Behavioral Health Senior Data and Evaluation Manager

King County•Chinook Building 401 5th Avenue Seattle, WA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) is seeking a seasoned manager of evaluators and/or data analysts to partner with one of the county’s largest human services departments in advancing a cutting-edge collaborative model supporting behavioral health and recovery in King County. DCHS’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Division (BHRD) is a leader in behavioral health across the country. Their portfolio includes provision of a wide variety of mental health and substance use services, a partnership with 40+ community-based organizations and five managed care organizations (MCOs) to develop the King County Integrated Care Network (KCICN), administration of the MIDD Behavioral Health Sales Tax Fund, and administration of the Crisis Care Centers Levy. The Performance Measurement and Evaluation (PME) unit has been integral to many of these innovations. As the next Behavioral Health Senior Data & Evaluation Manager, you would be responsible for creating a robust data-informed culture that supports the cutting-edge work of BHRD. This position leads an extremely talented team of data evaluators, data scientists and data engineers with deep subject matter expertise and technical skills in SQL, R, and Tableau. The team sits within the larger PME unit that supports the entire department and is comprised of professionals skilled in quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, data resource development and management, and data visualization. PME supports DCHS’ program staff and management with developing comprehensive evaluation frameworks and performance metrics, including managing data collection and quality control, monitoring continuous quality improvement, and conducting in-depth analyses to inform decision making and improve service delivery. PME disseminates research and evaluation findings and promotes organizational learning through published reports and dashboards.

Requirements

Demonstrated direct work experience (typically 5+ years) in performance measurement and evaluation.
At least three years of increasingly senior experience managing, recruiting, and promoting accountability within diverse staff teams, including recent experience supervising staff, leading technical professionals, and/or providing matrix management.
Strong project management skills, including experience successfully handling multiple competing priorities and managing complex projects, in detail, and meeting deadlines.
Demonstrated knowledge of quantitative and qualitative analysis principles and methods; principles and practices of applied research and human subjects privacy; methods, tools and techniques of applied research; study design and advanced analytic procedures; data collection methods, including surveys; and computerized database systems.
Experience working directly with large administrative data systems, especially those containing health or behavioral health claims or encounter data.
Fluency in using Microsoft Office products to complete daily assigned tasks, and current or past proficiency with data analysis and visualization tools that enables effective oversight of the work of staff using SQL, R, Tableau, and other analytical tools, including understanding methodological choices and technical tradeoffs.
Ability to translate complex data into accessible insights and facilitate productive conversations with partners who have varying levels of comfort with data, supporting data-informed decision-making and continuous quality improvement.
Strong critical thinking and analytical capabilities, including the ability to synthesize complex information, anticipate implications, and guide data-informed decision making.
Strong oral and written communication skills. This includes technical work, such as the ability to present findings clearly to a variety of non-technical stakeholders. This also includes leadership work, such as the courage to communicate openly and honestly with staff.
Demonstrated skill in collaborating and maintaining effective working relationships with a variety of individuals, including community members, agency representatives, and partners.
Deep knowledge of equity and social justice principles and practices and understanding of the effects of place, race and policy and systems-based inequities on marginalized communities and populations.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree in social sciences, public health, behavioral health or a related field with course work in performance measurement, research methods and statistics and/or equivalent education and experience.
Experience working with publicly funded behavioral health services.
Experience working within the behavioral health delivery system as a provider / clinician.
Lived experience with behavioral health system services. Lived experience includes (but is not limited to) managing one’s own behavioral health needs or supporting someone’s behavioral health needs, including navigating access to care, advocating for needed supports, interacting with social service systems and coordinating care, and managing the impacts of behavioral health needs.
At least 5 years of experience leading design and implementation of policy-relevant performance measurement and/or evaluation processes within health care, behavioral health or human services.
Experience setting strategic direction for measurement, evaluation, analytics, or performance systems at a program, division, or organizational level.
Experience leading through layers and within matrixed management structures (e.g., supervising managers or senior technical leads who oversee staff, or guiding work across teams you do not directly supervise).
Demonstrated ability to lead organizational change, build new systems or processes, and influence decision-making across diverse stakeholder groups.
Understanding of the Results-Based Accountability (RBA) framework in performance measurement work.

Responsibilities

Direct and coordinate the performance measurement, business intelligence, and evaluation activities of King County’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Division.
Work closely with BHRD to ensure a vision for measurement and evaluation across BHRD is integrated into broader divisional strategy and work planning.
Systematically identify measurement and evaluation needs within BHRD, and advocate for appropriate projects and methods to address those needs.
Expand opportunities to conduct evaluative work, including exploring and understanding different models for evaluation such as in-house evaluation, contracts with external vendors, or academic-public partnerships.
Identify opportunities for greater system-level measurement and aggregation that spans the entire BHRD portfolio of programs, including alignment with departmental products (such as the DCHS Dashboard).
Identify opportunities to align with a standard approach that uses a Results-Based Accountability framework.
Develop and hold broad-ranging subject matter expertise about the publicly-funded behavioral health system, to identify synergies and opportunities for measurement coordination and collaboration across the team and execute systems-level projects that do not narrowly fit into a single body of work.
Manage procurement and oversight of evaluation partners / vendors, exercising delegated contracting and budget authority to a set threshold and coordinating with BHRD and DCHS leadership for investments exceeding that threshold.
Drive towards the application of racial equity and social justice lens across a wide variety of projects and work products.
Work closely with BHRD partners and PME staff to scope measurement and evaluation projects that are high-quality, feasible, appropriately supported with BHRD and PME expertise, and fit for purpose.
Ensure BHRD’s needs for timely data support are met while allowing time for a response that is efficient, replicable, and well-documented for the future.
Oversee the development and maintenance of dashboards, blog posts, white papers, and other data products to monitor performance and equity impacts and engage providers and program staff in data-informed continuous quality improvement.
Direct the analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data using appropriate methods and data manipulation tools.
Provide leadership and guidance (or delegation) as needed, including guiding study design, selecting analytic approaches, and advising on the interpretation of complex mixed-methods findings.
Identify key findings, interpret results, and develop/maintain data visualizations that highlight meaningful data to inform strategic decision-making, continuous quality improvement, and evaluations.
Oversee production of briefing papers, presentations, and reports from technically complex analyses that effectively communicate results to a wide variety of stakeholders.
Understand and effectively communicate complex data, dashboards, and evaluation findings to a diverse group of decision-makers without use of technical jargon so issues can be escalated, mitigated, and addressed.
Manage a team of 15–20 staff, including 3 manager-level direct reports (who supervise evaluators, data engineers, and data scientists).
Oversee task delegation, ongoing staff development, and performance management for the full team, whose work is primarily in SQL, R, Tableau, and Git/GitHub.
Manage the HR and administrative activities needed to sustain a strong and adaptable team, including recruitment and backfilling, refining team structure and role responsibilities, managing performance appraisals and timesheet approvals, and supporting staff with HR processes and problem solving.
Ensure team capacity and workflow alignment to meet immovable audit, reporting, and Council-mandated deadlines.
As needed, advocate for more resources / staffing to meet business needs and/or re-prioritize team workload in partnership with BHRD.
Foster a team culture that both delivers high-quality work products and upholds core team values, including: creating a supportive person-centered environment, fostering learning and growth, operating with candor and respect, supporting individual autonomy, fostering collaboration and teamwork, and orienting our work to the mission and context.
Facilitate and develop team processes and procedures to create systems that support efficient, reliable, replicable, and collaborative workflows (both technical, such as code reviews, and operational, such as work planning or cross-training).
Ensure all team members are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and tools to adopt common strategies.
Work closely with BHRD’s Executive Leadership Team to work plan for measurement and evaluation needs across the entire division.
Contribute to the development of a cohesive unit-wide culture and shared work processes in the Performance Measurement and Evaluation Unit, as a member of the PME Senior Leadership Team.
Work in partnership with BHRD Leadership to understand strategic vision and direction and support the PME team in proactively anticipating and meeting needs.
Participate in regular BHRD meetings, including the BHRD Management Team, BHRD-PME work planning and prioritization meetings, and coordination with the BHRD data systems leadership and teams.
Identify opportunities for cross-unit collaboration, learning, or synchronization of measurement and evaluation projects within the Performance Measurement and Evaluation unit, as a member of the PME Senior Leadership Team.
Stay abreast of changes and developments within King County, DCHS, and BHRD and anticipate their impact on performance measurement and evaluation needs.
Coordinate with other DCHS divisions, other King County partner agencies, and external researchers and evaluators regarding evaluation, data analysis, and data integration activities.
Other duties as assigned.