Faulkner Consulting Group

Technical Operations Manager

Faulkner Consulting Group is seeking an experienced Technical Operations Manager, to join our consulting team at HealthSource RI (HSRI), Rhode Island's health insurance exchange. The Technical Operations Manager will lead process analysis, functional design, system optimization, and cross-functional initiatives to improve operational effectiveness and support organizational growth. This role reports to the Deputy Director of Technical Operations at HealthSource RI.

This position serves as the central point of contact for all of HSRI's technology interfaces and Integrated Eligibility System (IES) needs. The Technical Operations Manager will become deeply immersed in the State's IES, oversight and release management process, and must develop a keen understanding of standard SDLC processes, a working knowledge of the IES application and its technical and functional design, and a clear grasp of HSRI's major technical needs and priorities as driven by customer impact, federal regulations, and compliance requirements.

The Technical Operations Manager will also develop familiarity with the technical platforms of HSRI's other vendors — including the call center, website, financial management system, and QHP carriers — and understand how they interconnect with and impact the IES. This position plays a critical role in HSRI's functional and technical teams overseeing operations of the state's eligibility and enrollment system (RI Bridges). The successful candidate needs to be a highly analytical and collaborative professional to bridge business needs and technology solutions.

Core responsibilities

IES Release Management & Oversight

• Represents HSRI at all meetings critical to the IES release management process, from problem management through SIT/UAT to release and post-release validation.
• Manages HSRI's defect/design prioritization process, working collaboratively within the larger interagency IES and state team; identifies areas of alignment with other agencies and determines the best use of IES design hours.
• Creates Business Requirement Requests (BRR), Service Requests (SR), and Operational Requests (OR) submitted on behalf of HSRI, with input and support from the HSRI Operations team.
• Provides approvals for major IES issues requiring data and code fixes or design changes.
• Oversees the post-release validation process as part of system updates and manages ad-hoc validation requests.
• Provides release notes for system updates for purposes of training and general awareness.

System Testing & Quality Assurance

• In collaboration with the UAT manager, serve as one of HSRI's business point of contacts for SIT and UAT, including forming recommendations and giving approval of testing scenarios, working with UAT staff to address questions and concerns, and providing business approval of test results.
• Executes regular quality checks to investigate and test for system errors.
• Evaluates key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure optimal system functionality.
• Supports HSRI's annual programmatic audit through system testing and KPIs.

Incident & Problem Management

• Works with HSRI's Operations team to identify, report, and prioritize defects or issues; participates in IES command center, problem management, and design sessions as needed.
• Monitors IES impact on HSRI operations; oversees the volume of problem tickets and incidents, analyzes the length of time incidents remain open, escalates unresolved issues to the IES vendor team, assesses urgency and impacted customer groups, and communicates key issues to HSRI leadership.
• Reviews and approves system data fixes.

Supports the Deputy Director of Technical Operations at HSRI with the following, and as assigned:

Vendor Relations

• Participates in technical design meetings for system fixes and enhancements and provides project management support during technical review meetings with the system's vendor.
• Serves as a key point of contact for the RI Bridges (IES) vendor and other technical vendors, managing the day-to-day working relationship and ensuring vendor responsiveness and accountability
• Reviews and approves vendor-submitted deliverables, including design documents, release notes, data fix proposals, and test results, ensuring they meet HSRI's standards and requirements.
• Leads and facilitates regular vendor meetings, including weekly status calls, design sessions, and release planning meetings; documents decisions, action items, and open issues.
• Evaluates vendor change requests and proposed solutions for alignment with HSRI's operational needs, federal requirements, and customer impact before providing or obtaining approval.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Participates in technical design meetings and collaborates across interagency teams.
• Ability to build relationships and communicate respectfully with vendors, internal stakeholders, and external stakeholders
• A desire to self-reflect, give and receive feedback, and focus on continuous improvement.
• Demonstrates a commitment towards building a team culture based on collaboration and trust.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• BA or BS degree
• 8+ years of experience in system operations and functional design
• Experience with IES, a must
• Experience with System Integration Testing (SIT) and/or User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
• Experience working closely with vendors, a must
• Experience working in JIRA, a plus
• Familiarity with healthcare industry, a plus
• Familiarity with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and related policies, a plus
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office

Competencies

• Requirements Strategy: Translate business objectives into scalable functional solutions and roadmaps
• Solution Design Leadership: Guide functional design decisions across complex, integrated systems
• Continuous Improvement Leadership: Foster a culture of operational excellence and innovation.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, asking hard questions, managing conflict with compassion, and bringing solutions to help move teams and a project forward
• Comfortable learning elaborate systems quickly
• Thrive in an ever-changing environment
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively
• Ability to articulate clearly in writing and verbally in group settings
• Self-motivated, able to work independently
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills

Work Environment

The Technical Operations Manager will be employed by FCG as part of our team at HealthSource RI (HSRI), the state’s marketplace for health insurance coverage. This position will work a minimum of Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the HSRI offices in Providence, RI and the balance virtually from home. The incumbent must maintain normal and consistent full-time work hours, Monday – Friday.

Faulkner Consulting Group www.faulknerconsultinggroup.com

Faulkner Consulting Group (FCG) is an experienced health policy consulting firm focused on the intersection of public and private programs. FCG works with payers and providers to tackle health care policy projects with a fundamental commitment to client partnership. We work side by side with our clients to ensure that our policy analyses and guidance fit within the clients’ business models and capacity. We bring an analytical perspective to health policy issues with an emphasis on data-driven decision making.

Faulkner Consulting Group is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.