Associate Director, Programs

About the Peterson Center on Healthcare

The Peterson Center on Healthcare (“the Center”) is a non-profit organization dedicated to making higher quality, more affordable healthcare a reality for all Americans. The organization is working to transform U.S. healthcare into a high-performance system by finding innovative solutions that improve quality and lower costs and accelerating their adoption on a national scale. Established by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Center collaborates with stakeholders across the healthcare system and engages in grant-making, partnerships, and research.

About the Opportunity

The Center is seeking an Associate Director, Programs (“Associate Director”) to develop and lead a portfolio of projects. Responsibilities will include developing new grants, partnerships and learning opportunities in accordance with the Center’s mission and strategy, managing active project teams and engaging with Center leadership in portfolio and project strategy development.

Today private and public stakeholders apply data and information about healthcare spending and quality to inform their decision-making. Armed with the right information on healthcare performance, purchasers, policymakers, and providers have the potential to transform American healthcare into a sustainable, high-performing system. To this end, the Associate Director will build relationships within the broader purchaser, researcher, and healthcare funding community. This role will also coordinate with other funders working in the space to ensure coordination and avoid redundancy.

The main responsibilities of the job include:

Portfolio Design and Management

• Lead a portfolio of projects focused on advancing data transparency to drive improved decision making by public and private healthcare purchasers.
• Oversee and facilitate the grant lifecycle with grantees including:
Serving as a thought partner in each step of the grant-making process from ideation to proposal development to final outcomes and deliverables;
Ensuring strict financial compliance and oversight;
Synthesizing learnings; develop and present complex deliverables to leadership;
Meticulously track project status, internal and external partners involved, necessary follow-ups, and next steps;
Where appropriate, manage junior staff to facilitate the grant lifecycle as above.
• Assess active projects/grants and their outcomes to develop recommendations for subsequent funding.
• Identify thoughtful, strategically aligned partnerships, and projects that best leverage the Center’s capabilities to significantly impact the cost and quality of U.S. healthcare.

Internal Strategy and Management

• Manage mid and junior level staff who are supporting the portfolio and provide input on long-term staffing structure and needs.
• Manage collaboration and integration of team members and internal services on projects within a portfolio.
• Direct the professional development of team members through coaching and training of new skills, techniques, and ways of working.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues and the leadership team to determine internal strategic priorities and decision-making around the evolution of the portfolio and the broader program.
• Commission, oversee, and conduct relevant research and analysis and share key findings.
• Monitor ongoing research and industry dialogue about data transparency, including debates, developments, new research findings and policy decisions, to inform grantmaking and strategy development.

External Network and Relationship Development

• Build relationships with and serve as a connector and convener of foundations, experts, leadership organizations and other key partners in their portfolio area.
• Represent the Center at external meetings and conferences to showcase Center projects and learnings as well as generate new learnings for the Center.
• Partner with the Communications department to identify opportunities to promote and elevate grantees’ work and portfolio strategy.

About the Successful Candidate

The Associate Director, Programs will be a strategic and engaged team manager and emerging leader, with an aptitude for synthesizing information, data-centered decision making and outcomes-oriented thinking. A successful candidate will bring experience as:

• A mission-driven professional, who:
Is motivated by and committed to the Center’s mission of making higher quality, more affordable healthcare a reality for all Americans.
• A strategic thinker, who:
Is analytically driven to understand underlying issues when others are reluctant to provide information.
Understands the "big picture" context and how this project fits in relation, begins to identify possible next steps, and lay foundation for further action.
• An experienced communicator, who:
Conveys complex concepts to non-technical audiences with expert authority.
Prepares presentations for leadership and, over time, can represent the organization at conferences, grantee meetings, etc.
• A growing team leader, who:
Helps others to understand the vision and buy into the strategic direction of the portfolio and team.
Demonstrates commitment to the team's success by prioritizing the good of the team.

Professional Experience

• Have at least twelve plus (12+) years of experience in healthcare business operations, payer and plan operations, or consulting, with a preference for purchaser and payer experience.
One to three years of this experience spent managing healthcare data and analytics projects, with experience in both claims and clinical related projects and health information exchanges.
• Be hands-on, flexible, and self-motivated with a deliberative approach to program design and execution.
• A bachelor’s degree is required; advanced degree in science, public health, public policy or related area a plus.
• In order to build productive relationships across the organization and to ensure effective collaboration, this role requires in-person presence in accordance with the organization’s hybrid schedule of working in the office three days per week (Monday/Tuesday/Thursday).

Salary and Benefits

We anticipate that the starting base salary range for this position will be $130,000-$145,000, plus eligibility for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition, we offer a generous benefits package designed to support employee health and well-being, including comprehensive health insurance, a substantial 401k match, paid time off, a hybrid work schedule and other flexible work policies.

To Apply

We are a dynamic, growing organization that embraces critical thinking, problem solving and innovative ideas. If you have relevant experience and qualifications, please send your resume to careers@petersonhealthcare.org

The Peterson Center on Healthcare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply to our organization. We offer a welcoming community that respects each individual and fosters a diverse set of experiences, perspectives, skills and ideas. We are committed to building a workplace in which every team member can thrive personally and professionally and contribute to our mission.