WHA Careers

Director of Member Engagement

Organizational Overview:

The Washington Health Alliance (WHA) is a place where stakeholders work collaboratively to transform Washington state’s health care system for the better. The WHA brings together organizations that share a commitment to drive change in our health care system by offering a forum for critical conversation and aligned efforts by stakeholders: employers and union trusts, providers, health plans, consumers and other health care partners. The WHA believes strongly in transparency and offers trusted and credible reporting of progress on measures of health care quality and value.

The WHA is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2005 with a current staff of 10 and more than 120 member organizations that support the work. Two of the WHA’s key strategies to drive improvement are (1) performance measurement and public reporting, and (2) multi-stakeholder engagement — including but not limited to providers, purchasers, and health plans — in acting to improve the quality, affordability, and access to health care.

The WHA produces the Community Checkup, a comprehensive online resource that provides extensive analysis on medical groups, hospitals, and insurance plans on health care quality, pricing, waste, and spending. The WHA provides member-only and public convenings to address data findings and other opportunities to drive efforts to achieve equitable access, quality, and affordability in our health care system.

Reporting Relationship: This position reports to the Executive Director of the Washington Health Alliance. It is a full-time position. Hours are generally Monday-Friday, 8 am to 5 pm.

Overview: The Director of Member Engagement is a key position in leading, supporting, engaging and activating the purchasers of healthcare into making action-oriented decisions through the WHA’s Purchaser Affinity Group – one of four, member advisory committees. In addition, this individual will play the lead role in the organization’s overall strategy and goals focused on engaging employers and union trusts to make benefit and health care purchasing choices that ensure high quality, affordable care for their plan participants and all Washingtonians. This individual will work to attract new members and develop new initiatives from the purchaser’s perspective. This director will play an important leadership role in planning and executing projects and events.

The WHA is a small organization that does very visible and significant work in the state and is recognized nationally as a leader in multi-stakeholder work and analytics. This individual will be expected to work collaboratively across the entire WHA team to successfully support purchaser strategies, as well as provide support for initiatives led by other team members that are essential to our success. This includes colleagues with responsibility for data and analytics, communications, care transformation, finance, and office coordination.

The successful individual in this position will have a passion for improving healthcare through purchaser activation and will:

• Have extensive experience working with health care purchasers, including employers and union trusts, with a proven track record of motivating collective change and improving care through deployment of strategic initiatives such as benefit changes, introducing new payment models and the like.
• Have a proven track record building business through persuasive and engaging communications.
• Demonstrate strong leadership and collaboration attributes, possess self-awareness, and a sense of humor.
• Think outside the box and generate new product ideas that will maintain the WHA’s leadership role and competitive position in the state of Washington and will further our work nationally and with external funders.
• Have strong writing and speaking skills and be comfortable and facile in communicating results and initiatives in public settings.
• Have experience, content knowledge and a quick study approach to readily understand and converse about the mission, vision and work of the WHA, as well as health care delivery and performance in Washington state.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and staff support to the Purchaser Affinity Group, a large group of purchaser leaders representing employers and union trusts seeking to work collectively to drive market change.

‣ Develop and support WHA efforts to engage purchaser organizations to agree on key strategic initiatives and to make progress on them.
‣ Develop and plan educational forums and communication strategies that promote collaborative learning and sharing of successful strategies for purchaser members.
‣ Develop and implement strategies for member retention and recruitment with the Executive Director
‣ Lead the Health Plan Spotlight bi-annual process to evaluate health plan performance and facilitate conversations between purchasers and participating health plans to discuss results and motivate change.

• Engage with current and prospective Alliance members to better understand their needs/desires and introduce them to relevant Alliance benefits and programs with the goals of increasing member satisfaction and retention and securing new members.  Articulate the hard and soft Return on Investment associated with membership.
• Develop a plan for recruiting new members based on an analysis of target populations and strategic fit.  Proactively identify prospects and recruit new members to join the Alliance from employers and union trusts, health care provider organizations, and other stakeholder sectors, as defined.
• Based on knowledge from the field, offer suggestions on ways to refine marketing collateral focused on member recruitment, retention and sponsorships in collaboration with the Executive Director and Senior Communications Manager.
• Work with the WHA leadership team to identify and secure new revenue-generating opportunities (potential grants, contracts) that align with the mission of the WHA and contribute to the value of membership.
• Manage sponsorship revenue and provide project leadership to create programming, communications, and/or workgroups focused on supporting purchasers to be better informed buyers of health care and setting value-based plan design.

• Direct supervision of:

‣ Administration and project management at the WHA as it pertains to the role of the Administrative Services Manager.

• Represent the WHA on relevant committees and/or Boards as assigned and at events of member and partner organizations through speaking engagements and other visible marketing opportunities.
• Engage with state and national legislative and health agency leaders to inform policy conversations through convening, analyses, and reports.
• Follow the latest industry developments and stay current in marketplace changes, particularly for those who buy care at an organizational and/or individual level.
• Exhibit adept social selling skills through leveraging current networks and cultivating audiences.
• Prioritize multiple tasks intelligently, speak up when you see issues and opportunities, and make a positive contribution to our culture.
• Perform other responsibilities as assigned by the Executive Director.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and 10 years or more of experience demonstrating progressive advancement in health benefits, operations, administration, or consulting.
• This is a relationship-driven position, therefore excellent interpersonal skills and a bias towards action are a must.

Preferred candidates will also have the following qualifications:

• Exceptional critical thinking and analytical skills, including the ability to translate research and analytic work for a variety of audiences.
• Excellent written and verbal (customer presentation) communication skills and a demonstrated ability to network with all levels in an organization to develop long-term membership relationships and to deliver:

‣ Well-written articles, memos, reports, etc.;
‣ Clear, well-organized presentations on health topics to audiences (primarily purchaser) with widely varied backgrounds and levels of understanding; and,
‣ Products and services that represent a meaningful value-proposition for purchaser members and drive strong multi-stakeholder buy-in to further the mission and vision of the WHA.

  • Understand current issues in health care and efforts underway in the state and nationally to support transformation, employee/member communications and value-based purchasing models and tools from a purchaser perspective.
• Understand the Washington state health care delivery system, including integrated delivery systems, medical groups, hospitals, and health insurers.
• The ability to work well on teams and be self-directed with demonstrated organizational and project management skills and the ability to effectively work on several complex, multi-part projects simultaneously.
• Strong interpersonal skills and poise in working with senior leaders from multiple stakeholder organizations, including purchasers, payers, health plans and consumer groups.
• A successful track record of supporting and guiding committees and doing the work as well as driving and completing tangible work products.
• Flexibility, a helpful, can-do attitude, and a sense of humor.
• Proficiency in computer technology (PC-Windows preferred), including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as a variety of virtual meeting platforms, including Teams and Zoom.

Reports to: Executive Director

FTE: 1.0 full time, exempt

Working conditions:

The Seattle-based office is currently operating on a hybrid remote and in-office basis.

Planned Salary Range:  $135,000 – $175,000, based on skills and experience.

This position offers a unique opportunity to join a well-respected organization committed to transforming the health care system in Washington. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, disability, or protected veteran status.

Please send cover letter and resume to: info@washingtonhealthalliance.org

Please, no unsolicited phone inquiries.  We are unable to consider resumes that do not meet a significant number of qualifications listed above.