Danika Dirba
Folded rock strata in Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park · photographed by Danika

Résumé

Turning complex needs into practical systems.

Business analysis, project delivery, data analysis, and research operations—connected by a focus on clearer decisions and better ways of working.

Experience

Senior Business Analyst

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • Promoted after taking on expanded ownership of vendor management, data reporting, data integrity, and Power BI across grants and contracting operations.
  • Serve as a subject-matter expert for grants and contracting data, advising leadership on data definitions, quality, and reporting needs.
  • Own and maintain Power BI dashboards used by department leadership to monitor grants and contracting operations.
  • Coach 4 teams on Power BI reporting and analysis, building self-service capability by leveraging generative AI technology and reducing ad hoc report requests by ~50%.
  • Act as primary day-to-day liaison to the vendor of the institution's federal grants administration platform, managing issue escalation, enhancement requests, and release coordination.

Business Analyst

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • Moved from Project Manager to Business Analyst when the PMO assumed formal project management, retaining responsibility for planning and delivery of analyst-led work.
  • Assumed vendor-management duties for an additional product as the department's portfolio expanded.
  • Built Power BI dashboards and expanded data reporting and data integrity responsibilities, improving report accuracy and reducing the effort required from leadership.

Project Manager

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • Led institutional software and analytics initiatives end to end: scoping, requirements, timelines, budgets, resource planning, user acceptance testing, and delivery.
  • Delivered software improvements supporting funding-proposal review and federal grants administration.
  • Translated changes in federal grant application requirements into software requirements, keeping systems aligned with sponsor rules.
  • Supported a multi-year database migration by improving related workflows for a complex cross-functional research data-collection tool.
  • Aligned internal customers, technical teams, and external vendors through recurring reviews, risk updates, and contingency planning.

Data Specialist / Senior Data Coordinator

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • Maintained research databases and produced reports using Excel, SPSS, and Stata.
  • Contributed to job analysis, structured interviews, and training guides.

Research Assistant / Senior Behavioral Science Lab Technician

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • Advanced through increasing responsibility over seven years in a multidisciplinary research environment.
  • Supported research operations and study procedures; contributed to capital planning.

Selected outcomes

Results across these roles

  • 15% reduction in manual effort
  • 10% reduction in funding-proposal review turnaround
  • 20% reduction in data-collection process time
  • 25% acceleration in onboarding