Certification & Compliance Project Specialist

This position is essential to supporting federal compliance efforts, including AoA, the MES Certification schedule, PBA CRR, and DAP, with MITA activities becoming an increasingly important requirement.

This is a new position. The previous Accenture support model for this role is no longer viable because the responsibilities require access to sensitive state processes.

This position is responsible for supporting and driving the execution of the NC Medicaid Enterprise Systems certification strategy for each project. The Specialist supports ongoing compliance activities including updating the Analysis of Alternatives document, the MES Certification schedule, and the certification readiness assessment which are essential to achieving certification and enhanced federal funding. As CMS introduces evolving and increasingly complex MITA requirements, this role becomes critical to ensure the program remains aligned with new federal standards.

The Specialist provides direct support to the Certification Workstream across multiple high‑visibility MES projects. The role partners closely with Business Leads, Project Teams, matrix managers, vendors, and other key stakeholders to ensure all CMS criteria are met and that certification activities are coordinated, on schedule, and strategically aligned to achieve successful MMIS/CMS Certification. This position is central to protecting program integrity, sustaining federal funding streams, and strengthening statewide Medicaid systems.

The Certification and Compliance Project Specialist ensures that certification tasks are executed with precision, compliance risks are minimized, and MES initiatives consistently meet CMS standards. This role collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to support the overall success of the Medicaid Enterprise System (MES) Program.

• Support project teams through certification tasks
• Lead certification workstream meetings
• Update document repository for CMS certification artifacts per project
• Co‑manage the Certification Evidence Tracker
• Pull, recommend, and manage evidence from the implemented solution to meet CMS Certification requirements
• Compose narratives to accompany ORR and CRR evidence
• Oversee system demonstrations for the Business and CMS, as required, to achieve CMS Certification
• Maintain awareness of CMS certification program and policy updates, organization communication as applicable
• Provide project schedule activities to the project team for CMS effort aligned with scope of contract for a specific project (for integration into project schedules)
• Prepare adequately for upcoming PBA CRR, DAP, and PDM ORR prep cycles
• Ensure continuity and quality in managing certification deliverables
• Coordinate timely with MITRE and project teams
• Utilize industry best practices for compliance with CMS and State‑defined performance standards

• Healthcare related knowledge, ideally in analytics, reporting or related fields (≥3 years)
• Demonstrated experience using project tracking tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, MITAPulse (≥3 years)
• Project management experience, including managing staff in a matrix or direct reporting relationship (≥3 years)
• Experience managing multiple priorities/projects including project scope, schedules, quality, change management, and project financials (≥5 years)
• Ability to drive, collaborate and coordinate with MITRE and CMS teams (≥5 years)
• CMS Medicaid Enterprise Certification life‑cycle process experience (≥2 years)
• Experience implementing information systems in a client‑facing role (≥2 years)
• Experience preparing for ORR prep cycles (≥3 years)
• Experience pulling, recommending, and managing evidence from the implemented solution to meet CMS Certification requirements (≥2 years)
• Exceptional technical writing experience, including authoring playbooks, manuals, etc. (≥5 years)