Senior Product Analyst

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Partner with leaders to understand strategic business projects impacting market research and/or market-focused strategies
• Demonstrate understanding of applicable business strategies/goals and how they can be addressed by research efforts
• Secondary Research Capabilities & Vendor Management Program
  • Secondary Research Vendor Management Program: Lead the overall secondary research vendor management program in collaboration with other secondary research vendor relationship owners. Develop, maintain and apply knowledge of a variety of primary and secondary research resources (e.g., government data, subscription data, media, third-party vendors)
  • Secondary Research Vendor Relationship Manager: Own, maintain, and develop the relationship with several secondary research vendors for our team
  • Vendor Value & Capabilities: Develop and communicate perspective on value and capabilities of each secondary research vendor across our portfolio
  • Secondary Research Vendor AI Capabilities: Understand how our secondary research vendors leverage AI in their services and collaborate with our internal research AI Capabilities lead
  • Resource Usage, Awareness, & Optimization: Conduct consistent usage analysis on secondary research resources to ensure optimization of the resources available to the team and across the Enterprise
  • Identify New Secondary Research Resources & Capabilities: Facilitate use of new and emerging tools and methodologies for all marketing research initiatives
  • Contract Processing & Negotiation: In collaboration with procurement, own and negotiate contracts and terms of service with vendors to secure the best possible rates and service levels. Ensure all agreements are documented and that contract language aligns with how the vendor is leveraged and resources are used
  • Vendor Performance Monitoring: Regularly review vendor performance against agreed-upon metrics and service level agreements (SLAs). Address any performance issues promptly and work with vendors to implement corrective actions
  • Compliance and Risk Management: In collaboration with procurement, ensure that all vendor activities comply with relevant regulations, ethical standards, and company policies. Mitigate risks associated with vendor management through proactive planning and oversight
  • Core Program Documents & Internal Communication: Develop, maintain, and communicate core documents within the secondary research vendor function. Have a clear strategy to manage up and across the team for optimal program and resource awareness
  • Market Research Knowledge & Team Needs: Understand the function and needs of an insights/market research team
  • Partner with colleagues and leaders to understand strategic business priorities and projects impacting market research and/or market-focused strategies. Demonstrate understanding of applicable business strategies/goals and how they can be addressed by research efforts
• Internal & External Relationship Building & Management:
  • Develop trusting relationships with vendors to inform our market research and help improve our understanding of the customer experience (e.g., needs, relevance, meaningfulness)
  • Foster relationships with external stakeholders to expand and support our understanding of the market (e.g., research vendors, suppliers, consultants, professional associations, educational institutions)
  • Cultivate relationships with applicable internal business partners to drive support, understanding and collaboration on our market research and competitive analysis efforts (e.g., Marketing, Product Management, Growth/Sales, Operations, Legal/Compliance, Procurement)
  • Gain alignment/commitment with business leaders on research and intelligence objectives, strategies and initiatives (e.g., development and execution of market research efforts)
• Vendor and Operations Support
  • Research Productivity Tools: Understand, manage, and train the team on research productivity tools available to them. Manage related contracts and seats for these tools
  • Invoicing Operations: Understand internal invoicing process and systems (Concur & Ariba) and answer team’s ad hoc questions as needed, QA internal invoice tracker, and submit AP requests on behalf of team related to vendor invoicing/payment maintenance
  • Contribute to ad hoc operations needs or project
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Graduate/ post-graduate degree
• Experience leading operational initiatives
• Experience with senior stakeholder management and executive conversations, written and verbal, both internal and external
• Experience in thriving in ambiguity and driving strategy in a fast-paced, constantly evolving environment, including solid executive presence
• Proven excellent project management, problem-solving/analysis, written/verbal communication and people skills, including domain expertise in operations.
• Ability to work independently and is self-directed
• Understands nuances
• Easily identifies solutions to non-standard requests and problems
• Solid in relationship-building

Preferred Qualification:

• Experience with Microsoft Office tools (e.g. Word, PPT, Excel, etc.)

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone – of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income – deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes – an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.