Research Economist - Health Care Payment and Quality

RTI International's Health Practice Area has an opening for a Research Economist in the Division of Health Care Payment and Quality to serve as a task and project leader for implementation, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of innovative health care delivery policies, programs, and models.

As a Research Economist, you will provide cutting-edge analyses that will influence healthcare policy and healthcare system innovation, particularly within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Using large healthcare datasets, you will design, evaluate, and support policies related to healthcare insurance, payment, and delivery models; managed care; healthcare financing, costs, utilization, and quality; health insurance coverage and access; prescription drugs; and risk and case-mix adjustment through statistical analysis. You will lead analytic projects as an integral part of a team, apply an in-depth understanding of critical health policy issues and methods, contribute to and lead proposals to funding entities, and publish and present on findings for scientific audiences. (see: https://www.rti.org/practice-area/health).

Candidates may choose to work remotely within the United States or from RTI's offices in Research Triangle Park, NC or Washington, DC.

Please include a cover letter, job market paper, and three reference letters with your application.

• Lead and/or contribute to quantitative and qualitative research activities on a broad range of health policy and health services research topics.
• Specify and supervise descriptive and statistical analyses of large, complex datasets.
• Succinctly present results for a diverse technical and policy audience.
• Author technical reports, memoranda, articles, documentation, regulations, and contract proposals.
• Design and document analytic data files, including health care claims and enrollment data.
• Ensure high quality and accuracy of work products.
• Develop and manage budgets to achieve goals within available resources.
• Supervise and manage research staff in completing project tasks.
• Communicate and negotiate work plans, timelines, budgets, and results with clients.
• Lead and/or contribute to contract proposals including methodological design, management plans, and project budgets.
• Collaborate with teams of mixed levels of technical skills and experience.
• Develop expertise in several health care policy, research methods, and healthcare data areas.

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD or PhD candidate (target defense in 2025) in health services research, health economics, health policy, actuarial science, operations research, finance or related quantitative field; or a Master's degree in the same fields with at least 6 years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience or coursework with domestic (United States) health policy research.
• Completed coursework and experience with quantitative research.

• Ability to analyze large, complex datasets with appropriate descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques.

• Ability to communicate (both written and verbal) complex ideas and information clearly and precisely to diverse audiences.
• Ability to support multiple projects simultaneously and manage competing deadlines with close attention to detail to ensure high quality work.
• Ability to collaborate effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
• To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Medicare or Medicaid programs.
• Experience with alternative payment models in traditional Medicare or within the Medicare Advantage program.
• Experience with and skills in quantitative, financial, actuarial, and statistical analysis.
• Experience with large healthcare datasets, especially Medicare or Medicaid claims and administrative data.
• Experience in project, task, timeline, and budget management.
• Ability to analyze quantitative data with R, Python, SAS, SPSS, and/or Stata.
• Experience with open-source programming, specifically R and/or Python.

For San Francisco, CA USA Job Postings Only: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Further information is available here.

RTI accepts applications to our job openings from candidates with criminal histories or conviction records in accordance with all applicable laws, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

For Applicants in Massachusetts Only: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

The anticipated pay range for this role is listed below. Our pay ranges represent national averages and may vary by location as a geographic differential may be applied to some locations within the United States. RTI considers multiple factors when making an offer including, for example: established salary range, internal budget, business needs, and education and years of work experience possessed by the applicant. Further, salary is merely one element to our offer.

At RTI, we demonstrate our commitment to rewarding individual and team achievement through a total rewards package. This package includes (among other things) a competitive base salary, a generous paid time off policy, merit based annual increases, bonus opportunities and a robust recognition program. Other benefits include a competitive range of insurance plans (including health, dental, life, and short-term and long-term disability), access to a retirement savings program such as a 401(k) plan, paid parental leave for all parents, financial assistance with adoption expenses or infertility treatments, financial reimbursement for education and developmental opportunities, an employee assistance program, and numerous other offerings to support a healthy work-life balance.