Research Economist - U.S. Health Policy

About the Hiring Group

RTI International's Department of Health Care Systems Research has an opening for a Research Economist to serve as a task and project leader for evaluation, analysis, design, and implementation of innovative health care delivery policies, programs, and models. As a Research Economist, you will provide cutting-edge analyses that will influence health care policy and health care system innovation, particularly within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Using large health care datasets, you will design, evaluate, and support policies related to health care insurance, payment, and delivery models; managed care; health care financing, costs, utilization, and quality; health insurance coverage and access; prescription drugs; and risk and case-mix adjustment through statistical analysis. You will lead analytic projects as an integral part of a team, apply an in-depth understanding of critical health policy issues and methods, contribute to and lead proposals to funding entities, and publish and present on findings for scientific audiences. Opportunities exist for new and experienced Ph.D.'s and Masters, and economists and policy analysts with relevant experience in academia, government, industry, or consulting. Openings are available immediately, or for positions starting in Spring or Summer 2027. Candidates may choose to work remotely within the United States or out of the Research Triangle Park, NC, office.

What You'll Do

• Lead and/or contribute to quantitative research and evaluation activities on a broad range of health policy and health services research topics.
• Specify and supervise descriptive and statistical analyses of large, complex datasets.
• Succinctly present results for a diverse technical and policy audience.
• Author technical reports, memoranda, articles, documentation, and regulations.
• Ensure high quality and accuracy of work products.
• Develop and manage budgets to achieve goals within available resources.
• Supervise and manage research staff in completing project tasks.
• Communicate and negotiate work plans, timelines, budgets, and results with clients.
• Lead and/or contribute to technical proposals including methodological designs.
• Collaborate with teams of mixed levels of technical skills and experience.
• Develop expertise in several health care policy, research methods, and health care data areas.

What You'll Need

Minimum Qualifications: PhD in economics, health policy, health services research, actuarial science, operations research, finance, or a related quantitative field. Completed coursework and experience with quantitative research. Experience with and skills in advanced micro-econometrics, simulation analysis, and program evaluation. Ability to communicate (both written and verbal) complex ideas and information clearly and precisely to diverse audiences. Ability to collaborate effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team. Proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B visa status, etc.).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience conducting analysis to understand the impact of public programs and other policy interventions.
• Experience with domestic (United States) health policy, particularly Medicare or Medicaid.
• Experience in project, task, timeline, and budget management.
• Experience in designing, developing, and implementing programming code and analysis of very large administrative data sets using open-source programming software and languages (SQL, Python, R) and while maintaining data security and confidentiality, including the development and maintenance of technical programming specifications.
• Experience with designing and executing analysis and processing of large, complex administrative datasets with advanced data analytic and machine learning techniques.
• Experience with or ability to quickly develop expertise in federal agency data processing and computing systems, environments, and requirements.
• Experience with and interest in the following topics: renal disease and policies affecting patients with renal disease, kidney transplantation, and dialysis services; risk adjustment; prescription drug policy; Medicare and Medicaid payment policy, particularly Medicare Advantage, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and Part D; evaluation methods and econometrics.