Associate Vice President, Data Strategy

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is a professional and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients.  The College has more than 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit www.facs.org.

Job Summary: 

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Associate Vice President, Data Strategy to lead and oversee the development and advancement of ACS’s data products.  This includes registries which support hospital quality programs for surgical care, as well as Cancer and Trauma patient care.  This role will be responsible for building and managing a high-performing team, driving innovation, and ensuring the delivery of scalable data management and analytics capabilities and platform solutions (e.g., data pipelines, AI/data science products) to meet business objectives. As a strategic leader, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams to enhance data-driven decision-making, enable data-powered innovations, and ensure data quality, governance, and compliance.

This exempt position will report to the Chief Operating and Revenue Officer in the Division of Executive Services. It is based in our Chicago office and is a hybrid role: 3 days per week in the office/2 days per week remote.

The anticipated salary range for this position is $200,000 - $250,000 (commensurate with related experience).

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Strategy

• Develop and implement a comprehensive clinical data strategy aligned with organizational goals. 
• Build, lead, and mentor a team of data engineers, data scientists, and analysts to drive innovation and operational excellence.
• Partner with executive leadership to identify opportunities to improve products by leveraging data and data science to solve business challenges and improve decision-making.
• Stay abreast of industry data and data science trends including common clinical data models and data standards, data management approaches, and data science including statistics, AI, and machine learning to recommend and implement appropriate technical approaches. 

Data Platform Development

• Oversee the design and implementation of scalable data architectures, pipelines, and platforms to support analytics and data driven use cases.
• Ensure the development and deployment of FAIR data principles including data models and clinical data standards that address key business needs and deliver measurable value with sustainable practices.
• Ensure seamless data integration, data segmentation, and data access across diverse real world data sources including association management systems (AMS), electronic health records (EHRs), clinical registries, and third-party healthcare databases with robust data management capabilities.

Data Science & AI

• Develop data science and analytic capabilities and services to address key business needs using appropriate delivery (e.g., data visualizations, reports, within workflow) and analytic approaches (e.g., descriptive analytics, statistical benchmarking, predictive modeling, generative AI capabilities, natural language processing and other AI/machine learning).
• Champion the use of appropriate “fit for use” analytic capabilities across teams to enhance business processes and outcomes as a data-driven organization.

Governance & Compliance

• Establish and enforce data governance policies and best practices to ensure data integrity, accuracy, security, and compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Monitor and maintain ethical standards in data development and deployment.
• Ensure the responsible and ethical use of data Technologies across the organization.
• Ensure compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, HITRUST, and other healthcare data regulations governing clinical data and emerging clinical AI regulation.

Collaboration & Communication

• Collaborate with IT, Operations, product, and business teams to define requirements and prioritize data projects.
• Serve as a thought leader, providing guidance and insights on data strategies to stakeholders at all levels.
• Present complex technical concepts and results in a clear and actionable manner to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  
  

Qualifications:

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Biomedical or Health Informatics, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in data roles, including at least 3 years in a leadership or management capacity.
• Proven track record of delivering scalable data platforms solutions that drive business impact.
• Strong technical expertise in data architecture, data engineering, and data science (including statistics, AI/machine learning).
• Experience with cloud-based data platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud).
• Excellent understanding of data governance, compliance, and ethical data practices.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with IT and security teams to maintain data privacy, risk management, and cybersecurity best practices.

Preferred

• Demonstrated experience and deep understanding of clinical data, interoperability and reporting requirements. 
• Certification in cloud platforms
• Experience with modern data stack technologies (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, Palantir, Azure Data Lake).
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate teams.  The ability to persuade and influence across the enterprise is critical.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience working with association management software (AMS), clinical data registries, EHR integration, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.
• Familiarity with healthcare quality reporting, value-based care analytics, and policy advocacy data strategies.
• Experience with advanced data management approaches (e.g., master data management including identity management, de-identification approaches, privacy preserving linkages).

Comprehensive Benefits:
We’re committed to attracting and retaining top talent via valuable benefits!

• Vacation, personal, and sick hours including 13 paid holidays per year
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Medical—comprehensive coverage through BlueCross BlueShield
• Dental, Vision, and Prescription drug program
• 403(b) Matching Program
• Pension Plan
• Flexible Spending Medical/Dependent Care
• Employee Assistance Program
• Short Term/Long Term Disability
• Life Insurance
• Domestic Partner Coverage

The American College of Surgeons is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities.  If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to recruitment@facs.org or call (312) 202-5000 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.