AVP, Data Strategy & Operations

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association•Chicago, WA

5d•$202,400 - $308,675•Hybrid

About The Position

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. The role translates enterprise data priorities set by senior leadership into operating plans, roadmaps, metrics, governance practices, and reliable delivery routines. It 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. The role oversees strategy execution and roadmaps for enterprise data products and capabilities, including Blue Provider Data (BPD), Clinical Data, the National Data Warehouse (NDW), Master Member Index (MMI), and Semantic Layer. It represents the organization with Blue Plans and external stakeholders, owns multi-year portfolio investment strategy, guides prioritization and trade-offs, and provides executive and Board-level visibility into investment status, rationale, and ROI. The AVP leads data operations and service management, including operational standards, service levels, incident routines, escalation paths, reliability, and continuous improvement. The position also leads data quality and governance practices, establishes ownership and accountability for critical data, and embeds quality and governance into product planning, delivery, and operations. The role supports investment planning and value realization through business cases, adoption plans, usage measures, and performance reporting. It leads and develops teams across data strategy, operations, data quality, governance, and product management, while communicating progress, risks, decisions, and performance to senior and cross-functional stakeholders.

Requirements

BS degree or equivalent experience.
15+ years of progressive experience in data strategy, data operations, data governance, data product management, or enterprise data leadership, including people leadership responsibility.
Experience managing data products, data operations, or data governance activities in a complex, regulated, federated, or stakeholder-intensive environment.
Experience implementing data quality, stewardship, metadata, lineage, classification, business glossary, or related governance practices.
Experience managing operational service levels, incident routines, data delivery processes, and continuous improvement for critical data assets.
Experience developing delivery plans, business cases, adoption measures, performance reporting, and value realization metrics.
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 understanding of generative AI tools, including appropriate business applications and limitations.

Nice To Haves

MS in Information Management, Computer Science, Business, Health Informatics, Data Science, or a related field.
Experience with modern data platforms and enterprise data governance tooling.
Experience in healthcare data, payer operations, Blue Plan ecosystems, commercial data products, cloud data platforms, AI/ML data foundations, or national-scale data assets.

Responsibilities

Translate enterprise data strategy into actionable roadmaps, delivery plans, governance routines, and portfolio priorities for enterprise data products and capabilities.
Represent the organization with Blue Plans and external stakeholders to align strategy and execution, drive adoption, and address data quality, service, and operational needs.
Own the multi-year investment strategy for the enterprise data portfolio, developing business cases, managing prioritization, and holding the portfolio accountable for value and ROI outcomes.
Lead portfolio-level investment prioritization and make strategic trade-offs across commercial opportunity, plan value, operational cost, and execution capacity.
Provide Board and executive-level visibility into portfolio investment status, prioritization rationale, and return on investment, including participation in 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 recommendations, updates, and decision materials for executive, governance, and stakeholder forums.
Lead data operations management, 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.
Lead 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.
Support investment planning and value realization through business cases, adoption plans, usage measures, and performance reporting.
Define and track usage, satisfaction, adoption, service, and value metrics to demonstrate business impact and inform prioritization.
Partner with finance, commercial, product, and business stakeholders to monitor benefits, manage trade-offs, and improve outcomes.
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.