Research Economist - U.S. Health Policy

RTI International•Durham, NC

3d•$114,000 - $140,000

About The Position

RTI International’s Department of Health Care Systems Research is hiring a Research Economist to lead tasks and projects involving the evaluation, analysis, design, and implementation of health care delivery policies, programs, and models. The role conducts analyses intended to inform health care policy and health system innovation, particularly in Medicare and Medicaid. Using large health care datasets, the Research Economist designs, evaluates, and supports policies concerning insurance, payment and delivery models, managed care, financing, costs, utilization, quality, coverage and access, prescription drugs, and risk and case-mix adjustment. The role leads analytic projects as part of a team, applies health policy and research-methods expertise, contributes to and leads proposals to funding entities, and publishes and presents findings to scientific audiences. It also involves managing budgets and staff, communicating with clients, and producing accurate technical and policy-facing work. Opportunities are available to new and experienced Ph.D. and master’s candidates, economists, and policy analysts with relevant experience in academia, government, industry, or consulting. Positions may be available immediately or start in Spring or Summer 2027. Candidates may work remotely within the United States or from RTI’s Research Triangle Park, North Carolina office.

Requirements

Ph.D. in economics, health policy, health services research, actuarial science, operations research, finance, or a related quantitative field.
Completed coursework and experience in quantitative research.
Experience and skills in advanced micro-econometrics, simulation analysis, and program evaluation.
Ability to communicate complex ideas and information clearly and precisely, both verbally and in writing, to diverse audiences.
Ability to collaborate effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office 365, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States and must not require now or in the future employment visa sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Experience analyzing the impacts of public programs and other policy interventions.
Experience with U.S. health policy, particularly Medicare or Medicaid.
Experience in project, task, timeline, and budget management.
Experience designing, developing, and implementing programming code and analyzing very large administrative datasets using open-source software and languages such as SQL, Python, and R, while maintaining data security and confidentiality; includes developing and maintaining technical programming specifications.
Experience designing and executing analyses and processing large, complex administrative datasets using advanced data analytics and machine-learning techniques.
Experience with, or ability to quickly develop expertise in, federal agency data processing and computing systems, environments, and requirements.
Experience with or interest in renal disease policies, kidney transplantation, dialysis services, risk adjustment, prescription drug policy, Medicare and Medicaid payment policy (particularly Medicare Advantage, Accountable Care Organizations, and Part D), evaluation methods, and econometrics.

Responsibilities

Lead and/or contribute to quantitative research and evaluation on a broad range of health policy and health services research topics.
Specify and supervise descriptive and statistical analyses of large, complex datasets.
Present results succinctly to diverse technical and policy audiences.
Author technical reports, memoranda, articles, documentation, and regulations.
Ensure the quality and accuracy of work products.
Develop and manage budgets to achieve goals within available resources.
Supervise and manage research staff completing project tasks.
Communicate and negotiate work plans, timelines, budgets, and results with clients.
Lead and/or contribute to technical proposals, including methodological designs.
Collaborate with teams with varying technical skills and experience.
Develop expertise in health care policy, research methods, and health care data areas.