Director of Data Services

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Director of Data Services to lead our enterprise data function. This role is critical to scaling our data platform, delivering high-quality data products, and enabling insights that drive health plan performance and cost optimization. The ideal candidate will bring extensive and deep domain knowledge in healthcare data (claims, enrollment/eligibility, clinical, SDoH, provider, etc.), along with proficiency in the Azure ecosystem. 

You will be responsible for building and leading a high-performing team, owning the data architecture, engineering and operations, and partnering cross-functionally with product, analytics, engineering, and client services teams to deliver robust, scalable, and secure data pipelines and platforms.  

Responsibilities: 

Leadership & Strategy 

• Define and execute the data services roadmap aligned with company and product strategy. 

• Build and lead a world-class data services team, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management. 

• Serve as a thought leader in data services best practices and emerging technologies. 

Healthcare Data Expertise 

• Lead the Vital Data data-specification committee achieving alignment with industry standards and enabling the product goals of the Affinitē unified data platform through publication of the annual Vital Data specification 

• Lead the ingestion, validation, normalization, and processing of complex healthcare datasets (e.g., claims, encounters, EHR, enrollment/eligibility, provider directories), including overseeing pipelines and ensuring data quality standards are being met. 

• Maintain continued expert knowledge of industry data sets (ICD, CPT, HCPCS, SNOMED) and mentor Vital Data teams in understanding and use of data sets to achieve Affinitē product goals. 

• Ensure HIPAA compliance and enforce data governance and security practices in accordance with regulatory and contractual obligations. 

• Lead the Affinitē care gap solution: HEDIS, CMS Core Measures, Quality measures, custom measures. This includes annual certification processes, and collaboration with Vital Data product teams to define and develop custom measures. 

• Support Affinitē advanced reporting services delivered through Azure PowerBI powered by Azure Fabric, including collaboration with Vital Data Technology’s data scientists. 

Platform & Architecture 

• Lead the design, implementation, and optimization of the Azure-based data platform, including SQL Virtual Machines, SQL Managed Instances, Data Lake, Azure Fabric, Azure Synapse, Data Factory, Azure Machine Learning and related services. 

• Establish scalable and reusable data pipelines to support internal analytics, product features, and client-facing deliverables. 

Collaboration & Execution 

• Collaborate closely with data science, analytics, and product teams to support the development of ML models, dashboards, and applications. 

• Partner with client implementation and delivery teams to design data onboarding and transformation processes. 

• Partner with clients during on-boarding and post go-live helping clients understand the goal of the Affinitē data platform and discovering client specific data platforms and processes to assist them in preparing data for ingestion to the Affinitē platform. 

• Contribute to SQL coding standards. performance tuning, code management and release management. 

• Collaborate with senior leadership to evaluate vendor data contracts, budgets, and vendor relationships to ensure quality, compliance, and cost-effectiveness. 

Quality & Operations 

• Implement monitoring and alerting systems to ensure data accuracy, reliability, and uptime. 

• Define and enforce SLAs for data delivery and availability to support client and product needs. 

Requirements: 

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field. 

• 7+ years of experience in data services or software development. 

• Proven experience working with healthcare data sets (especially payer data such as claims (including lab and RX), enrollment, eligibility and provider data). 

• Familiarity and experience with Microsoft Azure, including: 

• Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) 

• Azure Synapse Analytics 

• Azure Data Factory 

• Azure SQL virtual machines, managed instances, Azure SQL. 

• Azure PowerBI 

• Azure Fabric 

• Strong expertise in data modeling, ETL/ELT, and distributed data processing frameworks 

• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and/or Scala. 

• Strong understanding of data governance, security, and compliance (e.g., HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2). 

• Track record of delivering production-grade data products in a cloud-native environment preferred. 

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical audiences. 

• Proven problem-solving skills with clients using enterprise solutions. Ability to read technical documentation 

• Able to handle and manage a high degree of change