Contract & Client Management

• Serve as the designated key liaison to MACPAC, holding ultimate accountability for the quality, accuracy, and timeliness of all contract deliverables
• Build and sustain a strong working relationship with MACPAC staff, anticipating client needs and proactively addressing emerging issues or risks
• Review and approve budget estimates for all task orders before submission to MACPAC's Contracting Officer (CO) and Contracting Officer's Representative (COR)
• Monitor contract-level financial performance and make strategic decisions to realign scope or resources when costs are at risk of exceeding estimates
• Lead transition planning and implementation, ensuring continuity of programming and data services if Arbor Research is a non-incumbent awardee

Technical Leadership & Quality Assurance

• Provide senior technical oversight across all data acquisition, storage, management, and analysis activities, ensuring compliance with federal security requirements (FISMA, NIST, FedRAMP)
• Set and enforce standards for analytic quality, including code review protocols, output benchmarking, and documentation sufficient to support replication of analyses
• Guide the design and implementation of the secure analytic environment and external enclave access for MACPAC staff, ensuring it meets federal security and usability requirements
• Hold final accountability for the accuracy and integrity of all data deliverables, including analytic files, table outputs, and methodology documentation

Team Leadership & Staffing

• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of cloud architect and data engineers, statistical programmers, and support staff, working in close partnership with the Project Manager on day-to-day operations
• Ensure the team maintains sufficient capacity, including surge capacity to respond to concurrent and quick-turnaround task orders
• Make staffing decisions, including identifying and onboarding personnel with specialized expertise for specific task orders

Reporting & Compliance

• Hold ultimate responsibility for monthly progress reports and all required contract reporting to MACPAC
• Oversee ongoing compliance with federal data security requirements (FISMA, HIPAA, DUA obligations) and ensure documentation is current and audit-ready
• Take ownership of security incident response, ensuring MACPAC is notified within 24 hours of any confirmed or suspected incident and that full reports are submitted within five business days

Qualifications

Required

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in public health, health policy, economics, statistics, or a related quantitative field
• 7+ years of progressive experience in health services research or policy analysis, with at least 3 years in a project or program leadership role
• Demonstrated experience managing federal contracts or task-order vehicles, preferably with legislative branch agencies, CMS, or similar health policy organizations
• Expert knowledge of Medicaid and/or Medicare administrative data, including T-MSIS, MAX, TAF, CMS-64, or equivalent datasets
• Strong familiarity with federal data security frameworks including FISMA, NIST 800-53, and FedRAMP
• Experience overseeing statistical programming teams working in SAS, SQL, Stata, Python, or similar languages
• Exceptional communication and client relationship skills, with the ability to translate complex technical work into clear policy-relevant findings

Preferred

• Prior experience working directly with MACPAC, MedPAC, or other congressional support agencies
• Familiarity with CMS data environments including the Virtual Data Research Center (VRDC) or Integrated Data Repository (IDR)
• Track record of successfully managing staff surge capacity and concurrent multi-task contracts

Why Arbor Research

Arbor Research Collaborative for Health is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving health and health care through rigorous, policy-relevant research. We bring together multidisciplinary teams to address complex questions in health policy and program evaluation, with a strong commitment to methodological rigor, data integrity, and meaningful collaboration with federal clients.

This contract represents a significant, long-term engagement with one of the most influential health policy advisory bodies in the country. The Project Director will shape the analytic infrastructure that supports MACPAC's statutory obligations to Congress and play a direct role in informing Medicaid and CHIP policy at the national level.

Salary

$148,000-$249,000

(US National Average)

Base Compensation Determination

Base Compensation is determined by market range and geographic location pay zones. Base Compensation also includes various individual factors unique to each candidate such as job level, prior experience, skill set, certification and educational which may impact the compensation structure.

This position is classified as exempt according to FLSA guidelines