Director – Healthcare Strategy & Transformation

Guidehouse•Tysons Corner, VA

About The Position

Lead multiple concurrent healthcare strategy and transformation engagements, owning end-to-end delivery quality, workplans, resourcing, timelines, and integrated storylines to ensure high-quality, on-time outcomes across workstreams and teams. Apply deep commercial payer expertise to bring a pragmatic perspective on how reimbursement, payment policy, network dynamics, and incentive design shape operations, provider behavior, and performance outcomes and translating those insights into executable public-sector strategies. Translate a commercial payer and payer–provider lens into operating reality, connecting payer economics, reimbursement and payment policy, incentive design, and network dynamics to practical operating model choices and transformation roadmaps. Advise clients across core payer strategy and operations priorities, including business model and enterprise transformation, operating model design, competitive agility, cost reduction, M&A and partnerships, product strategy and innovation, and business unit strategy. Bring functional depth across payer and provider domains to drive measurable outcomes, including network optimization and access, provider outreach, care and utilization management, risk adjustment, population health, SDoH, Stars, member journey and experience, customer service operations, contracting analytics and negotiation, workforce excellence, managed care benchmarking, and facilities/real estate considerations. Translate ambiguous client needs into structured, executive-level problem solving, framing issues, developing hypotheses, architecting workplans, and driving execution across complex stakeholder environments, including risk and issue leadership, escalation, and decisioning. Serve as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, building durable relationships and delivering decision-ready recommendations that advance client objectives and strengthen Guidehouse’s position within accounts. Oversee analysis-to-insight across teams, guiding quantitative and qualitative analysis, validating assumptions, and ensuring findings translate into clear implications, including root-cause drivers, opportunity sizing, prioritization, and measurable value cases. Develop and quality-assure executive-ready deliverables, that communicate clear “so what” insights through strong narrative structure, compelling exhibits, and actionable recommendations tailored to C-suite and senior government audiences. Facilitate and lead senior stakeholder engagement, designing and running working sessions, executive readouts, interviews, and workshops; synthesizing inputs; aligning decision-makers; and managing communications across client and internal leadership. Build and grow high-performing teams through an apprenticeship model, providing deliberate coaching, structured skill-building, and actionable feedback from consultant through associate director levels. Drive business development and practice growth, identifying expansion opportunities (with emphasis federal health accounts), leading proposals and capture efforts, contributing thought leadership, and developing reusable assets that strengthen the payer and federal health value proposition. Own financial and operational management for engagements, managing budgets, scope, margins, staffing, and performance reporting while proactively identifying and mitigating delivery and financial risks.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree; Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) preferred.
12+ years of strategy consulting experience with a focus on the healthcare payer industry, with strong commercial payer exposure.
Demonstrated success leading multiple complex projects and managing cross-functional teams, with accountability for quality, outcomes, and client satisfaction.
Deep understanding of commercial payer environments, including reimbursement/payment fundamentals and how policy and incentive structures influence outcomes and operations.
Exceptional communication and executive presence: ability to synthesize complex analyses into crisp recommendations and compelling narratives (written and verbal).
Strong quantitative/analytic orientation; comfort overseeing modeling and analytics-enabled transformation approaches (BI tools and financial modeling).
Ability to obtain a Public Trust clearance.
Willingness to travel as needed (up to 25%).

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting federal health programs, including complex stakeholder environments and policy-informed delivery contexts.
Clinical operations orientation that complements payer strategy expertise (e.g., utilization management, care management, population health operations, Stars/quality operations, member experience operations).
Depth across commercial payer domains such as network optimization/access, provider outreach and contracting analytics/negotiation, care/utilization management, risk adjustment, Stars, member journey/experience, customer service operations, and payment integrity/FWA.
Experience with analytics-enabled transformation (dashboards/scorecards, governance, adoption) and scaling performance management routines across business units.
Experience with healthcare AI, cloud, or machine learning use cases in payer environments.
Active participation in healthcare industry associations and/or evidence of external thought leadership.
Advanced degree (MBA strongly valued; MHA/MPH also relevant).

Responsibilities

Lead multiple concurrent healthcare strategy and transformation engagements, owning end-to-end delivery quality, workplans, resourcing, timelines, and integrated storylines to ensure high-quality, on-time outcomes across workstreams and teams.
Apply deep commercial payer expertise to bring a pragmatic perspective on how reimbursement, payment policy, network dynamics, and incentive design shape operations, provider behavior, and performance outcomes and translating those insights into executable public-sector strategies.
Translate a commercial payer and payer–provider lens into operating reality, connecting payer economics, reimbursement and payment policy, incentive design, and network dynamics to practical operating model choices and transformation roadmaps.
Advise clients across core payer strategy and operations priorities, including business model and enterprise transformation, operating model design, competitive agility, cost reduction, M&A and partnerships, product strategy and innovation, and business unit strategy.
Bring functional depth across payer and provider domains to drive measurable outcomes, including network optimization and access, provider outreach, care and utilization management, risk adjustment, population health, SDoH, Stars, member journey and experience, customer service operations, contracting analytics and negotiation, workforce excellence, managed care benchmarking, and facilities/real estate considerations.
Translate ambiguous client needs into structured, executive-level problem solving, framing issues, developing hypotheses, architecting workplans, and driving execution across complex stakeholder environments, including risk and issue leadership, escalation, and decisioning.
Serve as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, building durable relationships and delivering decision-ready recommendations that advance client objectives and strengthen Guidehouse’s position within accounts.
Oversee analysis-to-insight across teams, guiding quantitative and qualitative analysis, validating assumptions, and ensuring findings translate into clear implications, including root-cause drivers, opportunity sizing, prioritization, and measurable value cases.
Develop and quality-assure executive-ready deliverables, that communicate clear “so what” insights through strong narrative structure, compelling exhibits, and actionable recommendations tailored to C-suite and senior government audiences.
Facilitate and lead senior stakeholder engagement, designing and running working sessions, executive readouts, interviews, and workshops; synthesizing inputs; aligning decision-makers; and managing communications across client and internal leadership.
Build and grow high-performing teams through an apprenticeship model, providing deliberate coaching, structured skill-building, and actionable feedback from consultant through associate director levels.
Drive business development and practice growth, identifying expansion opportunities (with emphasis federal health accounts), leading proposals and capture efforts, contributing thought leadership, and developing reusable assets that strengthen the payer and federal health value proposition.
Own financial and operational management for engagements, managing budgets, scope, margins, staffing, and performance reporting while proactively identifying and mitigating delivery and financial risks.

Benefits

Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Basic Life & Supplemental Life
Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Student Loan PayDown
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
Skills Development & Certifications
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
Mobility Stipend