The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is a global nonprofit research and education organization with more than 48,000 members worldwide representing the full spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines. Founded in 1936, ULI's mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. ULI delivers its mission through education, research, convenings, and member-driven programming at the local, national, and international level.
ULI's Data Analytics & Engineering (DA&E) team turns the organization's data into decisions. The team builds and maintains the dashboards, reports, and data infrastructure that membership, events, the Foundation, and operations teams rely on to understand how ULI is performing and where to focus next.
It is a small, high-trust team carrying a substantial workload: rebuilding and maintaining the Power BI environment, validating and publishing the monthly membership report on a tight monthly cadence, and fielding a steady stream of new requests from across the organization. There is no shortage of meaningful work here, and a backlog of interesting problems waiting for the right person to help take them on.
This is a technical role in service of the wider organization. You will work closely with the Lead Systems Developer and a small analytics team, and you will be the person who turns a vague request into a report that actually answers the question someone was asking.
The BI Developer will design, build, and maintain the dashboards and reports that surface ULI's key organizational metrics. The role centers on three things: Power BI dashboards, paginated reports that are automated and distributed by email to stakeholders across the organization, and HTML dashboards built for broader internal and external audiences, including member leaders.
Most of ULI's data lives in the NetFORUM database, with additional sources including Virtuous (the Foundation's CRM) and Smartsheets. Advanced DAX and strong SQL are the foundation of this role: you will be writing complex measures, querying large and intricately related tables, and making deliberate choices about how data is joined and modeled.
This is a build-and-deliver role, not a pure analytics role. Deep data storytelling and predictive analysis stay with the wider team; your focus is translating requirements into accurate, well-engineered, well-designed reports people can trust and act on.
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Design, build, and maintain interactive Power BI dashboards, paginated reports, and HTML dashboards for stakeholders across membership, events, the Foundation, and operations.
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Write advanced DAX expressions to support complex business logic, time intelligence, and KPI calculations.
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Write and optimize SQL queries against the NetFORUM database and other source systems to build reliable, well-structured data layers.
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Own the monthly official membership report cycle: validating data against a fixed monthly snapshot, coordinating with teams responsible for further validation, and publishing the final report on schedule.
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Conduct regular data quality checks, troubleshoot discrepancies, and work with stakeholders to resolve issues at the source.
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Partner directly with non-technical stakeholders to gather requirements, ask the right clarifying questions, and translate ambiguous requests into concrete report designs.
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Build and maintain reusable components, templates, and standards that promote consistency across the reporting portfolio.
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Use AI tools to support query writing and DAX development where useful, while owning the hands-on design and build work that still requires human judgment.
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Document data definitions, sources, and business rules to support broader data governance.
In the first three to six months, success means building real fluency in ULI's data environment. NetFORUM has hundreds of interconnected tables, and getting comfortable with which ones matter and how they join together takes time. No one expects instant mastery. We do expect curiosity, steady progress, and good questions along the way.
By the end of your first year, success looks like this:
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ULI's Power BI environment has been meaningfully rebuilt and is being proactively maintained, not just kept on life support.
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Stakeholders across the organization know they can bring you a vague reporting need and trust you to shape it into something useful, asking smart clarifying questions along the way.
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The monthly membership report runs like clockwork, validated and published on schedule every month.
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New, more ambitious reporting requests, the ones the team did not previously have the capacity to take on, are getting built.
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Your work has freed up senior team members to spend more time on deeper analytics, predictive work, and strategic priorities.
We are looking for someone with genuinely strong DAX and SQL skills who also knows how to talk to people who do not speak in technical terms. The ideal candidate is curious, self-directed, and comfortable being handed an ambiguous ask and turning it into something concrete.
Specifically, we are looking for:
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Advanced DAX and strong SQL. This is the single most important competency for this role. You should be comfortable explaining how and why you have joined tables in past work, including the difference an inner, outer, or left join makes to the result.
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Clear communication with non-technical stakeholders. You can explain what is and is not possible without over-promising, and you build trust with people who do not know the underlying data structures.
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Self-direction. You can take a loosely defined request, build a first version, and bring it back for refinement rather than waiting for fully specified requirements.
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A genuine interest in people, not just data. This is a technical role in service of business unit leaders across the organization. A collaborative, approachable style matters as much as technical depth.
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Comfort with ambiguity and scale. ULI's data environment is large and still maturing. You should be energized, not overwhelmed, by the prospect of learning a complex system and helping make it better.
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Bachelor's degree in data science, information systems, computer science, business analytics, or a related field.
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2 to 3 years of experience in BI development, data analytics, or a related technical role.
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Advanced proficiency in Power BI, including report development, data modeling, and DAX.
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Strong SQL skills for data extraction, transformation, and query optimization.
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Experience designing and maintaining semantic data models and relational schemas.
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Solid Excel skills, including pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, and advanced data manipulation.
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Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex data clearly to non-technical audiences.
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Experience with membership or association management systems is a plus; NetFORUM experience specifically is welcomed but not required, as full training is provided.
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Familiarity with Python or R, predictive modeling concepts, dimensional modeling, Azure data services or Fabric, Git, or AI-assisted workflows is a plus but not required.
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Experience in nonprofit or membership-based organizations is a plus.
The salary range for this position is $70,000 to $100,234. ULI offers a robust benefits package including health, dental, and life insurance; vacation leave; and a retirement plan.
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is committed to shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide, and we embrace our core values of integrity, collaboration, inclusion, and excellence in service to our members. In alignment with the Board of Directors' strong commitment to in-person collaboration, our roles require regular on-site presence to foster teamwork, innovation, and organizational effectiveness. ULI's primary workplace remains its offices, where in-person collaboration supports our mission and service to members.
ULI is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other status protected by applicable law. EOE/m/f/d/v. No relocation reimbursement is offered at this time.
To apply, please submit your resume and a brief cover note through ULI's career portal.
