This is a remote position.

Position Summary

The Senior Business Analyst leads the Business Support Team ? the policy, requirements, analytics, and documentation engine of the FFSDCS contract. The role exists because the FFSDCS supports three distinct Medicare Part B payment programs (Average Sales Price, Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, and the new Ambulance Fee Schedule data collection under BBA 2018 50203(b)), each with its own statute, rulemaking cadence, stakeholder community, certification workflow, and analytic output. No single person can hold all of that depth. The Senior BA orchestrates four fractional Subject Matter Experts to cover the policy surface area, two analysts to produce the data outputs CMS pays this contract to deliver, and a working rhythm that keeps the BST producing predictably even when ASP, CLFS, and Ambulance reporting peaks collide.

The Senior BA is the operational lieutenant to the Functional Lead, the business-side peer to the Lead Technical Developer, and the originator of nearly every artifact CMS receives from this contract that is not infrastructure or code. They sit on the Core Central Team and represent the BST to the COR, the Business Owner, the Business Owner Representative, and ? where appropriate ? directly to the stakeholder reporter community.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Capacity Management

? Directly supervise the six-person BST: four fractional SMEs (Part B, Ground Ambulance, CLFS, and the fourth SME slot once finalized), the Senior Data Analyst, and the BI/Reports Analyst.

? Manage capacity across the four 0.5-FTE SMEs whose availability must flex to match three independent reporting cycles: ASP quarterly, CLFS quarterly with a major reporting period every three years (next Jan?Mar 2020), and Ambulance annual beginning January 2021.

? Build and own the BST operating rhythm: weekly intake triage, sprint or work-cycle planning aligned to the Systems Team, monthly capacity forecast, and proactive surge planning before each reporting peak.

? Develop the BST staff: performance management, individual development plans, succession planning for the fractional SME pool, and knowledge transfer to reduce single-person dependencies.

? Recruit and onboard BST staff in partnership with the Project Manager and Contracts; ensure all BST staff clear the OCI screening required by Q&A #9 prior to data access.

SME Orchestration & Policy Knowledge Management

? Match the right SME to the right policy question, requirement, defect, or change request ? including for cross-cutting issues where two SMEs must collaborate.

? Own a unified policy knowledge base spanning Section 1847A (ASP), PAMA 2014 (CLFS), and BBA 2018 50203(b) (Ambulance); maintain it as authoritative reference for the Systems Team, Customer Support Team, and CMS.

? Translate SME tacit knowledge into reusable artifacts: business rules registry, decision logs, policy interpretation memos, edge-case catalogs, and a controlled business glossary.

? Monitor the annual CMS Physician Fee Schedule rulemaking cycle and other CMS regulatory channels; drive early SME assessment of operational impact before each Proposed Rule comment closes.

? Mediate SME disagreements when policy interpretations conflict; escalate unresolved policy ambiguity to the Functional Lead and Business Owner with a documented options analysis.

Requirements Operations

? Run the day-to-day requirements pipeline: intake, triage, prioritization, elaboration, traceability, and closeout. The Functional Lead owns the SRD/RTM at the contract baseline; the Senior BA executes the work that keeps both current.

? Lead requirements elicitation for the Ambulance Module against the final CMS survey instrument; design and validate the screener-driven skip-logic patterns described in Q&A #6 (e.g., emergency-only vs. non-emergency-only, ground vs. air ambulance subsets).

? Manage change requests originating from CMS, annual rulemaking, helpdesk escalations (Customer Support Team), and internal quality findings; run the impact analysis with the appropriate SME and the Lead Technical Developer.

? Lead User Acceptance Testing planning and execution across all three modules; staff UAT cycles with SMEs and analysts; certify UAT exit to the Functional Lead and the Project Manager.

? Maintain the business process model and ensure technical design decisions remain consistent with policy intent.

Analytics & Reporting Leadership

? Direct the Senior Data Analyst and BI/Reports Analyst as the analytics function of the contract.

? Own delivery of the analytic file outputs from each module ? per Q&A #8, the analytic file is the primary downstream deliverable from the Ambulance Module and a comparable analytic surface is expected for ASP and CLFS.

? Own production reports on data completeness, quality metrics, reporter compliance status, and submission timeliness ? including reports supporting the 10% payment reduction enforcement for non-reporting sampled ambulance providers beginning January 1, 2022.

? Coordinate ad hoc analytic requests from CMS, including OIG inputs for ASP comparison studies and MedPAC inputs supporting the March 15, 2023 Report to Congress on ambulance payment adequacy.

? Govern the BI tooling: dashboard catalog, refresh cadence, access control, and data definitions consistent with the business glossary.

Reporting-Cycle Coordination

? Maintain the master cross-module reporting-cycle calendar; flag collisions to the Project Manager at least one quarter ahead of impact.

? Coordinate the ASP quarterly cycle: 30-day submission window communications, drug manufacturer outreach, and the recalculation cycle for corrected data.

? Coordinate the CLFS cycle: Submitter/Certifier One-Time Password handoff workflow, major reporting period readiness (next: Jan?Mar 2020), and quarterly maintenance reporting.

? Coordinate the Ambulance cycle: annual data collection logistics for the sampled population (no more than 50% of approximately 11,000 providers/suppliers per cycle, and not in two consecutive years where practicable), hardship exemption workflow, and informal review process.

Stakeholder Engagement & Customer Support Integration

? Serve as the BST face to the CMS COR, Business Owner, and Business Owner Representative on operational matters; back the Functional Lead in policy and design conversations.

? Coordinate with the Customer Support Team Lead on knowledge-base content, escalation patterns, recurring helpdesk themes, and feedback loops that turn helpdesk volume into requirements.

? Coordinate stakeholder communications with the reporter community: drug manufacturers, applicable laboratories, and ground ambulance providers and suppliers ? webinars, FAQs, advance-notice communications for new reporting periods, and post-cycle debriefs.

? Represent BST output to OIG (for ASP comparison studies), MedPAC (for ambulance Report to Congress inputs), and any IV&V contractor engaged by CMS.

Documentation & Training

? Own update and release of the User Manual and Operator Manual for each system release including emergency releases (SOW Activity 5.D and 5.E).

? Maintain the Quick Reference Guide, FAQ, glossary, and release-notes narrative for the user community.

? Lead Training Plan development and execution per SOW Activity 5; coordinate trainers (in-team or surge) and training delivery in partnership with the Project Manager.

? Ensure all BST-produced documentation meets Section 508 accessibility standards (36 CFR Part 1194.22 for web content and 1194.31 for software documentation).

Core Central Team Participation

? Participate in the Core Central Team as a peer to the Systems, Customer Support, and Operations team leads; jointly own contract-wide operational decisions, release governance, and risk management.

? Provide BST input to the Project Manager's Monthly Status Report, the IT Project Management Report, and the Microsoft Project work plan.

? Surface inter-team friction early; mediate where possible and escalate to the Project Manager when warranted.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

? Education: Bachelor's degree in Health Policy, Public Health, Health Administration, Business Administration, Information Systems, or a related field. Master's in Public Health, Health Administration, Public Policy, or Business Administration strongly preferred.

? Total Experience: Minimum 10 years of business analysis, requirements management, or functional leadership experience on enterprise IT systems, including at least 7 years in federal healthcare or federal financial systems.

? Team Leadership Experience: Minimum 3 years directly supervising a multidisciplinary business support, business analyst, or analytics team of 5 or more staff.

? Fractional / Matrixed Team Management ? CRITICAL: Demonstrable experience managing capacity across part-time, fractional, or matrixed contributors whose availability is split across competing priorities. This is the single hardest aspect of the role and the qualification most likely to predict failure if missing.

? Concurrent Reporting Cycles: Documented experience coordinating two or more independent reporting or production cycles that periodically collide (quarterly, annual, and event-triggered).

? Medicare Part B Policy Familiarity: Working knowledge of at least one Medicare Part B payment system. Strong preference for direct exposure to one or more of: Section 1847A and ASP methodology; PAMA 2014 and the CLFS data collection; BBA 2018 50203(b) and the Ambulance Fee Schedule.

? Requirements Practice: Mastery of structured requirements practice ? elicitation, traceability, business process modeling, business rules management, and UAT design. Hands-on with requirements management tools (Jama, IBM DOORS, Jira/Confluence, or equivalent).

? Analytics Leadership: Demonstrated ability to direct data analysts and BI analysts; conceptual fluency with relational data, SQL, and BI tooling (Tableau, Power BI, or comparable) sufficient to challenge and validate analyst output.

? CMS Standards: Working knowledge of the CMS Expedited Life Cycle (XLC), CFACTS, and CMS documentation conventions; ability to author or supervise authoring of XLC artifacts including the SRD, RTM, business process model, User Manual, and Operator Manual.

? Section 508: Working knowledge of Section 508 standards as applied to documentation and web-content deliverables (36 CFR Part 1194.22 and .31).

? Executive Communication: Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly with federal senior executives, contracting officers, and CMS Business Owners ? and to translate equally well downward to analysts and SMEs.

? OCI: Must pass OCI screening per Q&A #9; no current or recent commercial or financial relationship with Part B drug manufacturers, applicable clinical laboratories, or ground ambulance providers/suppliers.

Preferred Qualifications

? Prior direct experience with the FFSDCS, ASP data collection, CLFS data collection, or a comparable CMS data collection system.

? Familiarity with the annual CMS Physician Fee Schedule rulemaking cycle and its operational impact on production systems.

? Survey design and instrument validation experience (directly applicable to the Ambulance Module per Q&A #6 and #7).

? Working knowledge of the heterogeneity of the ground ambulance industry ? emergency vs. non-emergency, governmental vs. private, for-profit vs. non-profit, rural vs. non-rural ? per Q&A #7.

? Familiarity with OIG ASP comparison studies and the MedPAC reporting process.

? Familiarity with the CMS Cloud (AWS) operating environment and the cadence of AWS-based release management.

? Certifications: CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional), PMI-PBA (Professional in Business Analysis), or IIBA-AAC (Agile Analysis Certification). PMP a plus, though not the primary credential for this role.

Benefits