Remote Director, Pharmacy Value Economics & Strategy

UnitedHealth Group; Draper (UT); Remote; USD 135,000 - 231,000; Full time

Job summary

Optum is seeking a Director, Pharmacy Value Economics to lead the national measurement, forecasting, and realization of pharmacy value across Optum Health, with a focus on rebate programs and affordability initiatives. The role partners with clinical, finance, analytics, and market leadership to develop governance, dashboards, and executive insights that balance cost, access, and quality.

Remote work within the U.S. is supported.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in healthcare, pharmacy, managed care, finance, healthcare economics, market access, manufacturer contracting, or rebate management.
• 5+ years of direct or matrixed people leadership experience.
• Experience developing or applying healthcare, pharmacy, reimbursement, affordability, or drug economics methodologies to support strategic decision-making.
• Experience developing forecasts, economic evaluation frameworks, value measurement methodologies, and executive business cases.
• Experience designing or overseeing claims, utilization, financial, or economic data models that support scalable forecasting, performance measurement, opportunity sizing, and value realization.
• Experience measuring financial performance, including forecast accuracy, budget variance, value capture, and revenue leakage.
• Experience developing executive dashboards, scorecards, KPIs, and value realization reporting.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives with clinical, finance, analytics, operations, contracting, and market leadership stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate with senior leaders and influence decisions through data-driven insights.

Responsibilities

• Own the pharmacy value economics framework across Optum Health, including methodology, governance, financial performance standards, and value realization reporting.
• Establish methodologies to measure rebate performance, yield, value realization, and return on investment.
• Lead prioritization and execution of rebate, manufacturer value, and pharmacy affordability opportunities in partnership with clinical, finance, analytics, and market leadership.
• Evaluate net cost effectiveness post rebate with Clinical Pharmacy Insights to ensure recommendations are clinically appropriate, affordability-aligned, and compatible with Optum Health Pharmacy Value & Therapeutics Committee guidance.
• Lead national forecasting methodologies for rebate revenue, manufacturer value programs, value product opportunities, and market expansion initiatives.
• Develop financial models and executive business cases that support strategic planning, investment decisions, affordability initiatives, and value realization commitments.
• Monitor forecast accuracy and identify key drivers impacting performance.
• Identify variance between vendor estimates and actual performance, including drivers of financial impact, leakage, and realized value.
• Own executive dashboards, scorecards, KPIs, and value reporting that inform senior leadership decisions and enterprise performance management.
• Produce actionable insights related to rebate performance, net cost optimization, utilization trends, value capture, and affordability opportunities.
• Translate data and analytic conclusions into concise executive-level narratives, recommendations, and decision support materials.
• Identify revenue leakage and value capture gaps across rebate and manufacturer-funded programs.
• Quantify opportunity size and prioritize improvement initiatives.
• Drive accountability with operational teams to ensure identified opportunities translate into measurable and sustained realized value.
• Monitor trends affecting pharmacy value, including pharmaceutical market dynamics, biosimilar adoption, reimbursement changes, and regulatory developments.
• Assess the impact of initiatives such as Medicare Drug Price Negotiation (MFP), Inflation Reduction Act provisions, and evolving manufacturer strategies.
• Develop scenario analyses and strategic recommendations for leadership.
• Lead measurement and financial performance evaluation of value product initiatives, future manufacturer value opportunities, and affordability initiatives.
• Develop integrated value measurement approaches across clinical, financial, actuarial, healthcare economics, contracting, and operational stakeholders.
• Establish and scale the analytics framework beyond rebates toward total pharmacy value measurement across populations, markets, and lines of business.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team responsible for forecasting, analytics, reporting, and financial modeling.
• Establish priorities, performance expectations, and development plans.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, and data-driven decision making.

Skills

Healthcare industry experience

People leadership

Value economics

Financial modeling

Data modeling

Executive reporting

Cross-functional leadership

Analytics leadership

Executive communication

Education

PharmD or pharmacist licensure

Tools

Power BI

Tableau

Job description

Optum is seeking a Director, Pharmacy Value Economics to lead the national measurement, forecasting, and realization of pharmacy value across Optum Health, with a focus on rebate programs and affordability initiatives. The role partners with clinical, finance, analytics, and market leadership to develop governance, dashboards, and executive insights that balance cost, access, and quality.

Remote work within the U.S. is supported.