Policy and Strategy Specialist

About the Organization

Activate Care works to advance health equity and improve outcomes nationwide. Its Community Care Record platform, Care Link, helps healthcare and community organizations coordinate care for people facing health-related social needs (HRSN). The company also offers Path Assist, a technology-enabled Community Health Worker program that uses a structured, evidence-based approach to address those needs. The broader aim is to close unmet social needs, strengthen health confidence and self-efficacy, and lower avoidable healthcare spending.

Role Summary

The Policy and Market Strategy Specialist contributes to Activate Care’s growth by blending expertise in Medicaid and Medicare policy with market intelligence, public-sector opportunity tracking, and strategic coordination. The role monitors federal and state policy, waivers, public funding, procurement activity, payer priorities, and emerging Medicaid/Medicare trends, then turns that information into clear briefs, recommendations, opportunity pipelines, and project plans.

This person helps identify where Activate Care’s products, care models, workforce capabilities, and technology offerings fit with policy opportunities, regulatory constraints, public funding, and market demand. The role is expected to act as a trusted strategic partner who translates policy shifts into practical guidance that supports equitable access to care and helps the company stay ahead of regulatory change.

Key Responsibilities

• Advise strategic planning efforts by tracking and interpreting state and federal health insurance markets and regulations, including Medicaid plans, managed care, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, D-SNPs, waivers, pilots, innovative care models, value-based payment, risk contracts, and quality measures.
• Assess how policy changes may affect growth strategy, service models, proposals, products, and client opportunities.
• Build product-market fit analyses such as landscape reviews, trend scans, policy briefs, regulatory summaries, and funding-authority research for new markets, active projects, and long-term planning.
• Support Community Needs Assessments, Community Health Assessments, and equity-related work by interpreting Medicaid policy, state flexibility, coverage rules, local programs, and available community assets.
• Determine what health plans, providers, state agencies, and community partners can realistically implement within current policy, funding, benefit, and regulatory structures.
• Maintain a structured pipeline of public-sector opportunities, including RFPs, RFIs, state funding opportunities, waiver activity, Rural Health Transformation Program items, and new Medicaid or Medicare initiatives.
• Create and operate rapid-response processes to monitor state websites, procurement portals, policy updates, public notices, and agency communications for aligned opportunities.
• Research policy and market trends across Medicaid, Medicare, D-SNP, rural health, behavioral health, maternal health, reentry, social care, value-based care, and at-risk provider segments.
• Draft short opportunity summaries that combine policy background, funding source, eligibility, customer or agency need, population impact, strategic alignment, feasibility, and next steps.
• Support go/no-go decisions by evaluating policy feasibility, operational impact, public funding fit, and alignment with company capabilities and strategy.
• Coordinate Rural Health Transformation Program opportunities and related state or federal funding efforts.
• Act as project manager for selected rural health and public-funding workstreams, including timelines, deliverables, internal contributors, decision points, and leadership reporting.
• Help prepare concept notes, proposal inputs, partner briefs, and executive recommendations tied to rural health transformation and other public funding opportunities.
• Work with Sales/Growth, Marketing, Product, Solutions, Finance, Operations, Technology, and Strategy teams to decide whether an opportunity should move into proposal development, care model development, partnership exploration, or be closed out.
• Guide a New Concept Incubator process for proposed products and solutions, including intake, research, documentation, and decision support with internal stakeholders.
• Evaluate new technology products, care models, workforce models, and service innovations through policy research, regulatory review, public funding analysis, strategic-fit review, and operational feasibility assessment.
• Develop or contribute to opportunity analysis briefs covering assumptions, policy and regulatory landscape, potential customers, market context, implementation feasibility, likely costs, time-to-market, and recommendations.
• Maintain related tools and workspaces such as Google Forms, Monday.com boards, Notion pages, templates, decision trees, and Slack channels.
• Support semi-annual Strategic Initiatives meetings by preparing materials, follow-up documentation, Monday.com tracking, and status updates for initiative sponsors.
• Shape market targeting strategy for priority populations such as incarcerated reentry groups, complex medical and disabled populations, pregnant women, infants, children, and other focus segments.
• Partner with Marketing by supplying policy context, regulatory feasibility, funding analysis, and Medicaid/Medicare intelligence that can improve positioning, messaging, and sales enablement.
• Support proposal strategy and content with policy summaries, market context, opportunity rationale, regulatory language, and strategic recommendations.
• Share policy and market insights with Product and Technology teams to inform roadmap discussions, solution design, and platform differentiation.
• Perform additional responsibilities as needed.

Requirements

• A master’s degree in healthcare policy, public health, healthcare administration, public administration, business, or a closely related discipline is preferred.
• Five to seven years of experience in healthcare policy, Medicaid/Medicare strategy, public-sector healthcare consulting, health plan strategy, market research, healthcare innovation, or similar work.
• Hands-on knowledge of publicly funded insurance programs, including Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, D-SNPs, Medicaid managed care, state waivers, CMMI priorities, value-based care, and quality measurement.
• Experience with policy analysis, Medicaid landscape research, waiver tracking, public funding analysis, competitive scans, opportunity assessments, or business-case development.
• Background coordinating cross-functional projects, strategic initiatives, opportunity pipelines, or fast-turn rapid-response workflows.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking ability, with the capacity to turn complex policy and market information into concise, executive-ready insights.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management skills, including tracking timelines, owners, dependencies, risks, decisions, and deliverables across several workstreams; familiarity with Monday.com, Notion, Google Workspace, Slack, Asana, Smartsheet, or similar tools is preferred.
• Well organized, dependable, detail-focused, mission-driven, and able to work independently in a remote, fast-paced setting.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Hiring Notes

Activate Care says it offers equal employment opportunities and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, military status, veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.

The company also states that it will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities during the hiring process upon request.

The organization does not sponsor work visas at this time.