Clinical Informatics & Ontology Lead

Inovalon Inc; Bowie, Northern (MD, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Inovalon Inc. seeks a seasoned Clinical Informatics & Ontology Lead to own ontology strategy, governance, and terminology services across enterprise data products.

You will guide normalization workflows, value sets, and reference tables, collaborating with engineering, product, and clinical teams to ensure fidelity and compliance. You will translate complex terminology decisions for stakeholders, maintain governance documentation, and lead modernization initiatives including knowledge graph

Qualifications

• 10+ years in healthcare data, clinical informatics, terminology management, ontology governance, or a related field with a Bachelor's degree required.
• 7+ years of experience in healthcare data, clinical informatics, terminology management, ontology governance, clinical data normalization, or a related field with a Master's degree required.
• Terminology Expertise: Deep hands-on expertise with ICD-10-CM, CPT, HCPCS, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, clinical concept modeling, value sets, crosswalks, and terminology lifecycle management required.
• SQL and Data Analysis Skills: Proficiency with SQL for querying, profiling, validating, and investigating large-scale healthcare datasets, including EHR, claims, RWD, and normalized clinical data assets.
• Data Normalization and Ontology Management: Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, or governing clinical normalization workflows, semantic mappings, terminology services, reference tables, and/or ontology management platforms.
• Communication and Leadership: Ability to translate complex terminology and ontology decisions for product, engineering, clinical, governance, and executive stakeholders; ability to document decisions clearly and drive cross-functional alignment.
• Organizational Skills: Ability to manage multiple terminology, normalization, and product-support workstreams in a fast-paced, agile environment while maintaining strong version control, decision traceability, and prioritization discipline.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy, governance, and maintenance of clinical ontologies and terminology assets (ICD-10-CM, CPT, HCPCS, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm).
• Translate business, clinical, and product requirements into terminology configurations and implementation priorities.
• Direct clinical normalization approaches for structured and unstructured data with high fidelity mappings.
• Collaborate with Data Eng, Product, and Clinical teams to ensure accurate data specifications and downstream products.
• Define terminology-driven data quality rules and semantic validation checks; partner on gaps and drift.
• Oversee migration of legacy reference tables to scalable terminology services and ontology workflows.
• Evaluate new data assets for clinical depth and normalization readiness; present structured recommendations.
• Maintain documentation of ontology decisions, mappings, value sets, version changes, and downstream dependencies.

Skills

ICD-10-CM expertise

SNOMED CT & LOINC

CPT & RxNorm

SQL proficiency

Data analysis

Terminology governance

Cross-functional communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Health Informatics or related field

Master's degree in Medical/Health Informatics

Certifications: AHIC, CPHIMS, RHIA, CCS, CHDA

Job description

Overview:

The Clinical Informatics & Ontology Lead will serve as the enterprise subject matter expert for clinical terminology, semantic normalization, ontology strategy, and clinical concept governance within the Enterprise Data Informatics team, reporting directly to the AVP, Informatics. This role is responsible for leading the design, governance, and operationalization of clinical ontologies, reference data, value sets, and terminology services that underpin Inovalon's real-world data products, data normalization strategy, and data quality framework.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Clinical Ontology Strategy: Lead the strategy, governance, and maintenance of clinical ontologies and terminology assets, including ICD-10-CM, CPT, HCPCS, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, and internal reference tables, ensuring accuracy, currency, traceability, and alignment with data product needs.

• Terminology Ownership: Serve as the primary Informatics lead for normalization and terminology services; translate business, clinical, and product requirements into terminology configuration, mapping, and implementation priorities.

• Clinical Normalization Leadership: Lead and refine clinical normalization approaches for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured healthcare data, ensuring that source data are mapped to standardized codified elements with clinical fidelity and reusable governance.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate closely with Data Engineering, Product, and Clinical teams to ensure that data specifications are accurately implemented, and downstream data products reflect high-fidelity source data.

• Data Quality Rule Design: Define terminology-driven data quality rules, semantic validation checks, and normalization benchmarks; partner with the Data Quality & Analytics team to identify gaps, drift, obsolete codes, mapping failures, and downstream product impacts.

• Pipeline Modernization and Knowledge Graph Support: Lead Informatics input into the migration of legacy reference tables to scalable terminology services, ontology management workflows, and, where applicable, knowledge graph capabilities.

• Data Asset and Source Assessment: Evaluate new and existing data assets for clinical depth, code specificity, normalization readiness, and semantic fit for real-world data (RWD) and related products; prepare structured recommendations for leadership review.

• Governance and Documentation: Maintain documentation of ontology decisions, mapping assumptions, value set definitions, version changes, and downstream dependencies to support auditability, release readiness, and cross-functional transparency.

• Maintain compliance with Inovalon's policies, procedures, and mission statements.

• Adhere to all confidentiality and HIPAA requirements as outlined within Inovalon's Operating Policies and Procedures in all ways and at all times with respect to any aspect of the data handled or services rendered in the undertaking of the position.

• Fulfill those responsibilities and/or duties that may be reasonably provided by Inovalon for the purpose of achieving operational and financial success of the Company.

• Uphold responsibilities relative to the separation of duties for applicable processes and procedures within your job function.

• We reserve the right to change this job description from time to time as business needs dictate and will provide notice of such.

Job Requirements:

• 10+ years of experience in healthcare data, clinical informatics, terminology management, ontology governance, clinical data normalization, or a related field with a Bachelor's degree required; or

• 7+ years of experience in healthcare data, clinical informatics, terminology management, ontology governance, clinical data normalization, or a related field with a Master's degree required.

• Terminology Expertise: Deep hands-on expertise with ICD-10-CM, CPT, HCPCS, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, clinical concept modeling, value sets, crosswalks, and terminology lifecycle management required.

• SQL and Data Analysis Skills: Proficiency with SQL for querying, profiling, validating, and investigating large-scale healthcare datasets, including EHR, claims, RWD, and normalized clinical data assets.

• Data Normalization and Ontology Management: Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, or governing clinical normalization workflows, semantic mappings, terminology services, reference tables, and/or ontology management platforms.

• Communication and Leadership: Ability to translate complex terminology and ontology decisions for product, engineering, clinical, governance, and executive stakeholders; ability to document decisions clearly and drive cross-functional alignment.

• Organizational Skills: Ability to manage multiple terminology, normalization, and product-support workstreams in a fast-paced, agile environment while maintaining strong version control, decision traceability, and prioritization discipline.

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in Health Informatics, Medical Informatics, Clinical Informatics, Computer Science, Health Information Management, Nursing, Pharmacy, Medicine, or a related field required.

• Master's Degree in Medical Informatics, Health Informatics, Clinical Informatics, Biomedical Informatics, or a related discipline preferred.

• Relevant professional certifications or credentials, such as AHIC, CPHIMS, RHIA, CCS, CHDA, terminology/ontology training, or equivalent experience, a plus.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

• Sedentary work (i.e. sitting for long periods of time);

• Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force;

• Frequently or constantly lift, carry push, pull or otherwise move objects and repetitive motions;

• Subject to inside environmental conditions; and

• Travel for this position will include less than 10-15% as needed to perform job responsibilities.

This position is not eligible for immigration sponsorship (e.g. H-1B, TN, or E-3). Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States as a condition of employment. (This is only applicable for US-based positions)

If you don’t meet every qualification listed but are excited about our mission and the work described, we encourage you to apply. Inovalon is most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and you may be just the right person for this or other roles.

By embracing inclusion, we enhance our work environment and drive business success. Inovalon strives to provide equal opportunities to the communities where we operate and to our clients and everyone whom we serve. We endeavor to create a culture of inclusion in which our associates feel empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work and pursue their professional goals in an equitable setting. We understand that by fostering this type of culture, and welcoming different perspectives, we generate innovation and growth.

Inovalon is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirement.