Sr Director of Product Management - State Gov Program Operations - Remote

Optum Insight helps improve the flow of health data and information to create a more connected healthcare system. The Director of Product Management will lead product strategy, market positioning, portfolio execution, and operational governance for the Program Operations business within Optum State Government Solutions, serving state Medicaid and Health & Human Services agencies. This role will shape roadmaps, investment decisions, go-to-market plans, portfolio rationalization, and cross-functional execution to drive growth, profitability, modernization, and customer outcomes.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute the Program Operations product, portfolio, and market strategy aligned to SGS growth, margin, customer, capital, and domain-plan priorities
• Define where Program Operations should grow, scale, fix, partner, acquire, package for reuse, maintain, or retire investment
• Build a multi-year roadmap tied to state Medicaid demand, known procurements, renewal and rebid priorities, account expansion, customer outcomes, technology feasibility, delivery maturity, and financial performance
• Use state Medicaid and HHS market insight to identify emerging needs, pre-procurement opportunities, partnership options, advisory relationships, and areas where SGS should shape demand before formal procurements are released
• Partner with Growth, market and account leadership, government affairs where appropriate, and solution-design teams to define the Program Operations go-to-market playbook, target-state priorities, win themes, competitive differentiation, and pursuit support model
• Translate CMS, state agency, customer, regulatory, procurement, and operational requirements into product strategy, roadmap decisions, investment choices, and measurable outcomes
• Develop business cases, pricing logic, margin-ramp assumptions, capital recommendations, commercialization plans, and build / buy / partner recommendations for new and existing offerings
• Rationalize the existing portfolio to reduce complexity, improve investment focus, strengthen reuse, and improve profitability
• Partner with Technology and Engineering to deliver secure, scalable, cloud-ready, government-compliant capabilities and identify modernization, technical-debt, AI, automation, and platform-reuse opportunities
• Partner with Operations, implementation, and client leadership to ensure offerings are deliverable, adopted, measurable, and connected to customer outcomes
• Support customer advisory conversations, industry forums, conference strategy, thought leadership, and market-facing points of view where appropriate to strengthen SGS credibility and market access
• Establish product governance, KPIs, and operating cadence across adoption, customer health, delivery performance, revenue, margin, capital benefit realization, product reuse, and operational outcomes
• Serve as the Program Operations product leader in SGS domain planning, capital planning, portfolio reviews, executive strategy sessions, and cross-functional operating forums

Requirements:

• 10+ years of combined experience in state Medicaid, Health & Human Services, Medicaid operations, Medicaid-focused consulting, state agency leadership, federal healthcare program work, public-sector healthcare technology, or state-facing healthcare solution leadership
• 7+ years of progressive leadership experience in product, solution, program, portfolio, market, operational, or customer-facing leadership roles within Medicaid, HHS, public-sector healthcare, or related government health programs
• Experience with state Medicaid / HHS program administration or operational modernization, including service access, provider or constituent workflows, case or care management operations, compliance-driven workflows, customer-service operations, or related state-administered health and human services functions
• Experience engaging with, advising, or supporting state Medicaid / HHS leaders, CMS or federal stakeholders, state agency clients, or other public-sector healthcare decision-makers
• Experience supporting or shaping state government or public-sector healthcare procurements, renewals, rebids, amendments, change requests, RFP responses, solution orals, customer advisory conversations, or pre-procurement opportunity development
• Experience translating state, customer, regulatory, operational, or market insight into product strategy, solution strategy, roadmap decisions, investment priorities, operational improvements, or measurable business outcomes
• Experience leading or materially influencing product, solution, service, program, operational, or business portfolios with responsibility for customer outcomes, program performance, adoption, delivery results, operational performance, or measurable business outcomes
• Experience partnering across Product, Growth / Sales, Operations, Technology, Finance, implementation, client / account, and executive stakeholders to align strategy and execution
• Solid understanding of Medicaid operations, state agency buying processes, public-sector implementation realities, and secure, compliant, government-facing technology or service delivery
• Proven executive communication, stakeholder management, strategic planning, and decision-framing skills
• Experience distinguishing scalable product opportunities from account-specific delivery obligations and making disciplined build / buy / partner / retire recommendations
• Experience with revenue growth, margin improvement, pricing, business cases, capital investment, cost productivity, commercialization, or financial performance for Medicaid, HHS, public-sector healthcare, or state-facing solution portfolios
• Experience with Medicaid Enterprise Systems, MMIS, MITA, CMS certification, modular procurement, MESC, APD / federal funding, or CMS interoperability requirements
• Experience with cloud-native SaaS, FedRAMP, NIST, FISMA, HIPAA, data privacy/security, government hosting, interoperability, AI/automation, and secure workflow platforms
• Experience modernizing legacy products, operational services, or technology portfolios into scalable offerings
• Experience developing margin-ramp, pricing, capital, or investment cases for state government / Medicaid growth opportunities
• Direct CMS, state Medicaid agency, state HHS, or Medicaid program leadership experience
• Recognized industry presence through conference speaking, association participation, workgroups, advisory forums, publications, customer convenings, or market-facing thought leadership
• Existing professional network across state Medicaid / HHS executives, program leaders, CMS or federal stakeholders, Medicaid associations, policy organizations, systems integrators, technology partners, and solution vendors