Senior Program Manager, Center for Data Interoperability

RTI International is an independent, scientific research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. Our vision is to address the world's most critical problems with technical and science-based solutions in pursuit of a better future. Clients rely on us to answer questions that demand an objective and multidisciplinary approach-one that integrates expertise across social, statistical, data, and laboratory sciences, engineering, and other technical disciplines to solve the world's most challenging problems.

We believe in the promise of science and technical solutions, and we push ourselves every day to deliver on that promise for the good of people, communities, and businesses in the US and around the world. If you are looking for the opportunity to make a real difference, RTI is the place for you.

The Center for Data Interoperability provides expertise in the ingestion, management and analysis of real-world data, including clinical, public health and administrative claims data. The Center includes a team of informaticists, data scientists, epidemiologists and programmers. The Senior Program Manager is an experienced software developer and healthcare data analyst with at least 8 years of experience designing and implementing large-scale analytic systems for Medicare and other healthcare data programs. Expert in Python, SQL, cloud-based data platforms, and automated claims-processing pipelines. Proven ability to develop high-performance software solutions supporting health services research, quality measurement, program evaluation, payment policy analysis, and operational reporting. Experienced in leading technical teams, mentoring developers, and delivering secure, scalable systems for federal healthcare clients.

With guidance from their Center Director, the Sr. Program Manager helps lead a team of quantitative professionals/researchers focused on achieving RTI's strategic mission, vision and values and delivering technical and operational excellence to our clients. Sr. Program Managers help ensure systems and processes are implemented to support staff success in achieving program objectives and meeting quality standards.

The Senior Program Manager will:

• Manage 8 - 12 programmers and working with other programmer leads to assign workloads.
• Participate in Center Leadership meetings, and development of the Division and Center strategies.
• Foster employee growth and development by meeting regularly with each staff member to discuss ongoing work, upcoming opportunities, project, proposal, scientific stature, and workload/level of effort.
• Serve as technical lead for Medicare claims processing and analytics initiatives.
• Provide architectural guidance on data management, programming standards, and system design.
• Mentor junior and mid-level programmers in Python development, software engineering, and healthcare data methodologies.
• Collaborate with statisticians, epidemiologists, health economists, and policy researchers to translate analytic requirements into production-ready solutions.
• Lead code reviews and establish quality assurance standards for mission-critical healthcare applications.
• Contribute to proposal development by designing technical approaches for large-scale healthcare data systems.
• Maintain a project load commensurate with salary grade level expectations.

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD with at least 8 years of experience; or a Master's degree with at least 12 years of experience; or a Bachelor's degree with at least 15 years of experience.
• Strong track record of Python and SQL programming in a production environment.
  Experience designing and maintaining complex workflows, issue schemas, permission models and governance frameworks in JIRA.
• Strong knowledge of Agile software development methodologies, DevOps practices and project management frameworks.
• Experience managing or leading complex tasks on projects for federal agencies such as CMS, CDC, and FDA.
• Experience managing project programming teams, such as in a Lead Project Programmer or equivalent functional technical leadership role.
  
  

Technical Competencies:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable Python and SQL applications that ingest, validate, transform, and analyze Medicare claims data.
• Build automated data pipelines supporting operational reporting, research studies, program evaluations, and regulatory deliverables.
• Develop reusable software frameworks for claims processing, beneficiary attribution, episode construction, and quality measurement.
• Optimize processing performance for multi-terabyte healthcare datasets.
• Implement automated testing, quality assurance procedures, and data validation routines.
• Create technical documentation, code repositories, development standards, and deployment procedures.
• Support production systems used by analysts, researchers, and federal clients.
• Develop APIs and analytic services that integrate claims data with survey, enrollment, provider, and clinical datasets.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting CMS, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, or other federal healthcare programs.
• Experience developing reproducible analytic workflows for health services research, payment policy, quality measurement, risk adjustment, or program evaluation.
• Familiarity with cloud-based analytic environments such as Snowflake or Databricks.
• Experience supporting data enclaves, secure research environments, or controlled-access data platforms.
• Knowledge of healthcare quality measures, utilization analysis, and risk-adjustment methodologies.

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For San Francisco, CA USA Job Postings Only: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Further information is availablehere.

RTI accepts applications to our job openings from candidates with criminal histories or conviction records in accordance with all applicable laws, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

For Applicants in Massachusetts Only:It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

The anticipated pay range for this role is listed below. Our pay ranges represent national averages and may vary by location as a geographic differential may be applied to some locations within the United States. RTI considers multiple factors when making an offer including, for example: established salary range, internal budget, business needs, and education and years of work experience possessed by the applicant. Further, salary is merely one element to our offer.

At RTI, we demonstrate our commitment to rewarding individual and team achievement through a total rewards package. This package includes (among other things) a competitive base salary, a generous paid time off policy, merit based annual increases, bonus opportunities and a robust recognition program. Other benefits include a competitive range of insurance plans (including health, dental, life, and short-term and long-term disability), access to a retirement savings program such as a 401(k) plan, paid parental leave for all parents, financial assistance with adoption expenses or infertility treatments, financial reimbursement for education and developmental opportunities, an employee assistance program, and numerous other offerings to support a healthy work-life balance.