AVP, Data Strategy & Operations

BCBSA · Chicago

Job Description Summary:

The AVP, Data Strategy & Operations is a senior leader responsible for executing the data strategy, operations, quality, governance, and value realization of BCBSA data assets across the data portfolio. This role translates enterprise data priorities set by senior leadership into operating plans, roadmaps, metrics, governance practices, and reliable delivery routines. This role partners across data engineering, product, analytics, commercial, finance, legal, compliance, and Blue Plan stakeholders to ensure data products are trusted, governed, scalable, and aligned to business outcomes.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Data Strategy Execution & Roadmaps

Translate enterprise data strategy into actionable roadmaps, delivery plans, governance routines, and portfolio priorities for data products and capabilities including Blue Provider Data (BPD), Clinical Data, National Data Warehouse (NDW), Master Member Index (MMI), Semantic Layer, and other enterprise data assets. Represent the organization with Blue Plans and external stakeholders to align strategy and execution, drive adoption of enterprise data capabilities, and address data quality, service, and operational needs impacting business outcomes.
Own the multi-year investment strategy for the enterprise data portfolio — developing business cases, managing investment prioritization, and holding the portfolio accountable to defined value and ROI outcomes.
Lead investment prioritization at the portfolio level — making and defending strategic trade-offs across commercial opportunity, plan value, operational cost, and execution capacity to produce a funded, sequenced roadmap.
Provide Board and executive-level visibility into portfolio investment status, prioritization rationale, and return on investment — including participation in BCBSA governance forums and Steer Co-level investment reviews.
Partner with senior leadership to evaluate stakeholder needs, business value, operational readiness, risk, cost, and delivery capacity.
Prepare clear recommendations, updates, and decision materials for executive, governance, and stakeholder forums.

Data Operations & Service Management

Lead data operations management for data products, including ingestion, processing, delivery, freshness, availability, and service performance.
Establish and manage operational standards, service levels, incident routines, escalation paths, and continuous improvement plans.
Partner with engineering and platform teams to improve reliability, automation, scalability, security, and cost efficiency.

Data Quality & Governance

Lead the implementation and management of data quality and governance practices, including standards for quality, lineage, metadata, classification, definitions, and stewardship.
Establish ownership, measurement, monitoring, and accountability for critical data elements and data products.
Embed governance and quality expectations into data product planning, delivery, operations, and stakeholder reporting.

Adoption, Value Realization & Portfolio Metrics

Support investment planning and value realization for the data portfolio through business cases, adoption plans, usage measures, and performance reporting.
Define and track usage, satisfaction, adoption, service, and value metrics that demonstrate business impact and inform prioritization.
Partner with finance, commercial, product, and business stakeholders to monitor benefits, manage trade-offs, and improve outcomes.

Stakeholder Partnership & Team Leadership

Serve as a trusted partner to the SVP, data leaders, technology teams, Blue Plan stakeholders, commercial teams, and governance partners.
Lead and develop teams across data strategy, operations, data quality, governance, and product management activities.
Communicate progress, risks, decisions, and performance in concise, business-relevant language.

The posting range for this position is:

202,400.00 - 308,675.00

Required Education, Certifications and Experience:

Education

Required BS ; or equivalent experience
Preferred MS Information Management, Computer Science, Business, Health Informatics, Data Science, or a related field.

Experience

Required 15+ Years of progressive experience in data strategy, data operations, data governance, data product management, or enterprise data leadership, including people leadership responsibility.
Required - Experience managing data products, data operations, or data governance activities in a complex, regulated, federated, or stakeholder-intensive environment.
Required - Experience implementing data quality, stewardship, metadata, lineage, classification, business glossary, or related governance practices.
Required - Experience managing operational service levels, incident routines, data delivery processes, and continuous improvement for critical data assets.
Required - Experience developing delivery plans, business cases, adoption measures, performance reporting, and value realization metrics.
Required - Experience with modern data platforms and enterprise data governance tooling
Preferred - Experience in healthcare data, payer operations, Blue Plan ecosystems, commercial data products, cloud data platforms, AI/ML data foundations, or national-scale data assets.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities

Strong ability to influence leaders, business stakeholders, Blue Plan partners, commercial partners, and cross-functional teams.
Ability to translate enterprise priorities into practical roadmaps, operating plans, dashboards, governance routines, and execution milestones.
Strong understanding of data strategy, data operations, data quality, data governance, metadata, lineage, classification, and data product management practices.
Ability to develop and manage multi-year investment portfolios — including business case development, capital allocation, ROI measurement, and executive-level investment reporting.
Ability to balance business value, operational reliability, compliance, stakeholder needs, cost, risk, and delivery capacity in day-to-day decision-making.
Strong portfolio and performance management skills, including business case support, prioritization, metrics, and value tracking.
Clear written and verbal communication skills with the ability to simplify complex data topics for executive and business audiences.
Demonstrated ability to lead accountable, inclusive, high-performing teams and support development of data talent.
Demonstrates AI literacy and an understanding of generative AI tools, including appropriate business applications and limitations.

#LI_HYBRID

The posted salary range is the lowest to highest salary we, in good faith, believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the hiring range and this hiring range may also be modified in the future. A candidate’s position within the hiring range may be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, relevant experience, skills, seniority, performance, shift, travel requirements, and business or organizational needs. This job is also eligible for annual bonus incentive pay.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, 11 holidays, medical/dental/vision insurance, generous 401(k) matching, lifestyle spending account and many other benefits to eligible employees.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, or any other form of compensation that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.

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