Managing Director, Health

AIR’s Health Division is seeking a Managing Director who will provide intellectual leadership and expertise in health policy, health economics, and program evaluation; bring entrepreneurial talent to identify and pursue new business opportunities; cultivate strong client relationships; provide leadership and skills to recruit new staff and mentor existing staff; and exhibit the commitment and style to work collaboratively with other researchers and senior leaders at AIR.

This position has the flexibility to work remotely within the United States (U.S.) or from one of our U.S. office locations. This does not include U.S. territories. 

About AIR:

Established in 1946, with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, AIR is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance to solve some of the most urgent challenges in the U.S. and around the world. We advance evidence in the areas of education, health, the workforce, human services, and international development to create a better, more equitable world.

Responsibilities:

The responsibilities for the position include:

• Working as a thought leader and content expert across health policy topics, including:
• contributing to the vision for AIR’s future work, knowing trends and market opportunities, and working with other division leaders to create and execute a plan to grow new work with federal, state, and foundation clients.
• leading and supporting project directors in conceptualizing research and evaluation studies and ensuring high quality implementation of research projects for federal, state, and foundation clients and funders.
• Working with AIR’s program area leadership and functional leadership to create business development strategy for established areas and specific new areas of growth identify new opportunities, including:
• coordinating pursuit plans and pipelines across a set of federal, state, and foundation funders.
• assisting program area leadership teams in making bid/no-bid decisions.
• leading and supporting pursuits of new opportunities, conceptualizing bid strategy and research plans, contributing to proposal writing, and conducting critical technical reviews of major proposals.
• nurturing relationships with potential partners and existing funders and building new funder relationships.
• monitoring existing work with clients and funders, to ensure that the right capabilities are brought to bear on new pursuits and to have a sense of strengths and potential challenges.
• monitoring staff capacity to work on projects and new pursuits with those clients and funders.
• Leading research studies and mentoring staff to successfully lead and contribute to health unit studies as an advisor, Principal Investigator, and/or Project Director, including:
• integrating effective project management and quality methods to manage complex projects, including effective management of budget, quality, client, and project staff.
• mentoring staff to integrate effective project management and quality methods.
• communicating regularly with clients and internal team members to gather feedback, sustain project momentum, and respond to needs.
• conducting quality reviews of project deliverables and supporting project teams to communicate research plans and findings clearly.
• Conducting a variety of activities with staff and AIR’s Communications Department to foster external visibility and contribute to AIR’s preeminence in health policy research, including presentations at major conferences, publications, visits with clients, etc.
• Fosters an environment that values a wide range of perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, and individual strengths.
• Effectively coaches and manages others to promote their development; sets developmental goals and measurements for staff.
• Oversee staff assignments and workload distribution to balance capacity, ensure effective project execution, and build organizational capabilities aligned with program and business needs.

Qualifications:

Education, Knowledge, and Experience:

• PhD or MA in a substantive area such as health economics, public health, public policy, or a related social science discipline with expert