Senior Evaluation Scientist - Research Scientist 3

About the role

The Minnesota Department of Health seeks a Senior Evaluation Scientist to lead high-impact research, evaluation, and performance measurement activities for the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). This role supports state and federal leaders in understanding what works to improve access, quality, sustainability, and outcomes in rural communities.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and reporting of statewide performance measurement and evaluation frameworks for RHTP-funded initiatives.
• Conduct advanced quantitative and qualitative research studies related to rural health systems, access to care, workforce, and service delivery innovation.
• Analyze complex healthcare and program data using statistical software and develop dashboards, reports, and data visualizations for diverse audiences.
• Develop policy recommendations and communicate research findings to executive leadership, legislators, CMS, providers, and community stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Tribal Nations, rural providers, policymakers, grantees, and national partners to inform health care transformation efforts and support data-driven decision making that directly impacts rural and underserved Minnesotans.

Requirements

• Four (4) years of experience in health-related qualitative and quantitative survey research, performance measurement, and program evaluation.
• Experience using statistical analysis software such as SAS, Stata, R, SPSS, SQL, or similar tools.
• Experience with implementing and managing performance measurement frameworks for large-scale grant programs, healthcare initiatives, or system transformation efforts.
• Experience with developing meaningful, actionable, and feasible metrics that align with program goals, federal reporting requirements, and operational realities.
• Experience collecting, validating, cleaning, managing or interpreting quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources.
• Strong written communication skills sufficient to prepare technical reports, briefing materials, or research summaries.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience conducting health services research, rural health research, or healthcare program evaluation.
• Experience working with Medicaid, Medicare, CMS reporting requirements, or federal grant-funded programs.
• Experience with rural hospital or clinic performance measurement.
• Experience developing performance measures, logic models, or evaluation frameworks for large-scale initiatives, or designing and implementing mixed-methods evaluation studies.
• Experience translating research findings into policy recommendations, legislative materials, or executive-level presentations.