AVP, Data Strategy & Operations

Job Description

Summary:

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. This role translates enterprise data priorities set by senior leadership into operating plans, roadmaps, metrics, governance practices, and reliable delivery routines. This role 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.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Data Strategy Execution & Roadmaps Translate enterprise data strategy into actionable roadmaps, delivery plans, governance routines, and portfolio priorities for data products and capabilities including Blue Provider Data (BPD), Clinical Data, National Data Warehouse (NDW), Master Member Index (MMI), Semantic Layer, and other enterprise data assets. Represent the organization with Blue Plans and external stakeholders to align strategy and execution, drive adoption of enterprise data capabilities, and address data quality, service, and operational needs impacting business outcomes.

Own the multi-year investment strategy for the enterprise data portfolio — developing business cases, managing investment prioritization, and holding the portfolio accountable to defined value and ROI outcomes.

Lead investment prioritization at the portfolio level — making and defending strategic trade-offs across commercial opportunity, plan value, operational cost, and execution capacity to produce a funded, sequenced roadmap.

Provide Board and executive-level visibility into portfolio investment status, prioritization rationale, and return on investment — including participation in BCBSA 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 clear recommendations, updates, and decision materials for executive, governance, and stakeholder forums.

Data Operations & Service Management Lead data operations management for data products, 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.

Data Quality & Governance Lead the 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.

Adoption, Value Realization & Portfolio Metrics Support investment planning and value realization for the data portfolio through business cases, adoption plans, usage measures, and performance reporting.

Define and track usage, satisfaction, adoption, service, and value metrics that demonstrate business impact and inform prioritization.

Partner with finance, commercial, product, and business stakeholders to monitor benefits, manage trade-offs, and improve outcomes.

Stakeholder Partnership & Team Leadership 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.

The posting range for this position is:

- Required Education, Certifications and

Experience:

Education Required BS ; or equivalent experience

Preferred MS Information Management, Computer Science, Business, Health Informatics, Data Science, or a related field.

Experience Required 15+ Years of progressive experience in data strategy, data operations, data governance, data product management, or enterprise data leadership, including people leadership responsibility. Required
- Experience managing data products, data operations, or data governance activities in a complex, regulated, federated, or stakeholder-intensive…