Sr Project Manager - Rural Health Focus

About the role

The Senior Project Manager is responsible for leading the successful delivery of complex rural health transformation initiatives and serves as a primary client-facing leader for large-scale healthcare consulting engagements.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the day-to-day leader for complex rural health transformation projects, overseeing multiple interdependent workstreams and ensuring successful execution of project objectives.
• Establishes project management standards, tools, processes, and reporting structures that promote accountability, transparency, consistency, and successful project execution.
• Develops and maintains integrated project plans, work plans, timelines, decision logs, risk registers, issue trackers, and project dashboards.
• Makes sure project health, milestones, budget performance, deliverables, dependencies, and resource utilization are monitored; escalates concerns and recommends corrective actions as needed.
• Identifies project risks, barriers, resource constraints, and organizational challenges; develops mitigation strategies and drives resolution in collaboration with client and internal leadership.
• Ensures alignment across all project teams and workstreams, facilitating collaboration and maintaining focus on shared project goals and contractual commitments.
• Functs as one of the primary points of contact for client leadership, building trusted relationships and ensuring effective communication regarding project progress, risks, issues, decisions, and strategic priorities.
• Leads project governance activities, including executive steering committees, workstream leadership meetings, project reviews, status reporting, and stakeholder communications.
• Collaborates with multidisciplinary teams across policy, operations, healthcare delivery, behavioral health, data analytics, technology, provider engagement, finance, and implementation workstreams.
• Synthesizes information from multiple workstreams into executive-level presentations, reports, recommendations, and communications for client executives and internal leadership.
• Interprets federal and state regulations, policy guidance, and program requirements to inform project planning, implementation, and operational recommendations.
• Leads issue resolution efforts by bringing together stakeholders, facilitating difficult conversations, building consensus, and removing barriers to project success.
• Manages project financial performance, including budget development, forecasting, resource allocation, invoice review and approval, and coordination with finance teams to ensure accurate and timely client billing.

Requirements

• Exceptional organizational skills with demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex workstreams, competing priorities, and tight deadlines simultaneously.
• Advanced project and program management skills, including governance, planning, resource management, budget oversight, risk management, and issue resolution.
• Ability to translate strategic objectives into actionable work plans and maintain alignment across diverse project teams.
• Demonstrated ability to identify risks, anticipate challenges, assess impacts, and implement practical mitigation strategies.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills with the ability to synthesize complex information into actionable recommendations.
• Prowess in coordinating and influencing cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority.
• Strong executive presence and ability to communicate effectively with client executives, state agency leadership, provider organizations, and internal senior leadership.
• Knowledge of rural healthcare delivery systems, Medicaid programs, public health initiatives, behavioral health systems, and/or healthcare transformation efforts is a plus.
• Ability to interpret federal and state regulations and apply them to program implementation and operational improvement initiatives.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and project management platforms.
• Commitment to exceptional client service, high-quality deliverables, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Health Administration, Public Administration, Healthcare Management, Business Administration, Policy, or a related field required. Master’s degree in Public Health (MPH), Public Administration (MPA), Health Policy, Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, or related field preferred.
• Experience: Seven (7) or more years of progressively responsible project or program management experience. Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent workstreams within complex projects. Experience serving as a primary client-facing project lead and managing executive-level stakeholder relationships. Experience leading large-scale healthcare, Medicaid, public health, behavioral health, rural health, or healthcare transformation initiatives preferred. Consulting experience preferred.
• Certifications: Active Project Management Professional (PMP) or equivalent certification required.

Compensation

$93,500 - $110,000

Working Conditions

Remote with frequent collaboration across internal and client teams. May require travel to client sites or stakeholder meetings, including rural communities, as project needs dictate.

Supervisory Responsibility

May directly supervise project managers, analysts, consultants, or other project staff. Provides leadership, mentorship, and direction to cross-functional project teams and workstream leads regardless of direct reporting relationships.