Sr. Director of Affordability and Innovation – 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. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Develop Medical Spend Insights capability that uncovers the root causes and drivers of health plan medical costs, and effectiveness and impact of PI coverage
  • Lead research projects and ad hoc analyses in support of affordability projects
  • Develop relationships across finance and affordability teams for UHG, and client teams for Commercial PI to understand key affordability concerns for research, and collaborate with on areas of unmanaged spend
  • Generate affordability research and analysis, identifying trending areas and root causes for development into affordability content
  • Provide research to support the Insights to Action team’s work
  • Work with solutions and valuation personnel to size projects and establish financial value for new affordability and innovation solutions
  • Coordinate with analytic engineering and data teams  for data acquisition, analysis, summarization, visualization and trend identification for large medical spend insights projects
  • Manage large analysis projects to identify drivers and areas of affordability opportunity, and help predict impacts of current and known changes
  • Manage team of 8+ analysts with focus on employee development and production of insights as well as data, providing  mentoring, leadership, technical guidance and direction to analysts
  • Establish technical best practices and processes for team

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:

  • High School diploma
  • Credentialed Actuary OR 7+ years of equivalent experience with statistical and analytics tools, processes and concepts
  • 10+ years of healthcare payer experience
  • 10+ years researching, analyzing industry and competitive trends, emerging market opportunities, threats and strategic areas of interest and growth
  • 10+ years of experience managing, mentoring and developing an interdisciplinary team
  • 10+ years working in affordability and/or Payment Integrity, preferably for UHG or another large payer
  • Experience in investigating, identifying and using a variety of novel data sets to achieve goals 
  • Familiarity with data elements used in Payment Integrity – medical code sets (CPT, HCPCS, ICD-CM, ICD-PCS, etc.), network contract reimbursement methodologies, benefits, etc.
  • Skilled in data analysis and visualization techniques- such as Excel, Power BI, Tableau, SAS, SQL, R, Python, Databases, Data Analysis, Statistics 

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Ability to be persuasive, and an engaging communicator comfortable engaging with all levels of personnel to tell stories with data
  • Demonstrated financial literacy – ability to bridge between finance, executive, analytical and operational teams
  • Proven solid interest in and orientation toward innovation in healthcare and affordability
  • Proven track record of collaborating with larger teams to innovate, manage risk and deploy initiatives
  • Demonstrated agile mindset, with Agile development experience 
  • Ability to be a change agent- able to manage organizational and strategic change efforts
  • Ability to introduce disruptive ideas
  • Ability to direct others to resolve highly complex or unusual business problems that affect major functions or disciplines
  • Demonstrated servant leadership orientation

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, Washington, D.C. Residents Only: The salary range for this role is $147,300 to $282,800 annually. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. UnitedHealth Group complies with all minimum wage laws as applicable. 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.  
  
Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

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.