Director, Health Data Analytics & AI Strategy

Texas Health Institute; Reston, Northern (VA, KY); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 231,000; Full time

Job summary

UnitedHealth Group's OptumCare is seeking a senior health policy data analyst to perform quantitative analyses of Medicare and Medicaid payment models. You will build relationships with clients, design calculations, and query large healthcare data stores to inform policy decisions.

The role emphasizes collaboration, mentoring, and applying AI to analytics workflows. Remote-friendly with strong in-office collaboration where required.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience using SQL, Python, R or SAS in a research, consulting, or business environment.
• 6+ years of experience working on federal health policy issues, including Medicare and Medicaid value-based payment, working in multiple areas serving as a subject matter expert.
• Experience working with Medicare or Medicaid healthcare claims and enrollment data.
• Experience working with and advising clients.
• Experience in managing personnel.
• Extensive knowledge of healthcare data/payment concepts (e.g., claims data structure/contents, claim types, payment concepts)
• Experience managing and working directly with teams operating in Snowflake and/or Databricks environments.
• Experience incorporating AI into technical workflows.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to clearly communicate analyses and findings to clients.

Responsibilities

• Independently perform a broad range of quantitative analysis to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of Medicare and Medicaid payment models.
• Develop strategic working relationships with clients.
• Design payment calculations, conduct financial and trend analysis, calculate quality metrics, and perform fast-paced ad-hoc analysis to quickly address client needs.
• Efficiently query large databases of healthcare claims and eligibility data.
• Apply machine learning, econometrics/statistics, predictive modeling, return-on-investment analysis, simulation, and data visualization methods to support the development of health policy.
• Mentor other staff to develop their technical and analytical problem-solving skills.
• Write detailed specifications and documentation of data processing and analytical steps.
• Write effective and efficient code both independently and under the guidance of project managers using best practice quality control procedures.
• Maintain a consistently high degree of accuracy and attention to detail in all tasks.
• Work effectively and cooperatively as a member of a project team.
• Help to oversee adoption of artificial intelligence into technical activities.

Skills

SQL

Python

R/SAS

Medicare/Medicaid policy

Federal health policy

Client advisory

AI in workflows

Mentoring

Communication

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

Github

Job description

UnitedHealth Group's OptumCare is seeking a senior health policy data analyst to perform quantitative analyses of Medicare and Medicaid payment models. You will build relationships with clients, design calculations, and query large healthcare data stores to inform policy decisions.

The role emphasizes collaboration, mentoring, and applying AI to analytics workflows. Remote-friendly with strong in-office collaboration where required.