Senior Care Researcher

U.S. News & World Report is a multifaceted digital media company dedicated to helping citizens, consumers, business leaders and policy officials make important decisions in their lives. We publish independent reporting, rankings, data journalism and advice that has earned the trust of our readers and users for nearly 90 years. Our platforms on usnews.com include Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars, News and 360 Reviews.

We reach more than 40 million people monthly during moments when they are most in need of expert advice and motivated to act on that advice directly on our platforms. Our signature franchises include our “Best” series of consumer guides on colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, nursing homes, senior living communities and more. These guides provide an easy-to-digest list for consumers to better understand and compare when making their decisions. We continue to publish annual guides of the authoritative Best Colleges and Best Hospitals rankings on our website and in print. And our U.S. News Live flagship conferences highlight important national conversations including Healthcare of Tomorrow and Healthiest Communities.

We believe in having a broad range of talent and backgrounds at U.S. News. We strive to maintain a welcoming workplace where everyone is given an opportunity to succeed and contribute to their fullest. Learn more about our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative.

Your role in helping us shape the future:

U.S. News & World Report is seeking a Senior Care Researcher to lead the refinement of its Best Senior Living, Best Nursing Homes and Best Insurance Companies for Medicare Advantage ratings and develop new ratings to help U.S. seniors and their families make more informed healthcare choices. You will work with data from private vendors and government sources, write and refine programming code to manage and analyze these data sets, construct publication-ready data outputs, and advocate for the company’s needs in discussions with its data providers. The analytical methodologies you develop and implement will produce ratings that thousands to millions of Americans may use to help them make data-driven life decisions.

In addition to getting significant public visibility, the results of your work will be closely followed by diverse stakeholders, including the service providers we evaluate. You will have opportunities to engage with healthcare executives, researchers and clinicians, and your work will drive change in healthcare.

On a day to day basis, you will write and review code to manage large data sets, research novel data sets to assess usability, develop and refine quality measures and methodologies, and collaborate with other members of the data analytics team. Following project timelines, you’ll deliver finished data sets to our Senior Care segment product team for publication on usnews.com. You will report to the Chief of Healthcare Analytics and work closely with the Product Director for the Senior Care segment as well as the segment’s web development team. Only local candidates to the Washington, DC area will be considered for this role.

Are you up to the challenge?

• You demonstrate ability to and interest in understanding the senior care ecosystem, from both the consumer and the provider perspective
• You’ll proactively stay on top of regulatory changes and industry trends
• You have (or will develop) an understanding of which metrics matter and why
• You’re prepared to represent U.S. News’s senior care ratings both internally and externally, to both consumer and provider audience
• You’re prepared to work with external stakeholders, including data providers, to refine operational processes and identify / evaluate potential new data source
• You’re prepared to work with internal teams to define and fine tune data pipelines and quality assurance processes
• You write clean, well-documented code to manage and analyze large data sets
• You have experience reading and interpreting code you didn’t write
• You respond well to constructive peer review of your code, and you help peers improve their own code
• You are always thinking of processes that can make a team more efficient and effective
• You are able to work on multiple projects at the same time and prioritize your time appropriately
• You value diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and approaches
• You respectfully challenge the status quo when necessary to produce better results

Requirements

You should have:

• Three years to five years of similar or related experience.
• Master’s degree or multiple years of professional experience in epidemiology, biostatistics, health services research, health economics or similar quantitative field
• A high degree of comfort with cleaning and managing of data sets containing millions of records
• A grasp of modeling and statistical principles relevant to quality measurement
• Ability to cultivate collaborative relationships with peers and senior leaders
• Ability to communicate methods concepts to people with non-technical backgrounds internally and externally
• High level of proficiency in Stata, Python, SAS and/or R. You’ll work with existing code in Stata and R
• Attention to detail, strong communication, organizational and time management skills

It would be nice if you had:

• Experience with customer satisfaction or patient experience surveys
• Experience analyzing Medicare claims or other administrative healthcare data sets
• Experience collecting and validating primary data
• Subject matter knowledge of senior care

What it’s like to work with us:

We are a team-oriented workplace. We invest in people with passion and potential who understand U.S. News’ dedication to the millions of people who use information we publish.

• An entrepreneurial, mission-driven culture with core values of quality and integrity
• Focus on fostering teamwork and personal and professional growth
• Competitive benefits including paid vacation time, medical, tuition reimbursement, and training
• Collaborative work environment ~ fun, diverse, inclusive and ambitious co-workers

Other Job Info:

• Applicants must submit a Cover Letter and either a CV or Resume to be considered.
• Location: Washington, DC. You will work a hybrid schedule with multiple days per week in the Washington, DC office.
• These statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this job. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees assigned to this job.
• U.S. News & World Report strongly encourages all employees to be fully vaccinated (including boosters).
• The anticipated base salary for this position is $75,000 to $90,000. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, interview performance, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.