Senior Interoperability Architect

Senior Interoperability Architect, Operational Informatics Pipeline (OIP)

Aptive seeks a Senior Interoperability Architect to support the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Clinical Informatics (OCI) on the Operational Informatics Pipeline (OIP) contract. You will develop, refine, and maintain the interoperability specifications, including standards, data models, and profiles, that define how Veteran health information moves between VistA/CPRS, the Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR), the Department of Defense, and community providers. The role supports the Interoperability specialty area, including the Veterans Health Information Exchange (VHIE), FHIR standards innovation, standards-based interfaces, and national exchange frameworks. You will work within Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agile Release Trains alongside interoperability specialists, terminologists, and VA Business Owners.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop, refine, and maintain interoperability specifications, including standards, data models, profiles, and implementation guides, for VA exchange use cases.
• Analyze industry standards, VHA business requirements, and relevant technological innovation to recommend specification approaches.
• Design solutions using HL7 V2, C-CDA, and FHIR, including FHIR profiles and API specifications that extend VA's use of standards-based APIs.
• Define specifications that support exchange with community care providers, the Department of Defense, and other partners, aligned to national exchange frameworks.
• Develop standards-based specifications for device and system interfaces that support the Federal EHR.
• Lead discovery and prototyping for new standards needs, such as consent management and time zone interoperability.
• Define conformance criteria and testing approaches, and track adoption of standards across VA systems and exchange partners.
• Align specifications with the ONC Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework, USCDI, and applicable federal interoperability policy.
• Contribute interoperability architecture inputs to OCI's Architecture Runway Collaborative and to cross-team dependency reviews.
• Participate in Planning Interval (PI) Planning, backlog refinement, iteration ceremonies, and system demos; help decompose Epics into Features with clear acceptance criteria.
• Provide technical guidance to analysts and informaticists, and present architecture recommendations to OCI leadership and VA Business Owners.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in standards development, adoption, and conformance.
• Experience developing, refining, or maintaining interoperability specifications, such as standards, data models, profiles, or implementation guides.
• Familiarity with HL7 specifications, including V2, C-CDA, and FHIR.
• Familiarity with the ONC Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework and related federal interoperability policies.
• Experience analyzing industry standards and business requirements to design interoperability solutions.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a VA background investigation at the level assigned to the position; must reside and work in the United States with U.S. work authorization.

Desired Qualifications

• Master's degree in health informatics, computer science, or a related field.
• HL7 FHIR Proficiency or another HL7 certification.
• Experience authoring FHIR implementation guides, participating in HL7 workgroups, or sponsoring ballots.
• Experience with national exchange frameworks, such as eHealth Exchange, Carequality, CommonWell, or TEFCA.
• Experience with FHIR conformance testing tools, such as Inferno, Touchstone, or the HL7 FHIR Validator.
• Experience with VA systems, such as VistA/CPRS, VHIE, JLV, or VA Lighthouse APIs, or with the Federal EHR (Oracle Health).
• Experience on SAFe or Scrum teams.

About Aptive

Aptive partners with federal agencies to achieve their missions through improved performance, streamlined operations and enhanced service delivery. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, we support more than a dozen agencies including Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation. We specialize in applying technology, creativity and human-centered services to optimize mission delivery and improve experiences for millions of people who count on government services every day. Founded: 2012. Employees: 300+ nationwide.

EEO Statement

Aptive is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, parental status, veteran status, age, disability, or any other protected class. Veterans, members of the Reserve and National Guard, and transitioning active-duty service members are highly encouraged to apply.