Healthcare Practice Leader

Job Summary

Ascendum is seeking a senior, entrepreneurial Healthcare Practice Leader & Solution Architect to build and scale our healthcare consulting, technology implementation, managed services, and staffing practice.

This executive-level role will have end-to-end responsibility for developing the healthcare business, identifying market opportunities, establishing senior client relationships, architecting solutions, developing commercial models, mobilizing delivery teams, oversee execution, and building profitable and scalable practice.

The ideal candidate combines the executive presence and commercial capabilities of a healthcare client partner with the technical credibility of a solution architect and the firsthand mentality of an entrepreneur. This individual must be equally comfortable engaging with CIOs and other healthcare executives, shaping complex technology solutions, developing proposals and Statements of Work, assembling multidisciplinary teams, and remaining actively involved throughout delivery.

The successful candidate will bring deep knowledge of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem, an established professional network, strong healthcare technology and solution architecture experience, and a demonstrated ability to convert client challenges into executable and commercially viable engagements.

Key Responsibilities

Healthcare Practice Leadership

• Own and scale Ascendum’s healthcare services practice across consulting, technology implementations, project delivery, managed services, and staff augmentation.
• Develop and execute the healthcare practice strategy, including target markets, offerings, capabilities, partnerships, talent requirements, revenue goals, and investment priorities.
• Develop business with healthcare software companies, payers, pharmacies, healthcare data organizations, and other healthcare enterprises.
• Leverage existing healthcare relationships while developing new client relationships and external revenue opportunities.
• Establish repeatable processes for business development, solutioning, recruiting, pricing, delivery governance, and account expansion.
• Define, develop, and articulate Ascendum’s healthcare capabilities, industry expertise, delivery models, and client value proposition.
• Develop differentiated healthcare solutions, accelerators, frameworks, and reusable service offerings.
• Partner directly with Ascendum’s executive leadership, Sales, Recruiting, Engineering, and Delivery teams to mobilize resources and convert opportunities into successful engagements.
• Build the operating model, governance structure, partnerships, and talent ecosystem required to support sustainable practice growth.
• Represent Ascendum as a credible healthcare industry and technology leader in client meetings, industry forums, partner discussions, and executive presentations.

Healthcare Industry Expertise

Bring deep knowledge of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem, including: Health plans and commercial payersplans and commercial payers’ plans and commercial payers, Medicare and Medicaid programs, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requirements, Healthcare technology and software companies, Healthcare data and analytics organizations, Pharmacy and pharmacy-benefit ecosystems, Provider and care-delivery organizations, Healthcare IT and professional services organizations

Business Development and Account Growth

• Identify, qualify, shape, and pursue healthcare consulting, implementation, managed-services, and staffing opportunities.
• Develop trusted relationships with CIOs, CTOs, implementation executives, product leaders, delivery leaders, and business stakeholders.
• Serve as a senior client partner who can quickly understand business challenges and translate them into practical action plans and technology solutions.
• Lead healthcare discovery sessions, capability presentations, workshops, solution reviews, and executive discussions.
• Maintain active involvement with strategic accounts from initial opportunity identification through contracting, staffing, delivery, and account expansion.
• Develop account plans and identify opportunities to expand relationships through additional consulting, implementation, staffing, and managed-service capabilities.
• Collaborate with Sales and executive leadership to establish opportunity strategies, competitive positioning, and executive engagement plans.
• Build industry partnerships and referral

Solution Architecture and Consulting

Translate business and client requirements into practical solution approaches, implementation strategies, operating models, staffing plans, scope, deliverables, and success measures.

Provide architectural leadership across: APIs and enterprise integration, ETL and data pipelines, Healthcare data platforms, Databases and data architecture, Cloud platforms and cloud-native solutions, Healthcare interoperability, Enterprise healthcare applications, Analytics and reporting, AI-enabled healthcare solutions

Delivery Leadership and Governance

• Maintain executive oversight of strategic healthcare engagements from initiation through implementation and transition.
• Ensure that client commitments, scope, deliverables, quality standards, financial objectives, and delivery milestones are clearly defined and achieved.
• Establish governance models, delivery metrics, communication structures, and escalation processes for healthcare engagements.
• Partner with delivery leaders to manage project risks, dependencies, staffing challenges, client concerns, and critical escalations.

Staffing and Resource Fulfillment

• Own the complete staffing solution for healthcare engagements rather than simply transferring requirements to Recruiting or Delivery.
• Define role requirements, team structures, competency needs, delivery locations, utilization assumptions, and staffing timelines.
• Rapidly mobilize qualified healthcare, technical, product, implementation, and delivery resources.

Commercial and Financial Management

• Own the commercial structure and financial performance of healthcare opportunities and engagements.
• Develop proposals, Statements of Work, staffing agreements, project estimates, pricing models, and delivery plans.
• Structure and price: Time-and-materials engagements, Fixed-price projects, Managed services arrangements, Staff-augmentation engagements, Milestone- or outcome-based commercial models

People and Practice Development

• Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing healthcare consulting, architecture, implementation, and delivery team.
• Establish clear roles, competencies, career paths, and performance expectations for members of the healthcare practice.
• Foster a culture of accountability, customer focus, collaboration, innovation, commercial discipline, and continuous learning

Education and Experience Required Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, Healthcare Administration, Business, or a related discipline.
• Relevant combination of healthcare industry, technology, consulting, and leadership experience.
• Desirable Academic Qualifications
• Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Relevant healthcare, cloud, architecture, project management, Agile, security, data, or technology certifications.

Required Experience

• Ideally 15+ years of progressive experience across healthcare technology, healthcare consulting, implementations, professional services, solution architecture, client delivery, and business development.
• Significant experience within a healthcare technology company, payer IT organization, healthcare enterprise, or established healthcare consulting and services organization.
• Prior leadership experience as a Healthcare Practice Director, Practice Leader, Client Partner, Healthcare Delivery Executive, Solution Executive, or in a comparable senior role.
• Deep understanding of the U.S. healthcare landscape and the ability to communicate credibly with senior healthcare executives.
• Demonstrated ability to originate, shape, sell, and deliver healthcare technology and services engagements.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise technology architecture, integration, APIs, healthcare data, interoperability, security, and cloud-based delivery environments.
• Demonstrated ability to convert complex healthcare business needs into practical technology solutions, implementation plans, staffing models, and commercial proposals.
• Experience owning revenue, pricing, margins, proposals, Statements of Work, staffing, delivery, and client satisfaction.
• Proven ability to build, mobilize, and lead multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience in managing both project-based services and staff-augmentation engagements.
• Strong executive communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship management skills.
• Entrepreneurial and hands-on approach, with the ability to operate effectively in a growth-oriented environment.

Desirable Experience

• Established relationships with executives and decision makers across healthcare payers, healthcare software companies, pharmacies, healthcare data organizations, and other healthcare enterprises.
• Experience building or significantly expanding healthcare consulting or technology services practice.
• Experience owning a healthcare practice or business unit with revenue and profitand-loss responsibility.
• Knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid, CMS programs, commercial payers, Utilization Management, Care Management, Population Health, pharmacy, and Medication Therapy Management.
• Experience with healthcare interoperability standards, enterprise integration, cloud platforms, data modernization, analytics, automation, and AI-enabled healthcare solutions.
• Experience developing healthcare intellectual property, reusable frameworks, accelerators, or managed-service offerings.
• Experience leading globally distributed teams and blended onshore, nearshore, and offshore delivery models.
• Familiarity with healthcare privacy, security, regulatory, and data-governance requirements.