Position Description

The Research Data Manager Specialist reports to the Health Care Policy (HCP) Department Data Manager and works with highly confidential regulated healthcare data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other healthcare providers, insurers, state, and federal sources. These data form the foundation for HCP's research and publications. The positions core focus will be the organization, management, and optimization of HCP’s data warehouse for CMS data, enabling ease of use and access by HCP faculty, biostatisticians, analysts, and students.

The role will serve as a gatekeeper for the HCP secure regulated data environment, enduring download requests meet all cell suppression and deidentification of personal health identifier criteria. They will guide researchers through the Data Safety research compliance process, advising on research data management best practices that comply with Harvard information technology security policies.

They provide support and training resources related to regulated data while collaborating with faculty investigators and analysts to ensure compliance with data use agreement requirements and Harvard data security policies. The Research Data Manager Specialist maintains the metadata and documentation repository for all data resources in the Center for Healthcare Data Analytics (CHDA). In addition, they will serve as the point knowledge specialist for HCP data resources and data analysis software, as well as help analysts solve connection and coding issues in collaboration with HCP information technology support staff.

Responsibilities include:

• Perform extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes for research identifiable files from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data. Work may include creating project-specific analytic data sets from the master data resources.
• Reviews output and data extract download requests from the CHDA regulated data environment for cell suppression and personal health information.
• Investigates data issues related to the regulated and public use data sets.
• Support faculty research goals with use of highly confidential research data including curation and linking of public use files with the CMS data
• Provide orientation and one-on-one training for users of the regulated environment including collaborating with HCP and HMS help desks to navigate user’s identity and access connection issues.
• Maintains user group collaborations through internal websites and Microsoft Teams.
• Supports the HCP onboarding and offboarding process including implementation of enhancements to the database application in Microsoft Power Apps and Automate.
• Must be able to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical staff about HCP data issues and usage, converting complex data into understandable recommendations, visualizations, and written reports.

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of two years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience

Additional Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelors degree with 2+ years of relevant experience in data management, data governance, and/or statistical analysis.
• 2+ years of coding with statistical software or data science applications.
• Experience in managing individually identifiable and high-risk confidential information. Strong technical skills using SAS, SQL, Stata, R, Phython, or other scripting languages profilling of large datasets to assess data quality and identify issues, inconsistencies, and missing data.
• Demonstration of strong analytical, organizational, and task management skills.
• Experience with medical claims data resources, such as Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) data, insurance claims data, or other electronic health record data.
• Ability to handle confidential information with high discretion.
• Experience working large datasets in a variety of formats, understanding of different file structures, relational databases, and able to extract and transform to analytic sets.
• Experience with Microsoft products, especially Teams, SharePoint, and Excel, as well as developing workflows in Power Automate or application in Power Apps is desirable.
• Experience with Unix/Linux command line interfaces.
• Understanding of data models, taxonomy, and an appreciation of data standards, organization and quality.
• Aptitude for and interest in acquiring new development skills and learning new software/programming languages to support research teams evolving needs.
• Customer service experience demonstrating a customer-focused, results-oriented attitude and an ability to successfully negotiate and collaborate with others of different skillsets, backgrounds, and levels within HU.
• Understanding of data compliance policies and regulations (e.g., HIPPA) related to working with medical claims data, electronic health records, and other sensitive personal health information.
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills, both written and verbal. Comfortable with knowledge sharing among both technical and bob-technical research staff.
• Ability to work independently while finding solutions to problems in collaboration with small research teams. 

Additional Information

Harvard University continues to place the highest priority on the health, safety, and well-being of its faculty, staff, and students, as well as the wider community. Please note that all new employees will be required to complete an attestation of having received their primary series COVID-19 vaccination prior to hire, as detailed on our COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement Webpage. Individuals may request exemption from the vaccine requirement for medical or religious reasons prior to completing the hiring process. Additional information regarding this requirement, exemptions, verification of vaccination status, and other related policies and resources may be found on the University’s COVID-19 Information Website.

Please note that we are currently conducting a majority of interviews and onboarding remotely and virtually. We appreciate your understanding.

The Harvard Medical School is not able to provide visa sponsorship for this position.

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Commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

We are committed to cultivating an inclusive workplace culture of faculty, staff, and students with diverse backgrounds, styles, abilities, and motivations. We appreciate and leverage the capabilities, insights, and ideas of all individuals. Harvard Medical School Mission and Community Values
 

EEO Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.