The posting
AHP is building a Data Office and hiring the Associate Director, Methods and Data Standards to set the standard the office holds data work to. The Associate Director defines how AHP measures and manages data across enterprise systems and client work: the definitions, quality rules, documentation, and research methods, and the steward network that carries those standards into each business domain.
AHP (www.ahpnet.com) is a consulting and research firm specializing in health and behavioral health, offering technical assistance and training, system and program development, resource development and dissemination, and research and evaluation.
AHP’s work is project based and distributed: staff across divisions and offices carry many concurrent federal, state, and local client engagements, each with its own data requirements. The Data Office’s standards and products must hold across that footprint.
The Methods & Standards Lead reports to the Director of Data Practice and works directly with the Chief Data Officer on strategy. This is a senior practitioner role: the Lead runs the methods and standards domain and will be hands-on, especially in the first year.
Responsibilities
- Own the business glossary and the definitions that span teams and run the process by which a contested definition is resolved or escalated to the Data Council.
- Set data quality standards, validation rules, naming conventions, and documentation requirements for enterprise data, and work with the Analytics & Delivery Lead to apply them in enterprise reporting so what gets built matches what was defined.
- Coordinate the data steward network: onboard stewards in each business domain, run the monthly steward working group, and keep glossary entries, validation rules, and ownership current.
- Build and maintain the methods side of the Data Office toolkit, the templates and protocols project teams use to do routine data work to standard without the Data Office in the room: design templates, instrument library and codebooks, fielding and QA protocols, data dictionaries, and cleaning protocols.
- Lead methods on client-facing work and proposals: study and evaluation design, instrument development and testing, measurement, sampling, and analysis plans. Work directly on complex engagements and through the toolkit on routine ones.
- Represent methods and standards in Data Office intake, including AI-related requests, and in the office’s work with Digital Solutions on AI data readiness: the definitions, classification, and quality of the data that AI tools, generative AI included, draw on.
Qualifications
- Advanced degree in quantitative behavioral, social, or health science, or equivalent experience leading methods and data quality work.
- Data governance put into practice: definitions people adopted, quality and documentation standards that held across teams that did not write them, and experience building or running a stewardship structure.
- Strong applied research and evaluation methods: study design, instrument development and testing, measurement, sampling, and analysis planning.
- Hands-on with data capture and survey platforms (REDCap, Qualtrics, or comparable) and at least one statistical environment (R, Stata, SAS, or Python). SQL fluency sufficient to check a definition against the data as stored. AHP works AWS and Microsoft environments and uses cloud tools like Redshift, Databricks, Power BI, and Domo.
- Experience influencing senior staff outside your reporting line and holding a standard without formal authority over the people who must follow it.
- Client-facing credibility. Behavioral health or federal and state contract experience is a plus.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Research suggests that women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals may self-select out of opportunities if they do not meet 100 percent of the job requirements. At AHP, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Salary Range:$125,000 - $145,000
AHP, in an effort to be transparent with applicants about salary and in compliance with various state pay disclosure requirements, publishes the following information, which is current as of the date of posting. The base salary range above represents the low and high end of the AHP salary range for this position. Actual salaries will vary and may be high or low in the range based on various factors, including but not limited to location, experience, and education. The range listed is just one component of AHP’s total compensation package for employees.
Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, AHP provides a variety of benefits to employees, including comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, a retirement plan with a 3% match, student loan repayment assistance, employer-paid life and disability insurance, generous paid time off, and much more.
Location
All work must be performed within the United States or its territories. Employees are required to reside in, and carry out their job responsibilities from, a location within the U.S. or a U.S. territory for the duration of their employment. Limited exceptions may be granted for short-term personal or business travel outside of these areas, subject to prior written approval and in compliance with company policy.
Work Authorization Requirement
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis
Work Environment and Physical Requirements
This position is primarily sedentary and requires the ability to remain in a stationary position for extended periods while operating a computer and other standard office equipment. The role involves frequent communication via video conferencing, email, and other digital platforms. As such, employees must have access to a reliable and secure internet connection that supports remote work responsibilities, including video meetings and the use of cloud-based systems. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.
AHP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
AHP is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require an accommodation to access or complete any part of the application process, the interview process, or to perform essential job functions, please get in touch with the Recruitment team at [email protected]. Accommodation requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and may apply depending on individual circumstances and job requirements.
Disclaimer
The statements in this job description are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required. Responsibilities may evolve or change over time to meet organizational needs.
About AHP
Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. (AHP) is a national consulting firm dedicated to improving behavioral health and human services systems since 1986. Headquartered in Sudbury, MA, with offices in Chicago, IL, Phoenix, AZ, and Pasadena, CA, AHP employs more than 270 staff across nearly 40 states. We partner with federal, state, and local agencies, community-based organizations, and commercial entities to drive change in health and business systems, supporting vulnerable populations from shaping policy to delivering hands-on, ground-level support.
AHP helps organizations and individuals reach their full potential through a suite of services, including professional consulting, research, evaluation, and data analytics, technical assistance and training, as well as virtual solutions, publications, and events. Our areas of expertise span behavioral health, mental health policy and services, substance use disorders, workforce development, homelessness, housing and employment programs, trauma-informed care, criminal justice, women and children’s services, veterans’ support, healthcare reform, and population health management.
AHP is proud to be certified as a Great Place to Work® for ten consecutive years, a recognition based on extensive anonymous employee feedback. We are deeply committed to employee well-being and are actively engaged in fostering a workplace culture that supports work-life balance, self-care, and mental and emotional health. To learn more, visit www.ahpnet.com
We offer a fantastic array of employee benefits - in fact, our comprehensive package was independently rated as "Great" by an independent party that compared our benefits against companies in similar industries, regions, and sizes. This recognition validates that our strong benefits meet the needs of our valued employees.
Mission:
“To transform behavioral health and human service systems so organizations and individuals can reach their full potential.”
Vision:
“Our clients, our staff, and the people we all serve will reach their potential to live full, productive lives.
Our Core Values at AHP
At AHP, our work is grounded in values that guide how we serve our clients, support our colleagues, and drive impact across health and human services. These values shape our culture and reflect who we are:
- Growth fostered through education, innovation, and self-actualization
- Understanding deepened through empathy, compassion, equity, and inclusion
- Integrity demonstrated through authenticity, leadership, and humility
- Dedication seen through commitment, timeliness, and follow-through
- Expertise achieved through passion, precision, and quality
These values aren’t just words; they are principles we live by in every engagement, decision, and collaboration.
