Strategic Planning and Performance, Principal

Your Role

The Medical Care Solutions (MCS) Strategic Planning & Performance, Principal will report to the Director, Strategic Planning & Performance. In this role you will be responsible for conducting intake, planning, facilitating implementation activities, tracking progress, calling out risks, driving delivery for our implementation activities, and monitoring performance for activities related to the Medical Care Solutions (MCS) Operations team. You will partner closely with functional leads, the teams that support the implementations, and MCS senior leadership bringing the transparency needed to drive informed decision making. This individual also serves as a liaison for MCS with key stakeholders within the various line of business portfolios. In collaboration with your colleagues, we track and monitor performance and help demonstrate the value proposition for our clinical services.

Our leadership model is about developing great leaders at all levels and creating opportunities for our people to grow – personally, professionally, and financially. We are looking for leaders that are energized by creative and critical thinking, building and sustaining high-performing teams, getting results the right way, and fostering continuous learning.

Your Work

In this role, you will:

• Responsible for facilitating annual strategic planning process for MCS.

• Provide oversight and direction of MCS projects and releases within the portfolio (schedule, issues/risks, budget, resources)

• Collaborate with program and project managers, with matrixed oversight when appropriate on cross-functional teams.

• Work closely with the planning community to ensure all initiatives and work is prioritized and aligned to our larger strategic value streams.

• Track all initiatives and projects that affect MCS.

• Connect the dots between initiatives and departmental goals to ensure cohesion and effective prioritization.

• Provide budgeting support in coordination with MCS’s financial partner as part of the annual budget cycle and as needed

• Provide human resource capacity and development support and coordination with Human Resources

• Consult and make recommendations to senior management on significant issues.

• Ensure program and project delivery, schedule and budget attainment, and effective management of leadership expectations in achieving overall desired outcomes, results, and deliverables

• Track progress against goals including metrics and performance tracking

• Understand the different needs of each of Markets lines of business and work with the team to address issues and escalations as they pertain to our business unit

• Support Markets growth by collaborating and managing information and business responses to communications that support the sales efforts, such as Request for Proposal (RFP) responses by MCS functional areas.

• Manage the flow of information from Enterprise planning to the MCS Business Leaders.

• Educate key stakeholders on how to navigate the planning process to get their projects considered for prioritization.

• Drive collaboration within the team, building and maintaining key stakeholder relationships.

• Manage meeting presentations and speaking points development

• Keep documents and artifacts organized and accessible to MCS leadership, including current prioritization lists.

Your Knowledge and Experience

• Requires a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• Requires 10 years of relevant experience in strategic planning, program management, or business operations.
• Requires mastery level knowledge of job area typically obtained through advanced education combined with experience. May have deep knowledge of project management.
• Requires 5 years of health plan experience and directly working with Medicare, Medi-Cal, Commercial line of business product or implementation work
• Critical thinker, with ability to connect dots to complex matters and act independently.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and proven ability to work effectively with various organizational levels.
• Experience communicating and influencing senior leadership and driving alignment across teams in a matrix environment.
• Skilled in evaluating business cases for clarity, completeness, and accuracy.
• Ability to create clear, compelling presentations and executive-level materials.
• Great team player with a can-do mentality and sense of accountability to ensure the desired results are obtained.
• Excellent at self-organization to prioritize deliverables and manage stakeholder expectations.
• Operates well in a fast-paced environment.
Able to identify emerging issues and risks, and comfortable escalating and raising awareness as needed

Hybrid

This role requires employees to be in-office based on our hybrid workplace model, balancing purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility. For most teams, this means coming into the office two days each week. Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location will work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.

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ABOUT THE TEAM
About Blue Shield of California

As of January 2025, Blue Shield of California became a subsidiary of Ascendiun. Ascendiun is a nonprofit corporate entity that is the parent to a family of organizations including Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan; Altais, a clinical services company; and Stellarus, a company designed to scale healthcare solutions. Together, these organizations are referred to as the Ascendiun Family of Companies.

At Blue Shield of California, our mission is to create a healthcare system worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable. We are transforming health care in a way that genuinely serves our nonprofit mission by lowering costs, improving quality, and enhancing the member and physician experience.

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve. We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Blue Shield is a U.S. News Best Company to work for, a Deloitte U.S. Best Managed Company and a Top 100 Inspiring Workplace. We were recognized by Fair360 as a Top Regional Company, and one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States by Points of Light. Here at Blue Shield, we strive to make a positive change across our industry and communities – join us!

Our Values:

• Honest. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and integrity standards. We build trust by doing what we say we're going to do and by acknowledging and correcting where we fall short.
• Human. We strive to listen and communicate effectively, showing empathy by understanding others' perspectives.
• Courageous. We stand up for what we believe in and are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve our ambitious goals.

Physical Requirements:

Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork - Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.