Director of Translational Research - MA, MN, or CA - Full-time / Part-time

Physician and Medical Director careers at UnitedHealth Group are anything but ordinary. We push ourselves and each other to find smarter solutions. The result is a culture of performance that's driving the health care industry forward. of seeing a handful of patients each day, your work may affect millions for years to come. Join us. And start doing your life's best work.(sm)
 
Optum Labs provides an environment where the health care industry can come together to combine information and ideas that benefit patients today, while driving long-term improvements in the delivery of quality care. By working together and sharing information with more than 27 Partners from academic, industry, and advocacy organization on a national scale, we develop a detailed, analysis-based image of the health care landscape that we believe offers new insights into solving our national health care problems.   Work at OptumLabs is conducted in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, academic/industry partnership environment which requires appreciation of diversity of perspectives and exceptional communication skills.
 
The Director of Translational Research serves as senior scientific leader on the OptumLabs’ Integrated Programs and Translation team. One of the founding principles of OptumLabs is that our work be designed to deliver research insights that can be translated through a broad set of health care stakeholders - provider, payer, consumer and other policy settings to improve patient care and patient value.
 
OptumLabs and its partners are currently doing important work in opioid use and pain management, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, health care value discovery, novel quality measure development, predictive modeling, machine learning, natural language processing and many other domains. We leverage the largest linked claims and clinical (EMR) data set available and the power of collaboration across our diverse set of partners.
 
The Director of Translational Research provides research strategy and leadership specifically focused on data-driven research with high translation potential in payer, provider, patient and other policy settings. The Director of Translational Research leads research projects, serves as a subject matter expert, develops research strategies in conjunction with Partners, and is responsible for growing OptumLabs’ reputation as a leader in putting research into action. 
 
Success in this role requires an entrepreneurial spirit - innovative by nature, the ability to lead - lead Partners, internal teams, and initiatives; and a talent for developing strong relationships both internally and externally.  A successful Director of Translational Research not only advises on research strategy and planning, but works actively on research initiatives from scientific protocol development through dissemination and translation projects with partners.  Success in this role depends on -strong expertise in using real-world data assets (administrative claims, normalized EHR data).
 
Primary Responsibilities:

Serve as a subject matter expert in the use of observational/secondary data assets (specifically, the OptumLabs data assets) for research with high translation potential
Lead health economics, policy and outcomes research projects with high translational potential, including:

Developing detailed research protocols either independently or in concert with key opinion leaders from the Partnership
Guiding and overseeing activities of project managers, project programmers, statisticians, and research associates
Interpreting findings, including drafting background, conclusion and discussion sections of study reports and developing impactful presentations, and other dissemination materials
Presenting findings at internal and external meetings, serving as the expert on the study design, data, analysis, and interpretation of finding
Advance the reputation of OptumLabs as a leader in translational research, by driving a dissemination strategy for research projects in collaboration with senior leaders.  This includes identifying appropriate venues for dissemination (industry and clinical meetings, peer reviewed journals, conferences) and developing submissions with the support of the project team
Lead efforts to translate research in specific health policy topic (e.g. pain management, quality measurement, cardiovascular disease management) into actions by payers, providers, caregivers and patients (policy implantation, intervention development, guidelines, health plan and provider activities)  
Keep current with research in domains of key interest to OptumLabs, and interpret findings from relevant research for OptumLabs and its Partners.  Integrate current research by others into OptumLabs' research plans and use current research to identify new areas of focus for OptumLabs
Work closely with the OptumLab research team to build and maintain a high degree of expertise about the various data assets used by OptumLabs and its partners.  Those who are successful in the role ensure that they are extremely knowledgeable about the data which they are working and its applied use
Enhance our Partners’ engagement and success by forging trusting relationships across a variety of stakeholders from Optum, UnitedHealth Group, and the OptumLabs Partnership

Required Qualifications:

Education  Master’s, PharmD, MD, or PhD requiring quantitative research training, including health services research (HSR), health economics, epidemiology, sociology, statistics, data science, engineering or other
10+ years of research experience in the applied use of observational data, with preference given to candidates with experience with administrative claims and EHR data
Demonstrated experience in oversight of teams and the interpersonal skills to work successfully with internal and external stakeholders
Proven record of publication in peer-reviewed literature and presentation at national conferences
Experience with presentations at national and regional scientific/health meetings or other translational venues
A minimum past experience with hands-on statistical or database programming
Ability to identify and pursue opportunities to increase expertise and acceptance as an expert.  This includes public speaking, lecturing/teaching, participating in peer review process, and publishing
Ability to mentor/collaborate with colleagues and lead formal internal training to pass along knowledge and expertise
Ability to travel 10 - 20%, depending on location
Preferred Qualifications:

Proficiency with programming statistical and/or visualization software such as Tableau, Stata, SAS, R, D3, SQL or other packages strongly desired
Experience in health policy and policy research highly desired but not required 
Ability to work in matrixed environments to operate both independently and in teams
Exceptional written and oral communication skills, particularly to audiences with mixed professional backgrounds
Strong organizational and project management skills
Collaborative and team oriented by nature
Careers with Optum. Here's the idea. We built an entire organization around one giant objective; make health care work better for everyone. So when it comes to how we use the worlds large accumulation of health-related information, or guide health and lifestyle choices or manage pharmacy benefits for millions, our first goal is to leap beyond the status quo and uncover new ways to serve. Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, brings together some of the greatest minds and most advanced ideas on where health care has to go in order to reach its fullest potential. For you, that means working on high performance teams against sophisticated challenges that matter. Optum, incredible ideas in one incredible company and a singular opportunity to do your life's best work.(sm)
 
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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.
 
 
Job Keywords: Translation, Observational Data, SAS, R, SQL, D3, Tableau, HSR, HEOR, Epidemiology, Sociology, Claims, EHR, Boston, MA, Massachusetts, Eden Prairie, MN, Minnesota, San Francisco, CA, California