Higher Education SQL and ETL Specialist — Banner, Workday, Colleague

Higher Education SQL and ETL Specialist UQ Solutions is seeking an experienced higher education data specialist to support data integration and analytics work for colleges and universities. This role requires more than general data engineering experience. We are looking for someone who understands how institutional data is structured, defined, and managed within U.S. higher education. The ideal candidate has worked directly within a college or university IT, institutional research, business intelligence, or data environment. This is a contract position with the potential for ongoing work. Responsibilities • Write, review, and optimize SQL queries • Extract data from student information, finance, HR, and related systems • Design, build, test, and document ETL or ELT workflows • Map data from different institutional systems into standardized data models • Identify data-quality issues, missing fields, and inconsistent definitions • Validate transformed data against source systems and institutional reports • Work with institutional IT and research teams to clarify data requirements • Develop clear data specifications, mapping documents, and technical documentation The work may involve enrollment, courses, sections, academic programs, faculty, staffing, workload, finance, and organizational data. Required Experience • Professional IT, institutional research, analytics, or data experience within a U.S. college or university, or extensive consulting experience with U.S. higher education institutions • Excellent SQL skills • Experience with ETL or ELT, data transformation, integration, and validation • Direct experience with one or more major higher education systems, such as Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, Workday, Jenzabar, PeopleSoft, Oracle, or other commonly used SIS, ERP, HR, finance, or reporting platforms • Familiarity with higher education data structures and terminology • Strong documentation, communication, and problem-solving skills • Careful attention to accuracy, privacy, security, and confidentiality Preferred Skills • R or Python • dbt or similar transformation tools • Snowflake, Azure, or PostgreSQL • Data warehouse or dimensional-modeling design • Tableau or Power BI • IPEDS or institutional reporting • Course scheduling, faculty workload, program costing, or academic financial analysis Ideal Candidate The ideal candidate understands that higher education data is often complex and institution-specific. You should be comfortable investigating unfamiliar databases, asking precise questions, documenting assumptions, and distinguishing between technically available data and data that accurately represents an institutional concept. We are particularly interested in candidates who can communicate effectively with both technical and nontechnical stakeholders. To Apply Please include: • A brief description of your higher education data or IT experience • The colleges, universities, or higher education organizations with which you have worked • The SIS, ERP, finance, HR, and reporting systems you know • Examples of SQL, ETL, or data-integration projects you have completed • Your availability and hourly rate • Whether you are interested in project-based work, ongoing work, or both Please begin your proposal with the name of the higher education system you know best.