Project Director

The Project Director is the senior executive responsible for shaping and leading the Project from concept development through execution, ensuring the solution is strategically defined, operationally feasible, analytically defensible, and successfully delivered. This role is accountable for overall program performance and, upon award, contract performance, including strategic leadership, technical oversight, stakeholder alignment, subcontractor coordination, and management of all Project activities.

Serving as the primary point of contact with the Government, the Senior Project Director manages expectations, facilitates alignment across CMS, VA, subcontractors, and internal SMEs, and ensures the Project remains responsive to evolving objectives, regulatory requirements, performance standards, and implementation needs.

This role oversees complex, multi-phase initiatives involving data integration, analytics, technology modernization, AI-enabled capabilities, validation, and policy implementation, including Projects supporting Medicare Advantage (MA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) coordination, and related federal healthcare program integrity efforts.

Key Responsibilities:

Project Leadership & Contract Management

• Lead development of the Project from concept through Government approval, including shaping scope, defining workstreams, identifying data dependencies, and translating stakeholder feedback into an actionable implementation approach.
• Manage complex stakeholder engagement across CMS, VA, subcontractors, technical SMEs, policy leads, and executive leadership to ensure alignment, timely decision-making, and coordinated messaging.
• Serve as primary Government interface, ensuring responsiveness and alignment with requirements.
• Maintain accountability for contract performance, including quality, timeliness, and compliance.
• Oversee all Project activities, including planning, execution, staffing, and risk management.
• Manage subcontractors and partners to ensure coordinated delivery.
• Oversee financial performance, including budgeting, forecasting, and cost control.

Technical & Strategic Oversight

• Provide executive oversight of data integration, system interoperability, and technology modernization to support the analysis of complex healthcare data.
• Guide adoption of advanced analytics and emerging technologies, including AI, to support Project objectives.
• Ensure AI-enabled and analytics outputs are transparent, explainable, validated, reproducible, and appropriately documented before being used to support Government decision-making.
• Ensure technical solutions align with business needs, federal regulations, and scalability requirements.
• Establish and enforce data governance, security, privacy, and audit readiness frameworks.

Analytics, Policy & Decision Support

• Translate analytical outputs into actionable insights to inform Government decision-making.
• Oversee pilot planning, execution, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Provide recommendations to support policy development, Project refinement, and scale-up.

Implementation & Operations

• Lead transition from pilot to full-scale implementation, ensuring operational readiness and controlled rollout.
• Establish governance and performance management processes to sustain operations.
• Oversee reporting of financial, operational, and performance outcomes.
• Ensure effective stakeholder communication and coordination.

Leadership & Organizational Management

• Operate effectively in a lean, remote environment, balancing executive leadership with hands-on development of project structure, client materials, action tracking, risk management, and stakeholder communications.
• Lead and mentor senior staff and project managers to ensure high performance.
• Support workforce planning and recruitment of qualified personnel.
• Identify opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and Project growth.
• Support business development activities, as required.

Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• Minimum 15 years of experience managing large, complex federal Projects involving healthcare payment, policy, operations, data, or analytics.
• PMP certification preferred.
• Experience overseeing Projects involving healthcare data, technology, and analytics.
• Demonstrated Federal healthcare experience including CMS, Medicare Avantage, Veteran’s Affairs, Medicare, Medicaid, or comparable healthcare payment and delivery environments.
• Experience leading initiatives where analytics, data integration, or policy analysis informed healthcare payment decisions, cost-savings estimates, program refinement, or implementation strategy.
• Executive leadership and Government stakeholder engagement.
• General federal program management experience alone is not sufficient; candidates must demonstrate practical understanding of healthcare payment, policy, data, and delivery environments.
• Strategic oversight of healthcare data, technology, and AI-enabled solutions with the ability to direct and ask informed questions of technical, analytics, policy, and operational subject matter experts.
• Ability to assess whether analytical outputs are accurate, explainable, reproducible, policy-ready, and appropriate for federal healthcare decision-making.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and executive decision-making skills , including the ability to manage ambiguity, competing stakeholder priorities, and high-visibility delivery risks.
• Expertise in Project governance, compliance, and risk management , data governance, privacy, security, audit readiness, and implementation oversight for healthcare policy and payment solutions.
• Ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams across policy, analytics, data engineering, technology, operations, subcontractors, and client stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex healthcare payment, policy, data, and technical issues into clear executive-level recommendations.

Technical Qualifications:

• Authority to Operate (ATO) and data use agreement (DUA) documentation strongly preferred
• Enterprise data and analytics platforms
• Modern technology ecosystems, including cloud environments
• Microsoft Office Suite, Project, Visio, SharePoint
• Agile methodologies preferred

Compensation : $180K dependent upon qualifications, experience, and overall fit

Location: This is a 100% remote/telework position.

 

NHA is a state and federal government contractor; all employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States. NHA does not provide sponsorship at this time.

NHA is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment based on merit, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, disability or any other basis protected by law.