
Ability to move from descriptive analytics ("what happened") to diagnostic analytics ("why it happened") to prescriptive recommendations ("what to do about it").

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Workforce and Credential Landscape

• Working knowledge of how credential completion connects to workforce outcomes, including the role of microcredentials, stackable credentials, and industry-recognized certifications in the broader completion landscape.
• Understanding of labor market alignment concepts sufficient to collaborate with the Director of Workforce Pathways on ensuring that retention strategies support completion in high-demand fields.
Knowledge of credit for prior learning (CPL) and prior learning assessment (PLA) as tools that accelerate time-to-completion, particularly for adult learners.

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Access and Inclusive Excellence

• Knowledge of how inconsistencies in readiness manifest in student success outcomes, including disparities by race/ethnicity, income, first-generation status, and geography (rural vs. urban).
• Familiarity with equity-minded data practices—disaggregating outcomes, identifying gaps, and designing interventions that address root causes rather than symptoms.
• Skill in translating between different professional cultures—speaking the language of student affairs professionals, faculty, institutional researchers, and senior administrators as context requires.
• Ability to listen deeply to campus stakeholders, understand their constraints and concerns, and incorporate their input into system-level strategy without losing strategic coherence.
• Skill in building trust-based relationships with campus-level student success leaders, provosts, deans, and student affairs professionals.
• Ability to manage upward effectively keeping senior leadership informed, anticipating their questions, and framing recommendations in terms of institutional priorities and strategic plan alignment.
Ability to use data to surface inequities and to hold the system accountable for closing gaps, even when the findings are uncomfortable.

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General Skills

• Skill in convening and facilitating working groups, communities of practice, and collaborative initiatives across campuses that have different cultures, priorities, and resource constraints.
• Ability to build shared ownership of system-level goals without imposing one-size-fits-all mandates, working through influence, evidence, and persuasion rather than positional authority.
• Skill in identifying and amplifying promising practices already happening on individual campuses and creating mechanisms for peer-to-peer learning across the system.
• Ability to assess campus readiness for new initiatives and tailor support (technical assistance, professional development, resource allocation) to each campus's starting point.
• Ability to hold multiple, sometimes competing priorities simultaneously (e.g., improving graduation rates while maintaining academic rigor; moving quickly on strategic plan deliverables while building genuine campus buy-in).
• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce polished strategy documents, policy briefs, board presentations, and grant narratives.
• Ability to present complex data and research findings clearly to non-technical audiences, including senior leadership, legislators, and board members.
• Ability to operate as a capacity builder rather than a direct service provider, consistently focusing on strengthening the people, processes, and systems closest to students rather than inserting oneself into campus-level operations.
• Willingness to seek out and learn from failure, both one's own and others’, and to build a culture of evidence and honest assessment within the student success portfolio.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives at different stages of maturity without losing focus or momentum on any single effort.
Skill in designing and managing pilot programs, including establishing clear evaluation criteria, managing campus selection, and determining go/no-go decisions for scaling.

Preferred

• Demonstrated knowledge of change management in postsecondary learner success.
• Experience problem-solving, multi-tasking, or producing quality work with a team.
• Seven to ten years of experience with increasing levels of responsibility in the education sector.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with others in ways that inspire improvement.
• Familiarity with campus and system organizational dynamics.
• Prefer knowledge of grant-funded initiatives and reporting requirements, student success challenges and needs, as well as the structure of and key organizations involved in Tennessee public education.
The ideal candidate will be able to draw on prior experience supporting the growth and development of teachers, educators, and K-12 administrators (in addition to student success).

Application Process:

For full consideration, applications should be accompanied by a letter of interest, a resume, and three professional references. Review of applications will begin immediately.

Benefits and Compensation:

Compensation for the position is budgeted for $115,000 to $130,000

The University offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits and much more. Additionally, Tennessee residents do not pay a state income tax. For more information on the University of Tennessee's benefits, visit https://hr.tennessee.edu/benefits/