Vice President, Healthcare Economics & Program Evaluation - Remote

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as we help advance health equity on a global scale. Here, you will find talented peers, comprehensive benefits, a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, career growth opportunities and your life's best work.(sm)

Optum Labs is the research and development arm of UnitedHealth Group. We're a diverse team of curious thinkers and experts in big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and scientific and clinical research searching for new ways to help people live healthier lives. We partner with world leaders in health care delivery, research, and technology to create disruptive solutions that serve patients, caregivers, providers, and commercial and government payers.

More equitable, effective, and affordable health care - that's our goal. We aren't just trying to improve the care an individual receives. We're building a future where the health care system works better for everyone.

The Vice President, Healthcare Economics and Program Evaluation will serve in a key leadership role, driving the overall program evaluation activities for Optum Labs products, advising purpose-built program evaluation teams serving the enterprise, and partnering with leaders in the governance of program evaluation methodology standards. This position requires excellent leadership, communication, collaboration, and technical skills. The role serves as a team leader partnering in a multi-disciplinary environment with colleagues across the enterprise to increase member experience and improve outcomes while delivering savings to the healthcare ecosystem. As a leader and subject matter expert, the Vice President, Healthcare Economics and Program Evaluation will provide guidance to healthcare economic and program evaluation teams in the design for data-driven studies to tell the story of how products and programs are impacting patient lives, providers workflows, and affordability initiatives. Your role will include developing and executing a program evaluation strategy including incorporating study methods, analyzing complex data with statistical and visual techniques, and interpreting and presenting findings. You’ll work closely with product, program, and business leaders to develop innovative analytic solutions to help Optum fulfill its mission.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Develop a thorough understanding of the research, product, and emerging business strategy of Optum Labs
• Lead, inspire and set the vision and drive the culture for the Optum Labs’ healthcare economic and program evaluation team that supports our mission, vision, and strategy
• Lead development and implementation of program evaluation strategy and governance to enhance product impact, build credibility, and improve time to value of product development process
• Partner with the enterprise program evaluation standards team to develop and deploy consistent methodologies and standards to improve efficiency and adoption
• Lead healthcare economic and program evaluation teams to deliver improved and more rapid emerging insights to product partners to improve product and reduce product development life cycle
• Build strong inter-dependent relationships within the Optum Labs organization as appropriate to maintain alignment of roles and responsibilities and solve arising problems – to include product development, research, finance, clinical, actuarial, and enterprise performance and methods teams
• Anticipate and address customer needs by proactively researching and investigating key business problems through qualitative research, literature reviews, and quantitative analyses
• Work closely with stakeholders to understand business needs, explain methods, and interpret findings
• Ability to work autonomously, lead teams and manage priorities, while retaining a collaborative and inclusive approach with others
• Ensure program evaluations are completed on-time with consideration for health equity impact

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• PhD in Statistics, Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Services Research, Data Science, or related field
• 10+ years of healthcare experience performing program evaluation analysis using healthcare medical and pharmacy administrative claims data, EHR/EMR data, and/or complex relational healthcare databases
• 10+ years of healthcare experience using statistical methods in data science modeling or in statistical studies (linear regression, logistic regression, retrospective, ANOVA, cluster, t-testing, Pearson’s chi-squared, Fisher’s exact, etc.)
• 5+ years of experience serving in program evaluation leadership role
• 5+ years of experience building and leading high-performance teams through influence in a complex, large, matrixed, global environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated strategic process development capabilities considering business and enterprise objectives
• History of achieving objectives by setting purposeful goals and executing with intelligent performance-based actions
• Knowledge of relevant applications, cloud computing, AI/ML
• Hands-on experience using statistical technology tools such as SAS, R, Python, SQL
• Demonstrated exceptional customer service with preference for consulting experience

Careers with Optum. Our objective is to make health care simpler and more effective for everyone. With our hands at work across all aspects of health, you can play a role in creating a healthier world, one insight, one connection and one person at a time. We bring together some of the greatest minds and ideas to take health care to its fullest potential, promoting health equity and accessibility. Work with diverse, engaged and high-performing teams to help solve important challenges.

We Lead with Diversity, Inclusion and Compassion

At Optum Labs, we are dedicated to building teams where every individual is recognized for their unique experience and contributions. Our Leadership Principles underscore our commitment to inclusion, encouraging us to “walk in each other’s shoes” and open doors for our peers.

UnitedHealth Group supports local, regional, and national organizations that share these values through joint initiatives, event and program participation, volunteerism and giving. Through our Connected Communities, employees can connect with others who have similar – or different – life experiences and backgrounds. These groups are led by peers, supported by Human Capital, and championed by leaders.

We Invest in Talent

Managers at every level are committed to their roles as talent stewards who help guide and nurture professional development. We want our employees to reach their highest level of potential just as they help us reach ours.

At Optum Labs, employees are our first customers. That’s why we offer virtual work environments – to provide work/life flexibility via telecommuting. While it can be a struggle to be a telecommuter, it can also provide enormous benefits for your personal and professional life.

Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, or New York City Residents Only: The salary range for Colorado/Connecticut/Nevada/New York City residents is $174,600 to $332,200. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, UnitedHealth Group offers benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with UnitedHealth Group, you’ll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone–of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income–deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes — an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.