Senior Director, Strategy & Transformation, Integrated Specialty Care - Remote

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us in making healthcare work better for everyone through people-led, responsible AI while Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Senior Director, Strategy and Transformation serves as the General Manager's strategic execution partner for the Integrated Specialty Platform (ISP) Business Venture Leadership Team. This role leads enterprise stakeholder alignment, change management, and integrated execution, translating venture priorities into coordinated action across Business, Clinical, Product and Technology, Operations and Implementation, Analytics, and supporting workstreams. The role also leads the centralized program management, governance, integrated planning, and reporting structure that connects these teams.

Working alongside the GM, this leader establishes the management discipline and leadership operating rhythm that translate direction into coordinated execution, accelerate decision-making, manage dependencies, and provide visibility into program status, risks, milestones, and decisions. The role shapes venture strategy and priorities, owns execution trade-off decisions within approved scope, budget, and timeline, leads cross-functional follow-through, and represents the GM in designated forums with delegated authority. The GM retains business decision authority on venture strategy, investment, and commercial direction, and functional leaders retain accountability for their workstream deliverables. This role is accountable for integrated execution and launch readiness across them. As ISP is the first use case for the Optum Health Ventures Studio, this leader also builds the repeatable launch and PMO playbook that future ventures will use.

Decision Authority

• Decides: integrated plan sequencing, milestone and critical-path adjustments, cross-workstream prioritization, and resource allocation within approved scope, budget, and timeline; PMO standards, governance design, and operating cadence; and stage-gate readiness recommendations
• Recommends to the GM: venture strategy, annual and quarterly priorities, investment and funding releases, scope changes, and material trade-offs affecting cost, timing, or commercial outcomes
• Escalates: unresolved cross-functional conflicts, risks to launch readiness or financial targets, and decisions outside delegated authority to the GM, Steering Committee, or executive sponsor
• Leads resources: directs the ISP PMO capability, including any dedicated PMO staff and external partner or consulting resources, and manages the PMO budget as the venture scales

Strategic Impact

This role creates a consistent source of truth for ISP priorities, activities, decisions, risks, milestones, dependencies, and deliverables. It provides the venture leadership team with an integrated view of program health and ensures that leadership decisions result in documented actions, clear ownership, and timely follow-through

Effective performance will strengthen cross-functional coordination, improve leadership visibility, reduce execution risk, and support ISP's progression from prototype and operating-model development toward launch readiness and enterprise-scale commercialization

ISP is the first use case for the Optum Health Ventures Studio. Beyond ISP, this role designs and codifies the repeatable venture launch and PMO playbook, covering governance, stage gates, integrated planning, change management, and value tracking, so future Ventures Studio businesses can launch faster and with lower execution risk

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Venture Strategy and Planning
  • Partner with the GM to develop and refresh ISP strategy, translating the venture thesis and business case into annual and quarterly priorities, goals, and KPIs
  • Lead the venture planning cycle, including priority setting, scenario and trade-off analysis, and alignment of workstream plans to strategic and financial objectives
  • Establish stage gates and milestone-based funding criteria, and assess readiness to advance from prototype to launch and scale
  • Track value realization against the business case, including growth, margin, and adoption targets, and recommend course corrections to the GM and executive sponsor
• Integrated Program Management
  • Lead development and ongoing management of the integrated ISP roadmap, master workplan, and rolling 30-60-90 day execution plans across workstreams, linking strategic priorities to deliverables, dependencies, accountable owners, and decision points. Translate detailed plans into executive views that highlight critical milestones, trade-offs, emerging risks, and decisions required to maintain momentum
  • Coordinate milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and critical-path activities
  • Establish consistent project management standards across the venture team
  • Translate leadership decisions into actionable plans with clear owners and next steps
  • Establish and drive the weekly execution agenda with the GM and workstream leaders, identifying the highest-priority outcomes, decisions, dependencies, and leadership interventions needed to advance ISP strategic priorities. Monitor delivery, surface delays and gaps, recommend sequencing and priority adjustments, and secure clear commitments and timely follow-through
• PMO Governance and Administration
  • Establish and maintain the core ISP PMO toolkit: roadmap, workplan, decision and RAID logs, milestone and action trackers, governance calendar, and status reporting
  • Keep PMO artifacts current and accessible as the authoritative source of program information
  • Lead decision preparation, facilitation, and follow-through for workstream, leadership, Steering Committee (SteerCo), and executive governance forums. Before major meetings, advise the GM on required stakeholder consultation, decision authority, unresolved concerns, and alignment gaps; secure appropriate input and pre-brief key leaders so discussions are decision-ready rather than the first point of stakeholder engagement
  • Maintain documentation standards and continuously improve PMO processes, tools, and reporting
• Change Management and Stakeholder Alignment
  • Lead the ISP change-management strategy, assessing stakeholder impacts, readiness, and adoption barriers across workstreams and enterprise partners
  • Develop stakeholder engagement and consultation plans that identify who must be informed, consulted, or involved in decisions and when
  • Anticipate resistance, competing priorities, and sensitive organizational dynamics; advise the GM on engagement approaches; and lead interventions that build alignment, strengthen adoption, and sustain new ways of working
• Cross-Workstream Coordination
  • Coordinate planning and execution across Business, Clinical, Product and Technology, Operations and Implementation, Analytics, and supporting enterprise functions
  • Integrate workstream plans into a consolidated ISP roadmap, identifying dependencies, handoffs, and sequencing needs
  • Facilitate communication between functional leaders and workstream teams
  • Drive accountability for cross-functional commitments and route blockers to the appropriate owner or governance forum
  • Ensure teams understand how their deliverables connect to ISP milestones and objectives
• Decision, Risk, and Issue Management
  • Maintain a record of key program decisions, including status, owners, rationale, and resulting actions
  • Coordinate identification, monitoring, escalation, and resolution of program risks and issues
  • Keep assumptions and dependencies affecting scope, timing, operating-model design, prototype development, or launch readiness visible to leadership
  • Anticipate unresolved decisions, emerging risks, stakeholder concerns, and execution trade-offs before they impede progress. Frame options, implications, recommended actions, and required consultations for the GM and venture leadership team, identifying questions and alignment gaps that must be addressed before executive deliberation
  • Track mitigation plans to completion and flag emerging risks before they affect milestones
• Status Reporting and Executive Communications
  • Develop concise, integrated status updates covering progress, milestones, risks, dependencies, decisions, and leadership asks
  • Develop executive narratives and author high-quality slides, presentations, decision memos, briefing materials, talking points, and executive correspondence, including ghostwritten emails for the GM and executive sponsor. Translate complex or sensitive topics into clear recommendations and leadership asks, tailoring voice and message to the executive and audience. Present and facilitate discussions with leaders across the company, including the C-suite, and represent the GM in designated forums with sound judgment, discretion, and credibility
  • Keep workstream plans, PMO reporting, roadmaps, and leadership materials consistent
  • Provide leadership a clear line of sight from ISP strategic priorities to execution
  • Communicate key decisions, changes, and actions across teams, tailored to workstream, leadership, and executive audiences
• Ventures Studio Playbook and Scale
  • Using ISP as the first use case, design and codify the Optum Health Ventures Studio launch and PMO playbook, including governance model, stage gates, planning templates, change-management approach, and value-tracking framework
  • Capture lessons learned and continuously refine the playbook so subsequent ventures can stand up governance and execution faster
  • Advise Ventures Studio and Optum Health leaders on applying the playbook to future ventures, and build PMO capability that can scale across the portfolio

Success Measures

• Venture Outcomes
  • ISP achieves stage-gate and launch-readiness milestones on plan, with critical-path delays identified and mitigated before they affect launch dates
  • Venture spend is managed within approved budget, with funding releases tied to milestone achievement
  • Progress against business-case targets, including growth, margin, and adoption, is measured, reported, and used to drive course corrections
  • Annual and quarterly ISP priorities and KPIs are set with the GM and achieved across workstreams
• Program Execution
  • Integrated ISP roadmap, master workplan, and rolling 30-60-90 day execution plans are established, consistently maintained, and translated into clear executive views
  • Major milestones and deliverables are clearly defined, visible, and actively managed
  • Schedule risks and delivery gaps are identified and escalated in a timely manner
  • Leadership decisions are translated into documented actions, owners, and due dates
• Governance and Decision Support
  • Decision cycle time is reduced, with critical decisions made by required dates and few deferred or reopened decisions
  • Governance meetings are supported by timely, accurate, and decision-oriented materials, with required stakeholder input and pre-briefings completed before major decisions
  • Governance operates effectively, with escalations resolved within agreed timeframes and stakeholder alignment secured before major decisions
  • Decisions, risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies are tracked through resolution
• Leadership Visibility
  • Status reporting provides an accurate, consolidated view of ISP progress, upcoming milestones, risks, dependencies, and required decisions
  • Executive materials are timely, concise, and aligned with underlying program information
  • Leadership has clear visibility into program health and areas requiring intervention, supported by proactive recommendations, explicit weekly priorities, and decision-ready executive views
• Cross-Functional Coordination
  • Workstreams operate against an integrated set of priorities, milestones, and dependencies
  • Cross-functional commitments and handoffs are clearly documented and actively managed
  • Blockers and dependencies are surfaced early and routed to the appropriate owner or governance forum
  • Functional leaders receive centralized PMO support while retaining accountability for their respective workstream deliverables
• Change Readiness and Adoption
  • Stakeholder impacts, consultation needs, and adoption barriers are identified early and addressed through actionable engagement and change plans
  • Readiness and adoption indicators are defined with workstream leaders and used to evaluate progress and adjust change interventions
  • Agreed change interventions are carried through to resolution, with unresolved alignment gaps visible to the GM
• Enterprise Scalability
  • The Ventures Studio launch and PMO playbook is documented, validated through ISP, and adopted by at least one subsequent venture
  • Subsequent ventures stand up governance and integrated planning faster than ISP did, using the playbook and the PMO capability

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in strategy, program/project management, PMO, transformation and/or consulting within healthcare operations, including 5 or more years leading enterprise-scale programs or teams at a senior manager or director level
• Demonstrated experience developing strategy and business plans, setting priorities and KPIs, and managing budgets, investment cases, or milestone-based funding
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives involving multiple workstreams and senior stakeholders, with expert change-management capability in stakeholder impact assessment, engagement planning, consultation, resistance management, readiness, and adoption
• Experience developing and managing integrated workplans, program roadmaps, decision logs, RAID logs, action trackers, governance processes, and executive status reporting
• Experience translating ambiguous or evolving initiatives into structured plans, milestones, actions, and decision points
• Experience managing multiple priorities in a dynamic environment
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex information into concise, decision-oriented leadership materials; independently draft executive presentations, memos, talking points, and ghostwritten correspondence; and engage credibly with senior executives, including the C-suite. Strong judgment, discretion, and ability to adapt narrative and communication style to executive voice, audience, and sensitive organizational context
• Proven track record of building repeatable operating models, governance frameworks, or PMO capabilities that were scaled across multiple programs or businesses
• Demonstrated ability to influence, coordinate, and drive accountability without direct authority
• Proven solid organizational, prioritization, and problem-solving skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Project or program management certification
• Experience within Optum Health (OH) and across the broader enterprise, with demonstrated ability to navigate organizational relationships, governance, and decision-making processes to advance cross-functional priorities
• Healthcare services, healthcare operations, or healthcare transformation experience
• Experience in a venture, startup, incubation, or new-business environment
• Experience supporting development of a new operating model, product, service, or business capability
• Experience with enterprise transformation, market implementation, or launch-readiness planning
• Experience supporting senior executives, steering committees, or cross-functional leadership teams
• Process-improvement experience
• Familiarity with specialty care, virtual care, provider organizations, or value-based healthcare models

Leadership Competencies

• Execution discipline
• Structured problem-solving
• Executive communication
• Systems thinking
• Comfort navigating ambiguity
• Collaborative leadership 
• Organization and attention to detail
• Cross-functional leadership and influence
• Accountability and follow-through
• Prioritization
• Proactive risk management
• Continuous improvement mindset

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $159,300 - $273,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. Together, we are shaping the future of healthcare by harnessing technology and innovation to make care simpler to navigate, more affordable and more connected for the people we serve. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels welcomed, valued, heard and respected, empowering people to bring their authentic selves to work and strengthening our collective impact through diverse talents, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated brands are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated brands are a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment