Managing Director, Healthcare Innovations

About AIR (American Institutes for Research): Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a premier, internationally recognized nonpartisan, not-for-profit social science research pioneer, behavioral science innovator, and federal technical assistance leader on an absolute mission to solve some of the most pressing socio-economic and healthcare challenges in the United States and globally. By generating high-fidelity evidence and applying data-driven solutions, AIR expands opportunities and improves life outcomes for all. Our Healthcare Innovations portfolio units multi-disciplinary experts—including health economists, data scientists, statisticians, public health authorities, sociologists, physicians, and psychologists—to unravel the structural challenges intersecting healthcare quality, clinical costs, and program accessibility. Operating with an execution-centered and mission-driven philosophy, AIR provides high-agency technical directors with an uncompromised remote canvas to manage complex capture pipelines, direct large-scale federal models, and deploy cutting-edge data science tools safely across the United States.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly analytical, strategically minded Managing Director of Healthcare Innovations to join our core centralized Healthcare collective in a full-time remote capacity across the United States. In this high-leverage executive leadership role reporting to program senior executives, you will step up to claim individual operational and strategic accountability for expanding federal health business lines and spearheading project delivery across our largest, most complex models. Shifting completely away from routine project support or passive task monitoring, you will act as a principal capture architect—directing pursuit pipelines specifically optimized for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. This position requires an enterprise health policy veteran with a Master’s or Ph.D. background and 10+ years of leadership experience who structures complex federal capture pipelines fluidly natively using Research design controls, governs multi-disciplinary program workflows smoothly natively using Project Management paradigms, and commands extensive multi-stakeholder contract relationships confidently.

Key Responsibilities

• Federal Business Growth and Capture Governance: Create, implement, and lead strategic business development initiatives and specific capture teams, converting early-stage pipeline opportunities into successful contract awards natively utilizing Research pursuit frameworks.
• End-to-End Proposal Architecture Leadership: Serve as the principal technical and business lead for complex federal health proposals, conceptualizing bid strategies, authoring implementation and monitoring methodologies, and executing comprehensive technical reviews.
• Large-Scale Project Director Leadership: Serve as Project Director on large, complex federal contracts, driving multidisciplinary workflows across implementation planning, data collection, economic modeling, and stakeholder engagement to guarantee high-quality execution.
• Rigorous Policy and Data Modeling Oversight: Over see advanced health evaluation systems, monitoring data pipelines, and reporting matrices tailored explicitly for value-based specialty care, Medicaid policy data structures, or complex pharmaceuticals.
• Strategic Client and Stakeholder Alignment: Engage directly with senior federal clients—particularly Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—to preserve proactive communication paths, clarify structural requirements, and mitigate delivery risks natively leveraging Project Management playbooks.
• Team Supervision and Staff Mentorship: Direct, evaluate, and mentor distributed task leads, health economists, analysts, programmers, and operational staff, cultivating a collaborative workspace that respects diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
• Fiscal and Operational Risk Stewardship: Oversee large-scale federal contract budgets, formulating precise staffing allocation plans and implementing operational reporting systems consistent with rigid federal contracting standards.
• Thought Leadership and Insight Translation: Represent AIR in federal stakeholder assemblies, technical discussions, and national health policy conferences, collaborating with communications cells to translate implementation insights into scannable publications, issue briefs, and presentations.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• A minimum of 10 years of verified professional history running advanced healthcare policy direction, federal health program management, large-scale healthcare data consulting, or research capture engineering within a government contracting environment.
• Proven, documented history serving successfully as a Project Director, Principal Investigator, or Lead Consultant on large, complex federal contracts involving healthcare model testing, health economics evaluation, or advanced technical assistance (TA).
• Deep, authoritative technical command of CMS program structures, federal healthcare acquisition cycles, policy priority frameworks, and model implementation expectations.
• Expert-tier capability designing behavioral evaluation frameworks, drafting winning proposal volumes, and mapping healthcare data dependencies natively utilizing Research methodologies.
• Practical operational familiarity tracking massive multi-year project budgets, managing subcontractor matrices, and configuring staffing plans natively using Project Management orchestration parameters.
• Possession of a formal university Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Health Economics, Public Health, Public Policy, or a closely related quantitative social science discipline.
• Outstanding verbal, written, and document communication traits in business-fluent English, enabling absolute confidence when writing comprehensive data reports and delivering technical findings before federal stakeholder boards.
• Location Context and Authorization: Position open exclusively to qualified healthcare innovation strategists based permanently and resident within the United States to operate under a 100% remote layout (excluding U.S. territories). Applicants must possess full baseline authorization to operate without requiring current or future employer visa sponsorship (H-1B sponsorship unavailable).

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior commercial or not-for-profit history operating explicitly within the CMS Innovation Center framework, complex state-level Medicaid policy transformation, or deep pharmaceutical access research.
• Specialized field expertise in value-based specialty care architectures or health informatics analytics tracking.
• An outcome-driven personal philosophy rooted in high mission devotion, a collaborative leadership style focused on mentorship, and a passionate drive to build data-driven solutions that expand opportunities and improve healthcare lives for all.

What We Offer

• Vetted Executive-Scale United States Salaried Blueprint: An attractive full-time base salary package structured transparently between $180,000 and $230,000 USD per year, calibrated precisely based on internal equity, external competitive benchmarks, and your verified federal contract capture velocities.
• The exceptional professional canvas to directly direct, shape, and lead the research and implementation models power-routing health quality and access across America.
• Profound work-from-home remote parameters offering a 100% virtual setting across the United States or out of any domestic AIR office location, complete scheduling trust, and zero physical office commuting friction.
• Immediate baseline entry into AIR’s comprehensive **Total Rewards Program**, providing premium medical, dental, and vision health coverage options alongside robust retirement matching channels.
• Access to elite personal and career enrichment track frameworks, featuring dedicated child safeguarding protections, structured executive mentorship, and a collaborative environment built explicitly to recognize and reward professional achievements.