Rural Health Transformation Technical Lead

Job Location: This position will be working in-office at the Howerton State Office Building, 615 Howerton Court, Jefferson City, MO.

The person in this position will have the opportunity to help shape the technology and data infrastructure that enables rural healthcare transformation across Missouri. You'll work at the intersection of interoperability, health information technology modernization, analytics, and program operations. This role provides exposure to how statewide technology, vendor, and provider implementation work comes together in practice, while allowing you to build experience in digital health transformation that supports better coordination and more sustainable rural care.

The Rural Health Transformation Technical Lead for the Digital Backbone initiative of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) will provide the day-to-day leadership and operational oversight required to deliver a critical component of Missouri’s RHTP. Reporting directly to the DSS CIO and working closely with the RHTP Director, this role will serve as a core member of the newly established Rural Healthcare Transformation Office (RHTO).

The RHTO is Missouri’s central coordinating team, responsible for driving strategy, governance, performance management, and capability building across the five-year, statewide program.

• Refine, maintain, and executea comprehensive, multi-phase implementation roadmap for the statewide
  
  Digital Backbone initiative, ensuring all sub-initiatives are designed, sequenced, and delivered within approved scopes and timelines.
• Lead statewide current-state assessments and provider segmentation to evaluate Electronic Health Record (EHR) maturity, interoperability readiness, cybersecurity posture, broadband capacity, AI readiness, and reporting capabilities.
• Translate assessment findings into actionable technical requirements, modernization sequencing, and statewide investment priorities.
• Develop and maintain core planning artifacts and technical standards, including future-state capability matrices, technical requirements, interoperability specifications, deployment roadmaps, and training/certification-readiness materials.
• Drive day-to-day execution across Digital Backbone work streams, including digital maturity assessments, interoperability tooling, interface development, cloud hosting, and telehealth enablement planning.
• Direct the design, integration, and statewide rollout of the Social Care Referral Platform / Community Information Exchange (CIE) and related clinical/workflow governance tools.
• Oversee EHR modernization and selective replacement efforts, directly managing vendor onboarding, interface configuration, testing coordination, and provider readiness validation.
• Serve as the primary liaison and coordinator across a complex network of internal and external stakeholders, including executive sponsors, state government agencies, rural healthcare providers, healthcare associations, EHR vendors, and system integrators.
• Lead partner and vendor sourcing efforts, managing the end-to-end Request for Proposal (RFP) process, evaluating technical proposals, and negotiating statements of work (SOWs) with contracted implementation partners.
• Maintain seamless communication channels to align competing priorities, resolve complex integration issues, and support steady progress against project timelines.
• Partner with grant, fiscal, and program managers to develop, monitor, and manage the multi-million-dollar initiative-wide budget, ensuring resource deployment complies with state and federal program guidelines.
• Establish performance metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track progress across EHR modernization, CIE deployment, provider adoption rates, and…