Senior Researcher, Medicaid Quality Measures

Job Description: • Lead or co-lead the construction, interpretation, and computation of quality measures relevant to Medicaid programs and models, including work that supports program monitoring and performance-based payment approaches. • Support measure strategy activities such as annual review and refinement of measure sets, assessment of specification changes and updates from measure stewards, and quantitative/qualitative evaluation of measure performance—bringing a Medicaid lens to feasibility and burden considerations. • Provide guidance to clients and partners on measure use and implications of updates for feasibility, administrative burden, interoperability, and alignment with broader quality frameworks. • Manage day-to-day project operations in roles such as principal investigator, project director, or task lead, ensuring deliverables are completed on time, within budget, and to a high standard. Lead collaborative project teams by developing timelines and coordinating staff assignments. • Identify research problems and design rigorous applied studies, including aligned research questions, methodologies, and analytic plans. • Apply subject-matter expertise to design and implement relevant, responsive, and impactful research projects. • Lead and contribute to research proposals for federal, state, foundation, and other clients. • Devise and implement innovative solutions to practical challenges in applied research. • Lead data collection and analysis efforts, including the design of qualitative and/or quantitative data collection tools (e.g., interview protocols, focus group guides, surveys). • Supervise field-based data collection activities, including interviews, observations, focus groups, and document reviews. • Conduct or oversee data analysis using appropriate tools and techniques for various data types. • Communicate study progress and findings clearly and effectively through reports, briefs, visualizations, and other materials. • Represent the organization professionally in client interactions and manage client and stakeholder relationships with awareness of the broader policy and practice landscape. • Communicate effectively with clients, partners, and stakeholders, and foster positive, collaborative working relationships. • Contribute thoughtfully and creatively to project teams. Requirements: • PhD in a related field (e.g., Health Services Research, Economics, Public Policy, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, or related discipline) with 3+ years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with 7+ years of relevant experience. • Demonstrated experience contributing to quality measurement work (e.g., measure specification review, measure refinement/updates, computation, benchmarking/scoring, and/or interpretation for monitoring/performance). • Experience analyzing claims and other large or complex datasets and producing accurate, well-documented analytic outputs. • Experience leading project tasks and/or managing teams on research, evaluation, analytics, implementation support, or monitoring projects. • Experience translating complex technical concepts into actionable work plans, timelines, and client-ready deliverables. • Experience supporting business development efforts, including proposal writing for federal and/or state clients. • Experience with qualitative data collection methodologies (e.g., structured interviews, focus groups, observations, survey research) and qualitative analytic tools (e.g., NVivo) and/or quantitative analysis using tools such as Stata, R, Python, or Access. • Experience working in contract research and/or evaluation organizations preferred, but not required. Benefits: • AIR’s Total Rewards Program • Competitive salary • Health insurance • Retirement plans • Paid time off • Flexible work arrangements • Professional development opportunities Apply tot his job Apply To this Job