Willow Optime Ambulatory Pharmacist Informaticist

Innova; Roseville (CA); Remote; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Innova is seeking a Pharmacy Informaticist specializing in Epic Willow for a Sacramento-area health system. The role focuses on backlog triage, clinical translation, and building IT-ready specifications to improve medication safety and workflow efficiency.

You will collaborate with pharmacy leaders, clinicians, and IT to address build defects, workflow gaps, and formulary maintenance while standardizing medication processes across markets. A CA license and acute-care experience are required.

Qualifications

• PharmD or BS Pharmacy degree.
• Active, unrestricted California pharmacist license (or eligible before start).
• 3+ years of pharmacy informatics experience in an acute care hospital or health system.
• Hands-on Epic Willow Inpatient experience, including medication build and troubleshooting.
• Working knowledge of order sets, preference lists and medication records.
• Experience with automated dispensing cabinets (Pyxis preferred) and their Epic interfaces.
• Track record of translating clinical needs into build requirements for IT analysts.
• Comfortable presenting to and influencing pharmacists, physicians, nurses and IT leaders.

Responsibilities

• Review and prioritize build tickets across Willow Inpatient/Ambulatory, OpTime and ASAP, starting with patient-safety and high-volume issues.
• Determine root cause: Epic build defect, workflow gap, or operational practice that needs to change.
• Write clear clinical requirements and build specifications for IT analysts, then validate fixes in testing before go-live.
• Meet regularly (virtually) with pharmacy leaders and staff in each market to gather issues and explain system changes.
• Partner with physicians and nurses on medication-related build issues in orders, MAR, verification and dispensing workflows.
• Serve as the liaison between system pharmacy, market pharmacy operations and IT analysts.
• Reinforce system pharmacy medication standards across markets and in the Epic build.
• Identify and request changes to preference lists, order sets and order panels.
• Troubleshoot Pyxis/automated dispensing cabinet interface issues, including medication ID mapping that is not working.
• Support ERX/medication record, dispensable product and formulary maintenance.
• Document decisions, workflow changes and build rationale.
• Bring recurring issues and standardization decisions to pharmacy and clinical governance groups.
• Create tip sheets and education for pharmacists, technicians, providers and nurses when workflows change.

Education

PharmD or BS Pharmacy

CA Pharmacist License (active or eligible)

Certification in informatics (preferred)

Tools

Epic Willow Inpatient

Pyxis interfaces

Job description

Pharmacy Informaticist (Epic Willow) - Sacramento Acute Care Health System

Oct 8, 2026 • @Joel Slenning

Position snapshot

Title
Pharmacy Informaticist (Epic Willow)

Client
Acute care health system

Location
Sacramento, CA

Epic modules
Willow (Inpatient and Ambulatory), OpTime, ASAP (ED)

Reports to
System Pharmacy / Pharmacy Informatics leadership

Employment type
Contract, with option to convert to contract-to-hire

Work setting
Remote

Licensure
Active California RPh license or other Pharmacy State Licensure

About the opportunity

Our client, a Sacramento-based acute care health system, is carrying roughly 3,000 open build tickets across Epic Willow, OpTime and the ED. Their IT team is staffed with analysts, and today one pharmacist informaticist bridges every clinical and operational question between pharmacy, providers, nursing and IT.

You will join as a second pharmacist informaticist to expand that capacity. You'll be the clinical translator: deciding whether an issue is a build fix IT needs to make or an operational change pharmacy needs to adopt, then driving it to resolution.

This is a high-impact role. Your work directly reduces the backlog, improves medication safety, and gives clinicians a system that works the way they do.

What you'll do

Backlog triage and resolution

• Review and prioritize build tickets across Willow Inpatient/Ambulatory, OpTime and ASAP, starting with patient-safety and high-volume issues
• Determine root cause: Epic build defect, workflow gap, or operational practice that needs to change
• Write clear clinical requirements and build specifications for IT analysts, then validate fixes in testing before go-live

Clinical and IT translation

• Meet regularly (virtually) with pharmacy leaders and staff in each market to gather issues and explain system changes
• Partner with physicians and nurses on medication-related build issues in orders, MAR, verification and dispensing workflows
• Serve as the liaison between system pharmacy, market pharmacy operations and IT analysts

Medication build and standards

• Reinforce system pharmacy medication standards across markets and in the Epic build
• Identify and request changes to preference lists, order sets and order panels
• Troubleshoot Pyxis/automated dispensing cabinet interface issues, including medication ID mapping that is not working
• Support ERX/medication record, dispensable product and formulary maintenance

Communication and governance

• Document decisions, workflow changes and build rationale
• Bring recurring issues and standardization decisions to pharmacy and clinical governance groups
• Create tip sheets and education for pharmacists, technicians, providers and nurses when workflows change

Required qualifications

• PharmD or BS Pharmacy
• Active, unrestricted California pharmacist license (or eligible before start)
• 3+ years of pharmacy informatics experience in an acute care hospital or health system
• Hands-on Epic Willow Inpatient experience, including medication build and troubleshooting
• Working knowledge of order sets, preference lists and medication records
• Experience with automated dispensing cabinets (Pyxis preferred) and their Epic interfaces
• Track record of translating clinical needs into build requirements for IT analysts
• Comfortable presenting to and influencing pharmacists, physicians, nurses and IT leaders

Preferred qualifications

• Epic Willow certification (Inpatient and/or Ambulatory)
• Experience with OpTime/Anesthesia and ASAP (ED) medication workflows
• Multi-hospital or multi-market health system experience
• Prior backlog-reduction, optimization or post-go-live stabilization work
• Residency (PGY1/PGY2) or certification in informatics
• Familiarity with ISMP and system formulary standardization practices

Who thrives in this role

You’ll succeed here if you like ownership and can work through ambiguity without waiting for perfect process. You are equally comfortable at a pharmacy huddle and in a build review with IT.

In your first 90 days, you will:

1. Learn the ticket queue and agree on a prioritization method with the current informaticist and IT
2. Build working relationships with pharmacy leaders in each market
3. Own a defined share of the backlog and show measurable ticket closure
4. Establish a repeatable process for flagging order set, preference list and Pyxis issues