GENERAL SUMMARY OF POSITION: 

Under the general direction of the Sr Director (or designee) of Research and Evaluation, the Project Director I provides independent high-level and diverse support functions on multiple health policy projects undertaken with Massachusetts state agencies and by the Public and Private Health Solutions at Commonwealth Medicine. The Project Director collaborates as a participating project team member with investigators and faculty from the UMass system, providing project management and technical/analytic support.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage proposal development and participate in new funding proposal development.
• Collaborate with stakeholders, clients or Principal Investigator to develop new project plans. Responsible for negotiating and finalizing scope and deliverables, including timelines.
• Develop and implement project schedule, resource allocations and budget for approval of senior management.
• Participate in the conceptual design of new projects for consideration.
• Manage all phases and operational tasks of assigned projects to include recruitment/screening/follow up activities and study design and implementation activities.
• Participate in the formulation of project work plans by designing intervention procedures and implementation plans. Collaborates with senior project staff and other project team members in the design of project methods for analysis.
• Recruit, select, supervise and evaluate activities of project and field staff.
• Monitor project expenditures, including work of subcontractors to ensure project is delivered on time and within budget. Recommend necessary changes in project plan/budget to senior management.
• Oversee the data collection phase and responsible project staff for compliance with methods outlined in the project plan.
• Draft annual project budgets and technical reports for communication with project staff, client, steering committee, and other team members as appropriate.
•  Design and conduct formative and pilot studies, e.g., focus group sessions with study participants.
• Responsible for the management of difficult participant cases and adherence to protocol issues.
• Design and collaborate with project staff to produce self-instructional and multi-media programs that promote project goals.
• Drive communication and development of projects with clients, stakeholders, and PI to define project scope and define key milestones/deadlines. Responsible for negotiating deliverables with appropriate parties.
• Oversee and manage the project team, including assigning project roles and driving project milestone/deliverable deadlines.
• Oversee and participate in the qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
• Provide direction to and assist with the orientation/training of junior research staff, student interns, and temporary project support staff as necessary.
• Participate in oral and written reporting and presentation of all project findings; participate in project status meetings and preparation of final project deliverables.
• Participate in manuscript development, including writing sections or being lead author.
• Write the quarterly progress reports and annual progress reports for submission to the external funding agency.
• Perform other related duties as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s Degree in public health, public policy, policy administration or related field; or equivalent experience.
• 4 years’ experience in public policy, health related research and evaluation, or other relevant projects; including at least two years of project management experience.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and the ability to work in groups.
• Strong interpersonal, oral and written communication skills necessary to interact with all levels of clients and staff.
• Demonstrated ability to work appropriately with confidential information.
• Ability to work in/lead a team and meet performance deadlines in a dynamic environment
• Demonstrated ability to use computer-based tools including electronic mail, word processing, spreadsheet, database products, and Microsoft Office products.

 PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Previous experience working with vulnerable disabled and or income populations, especially Medicaid recipients (including those with behavioral health issues).
• Experience with conducting mixed-methods research and/or evaluation
• Demonstrated experiences using insurance claims and/or large-scale population survey data and/or focus group/interview data
• Demonstrated experience working with spreadsheet and database programs; working knowledge of MS Access, MS Excel, SAS, Stata, or SPSS.