Federal Professional Services Manager

Job Description
J2 Interactive is looking for qualified candidates to help us manage strategic projects and client relationships in our federal practice, which spans several key government agencies including VA, DoD, and IHS. Since 2007, we've been delivering large-scale health information exchange and interface engine implementations for regional HIEs, statewide exchanges, private health systems, laboratories, software application vendors, and government agencies. As our team continues to grow past the 130-employee mark, we're looking for talented, experienced healthcare experts with strong leadership and relationship management skills and specific areas in one of our biggest growth areas, the federal space.

Though our headquarters is located in Charlestown (Boston), MA, this is a telecommuting position open to anyone who's eligible to work in the US.

Candidates must be willing to submit to a background check. No recruiters or third party solicitations please.

Skills Description
The ideal candidate is a business-savvy leader who is passionate about healthcare IT and enjoys working with software development and project delivery teams. As one of the primary points of contact for clients, you must have the domain expertise and interpersonal skills to serve as their trusted advisor.

Candidates must have the following:

• 5+ years of experience in public sector healthcare IT delivery (VA, DoD, or IHS strongly preferred) working at a team lead and/or project manager level
• Thorough understanding of federal procurement and project delivery processes
• Demonstrated track record in managing large teams and strategic client relationships
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preference will be given to candidates who have any of the following:

• Subject-matter expertise in healthcare interoperability and health system workflows
• Direct experience with VA T4 / T4NG contracting / subcontracting
• Direct experience with InterSystems technology
• Existing relationships and contacts within the public sector healthcare IT industry

The most important experience we're looking for are in the areas of:

Domain Expertise: Arrive on day one with complete fluency in healthcare IT consulting / contracting for federal government agencies, an ability to represent J2 confidently in conversations, proposals, and negotiations with clients and partners, and a willingness to educate other J2 team members who are new to this space.

Strategic Planning: Engage with clients and service delivery partners at the senior leadership level to understand each opportunity’s unique business drivers, pain points, overall technology landscape, timeline and priorities; understand what success looks like to the client; and most importantly, how our services can help fill that need.

Client Relationships: Grow strong client and partner relationships through regular communication, reliable expectation management, and delivering on promises. Must have a high degree of confidence and comfort gathering and analyzing requirements, writing formal proposals, and negotiating project scope with clients.
Staffing: Identify skill sets and timing for resource needs and help to shepherd resources in and out of client projects. Must embrace a bottom-up management style for staff oversight (managers work for the people they lead -- not the other way around).
Project and Budget Management: Work with clients to define, scope and document statements of work that accurately plan and estimate project work effort. Manage overall timekeeping and budgets and communicate with clients early and often about third-party dependencies and budget risks. Manage client expectations, including effectively adjusting project schedule, scope and deliverables when needed.

We’ll just come out and say it: unfortunately, a lot of people who bill themselves as project managers aren’t able to shoulder all of the responsibilities this job entails. We’re looking for much more than someone who can organize meetings and distribute status reports, though those skills are of course useful. The right person for this job would probably consider most “PM jobs” to be lacking in terms of level of responsibility or intellectual challenge. The person we’re looking for doesn’t necessarily have to be a technical heavyweight, but has to be able to earn the respect of those kinds of people both on the client’s staff and within our own company. He or she needs to be able to demonstrate sustained, proactive leadership -- to drive projects to success, not just observe and report.

Company Description
J2 Interactive is an award-winning software development and IT consulting firm specializing in customized solutions for hospitals, labs, research institutions, and health information exchanges. Our approach to design and development is rooted in a fundamental belief that systems succeed or fail based on how well they serve the people who depend upon them. For our clients in the healthcare industry, that includes doctors, nurses, technicians, and administrative staff ... but ultimately, it means patients and their families.

At J2 we get a lot of satisfaction out of helping our customers succeed, and we want people with that same commitment to getting the job done right. We’re not afraid to give people the responsibility of working directly with clients, defining project specs, and choosing implementation strategies. Our casual work environment and telecommuting options give our staff a high quality of life to go along with the technical and creative challenges of the work itself.

Generally speaking, we are looking to hire full-time, salaried employees. But if you're a freelancer and want to stay that way, we're open to discussing a contract position as long as we can get a stable, predictable full-time commitment from you.