We’re building a world of health around every individual — shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health®, you’ll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger – helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time. **Lead Director, Aetna, Interoperability Strategy** **Overview:** **Reporting directly to the Vice President of Interoperability, this pivotal role sets and communicates the enterprise-wide strategy for interoperability. The Lead Director acts as the convener and connector across product owners, business leaders, and cross-functional teams—synthesizing multiple roadmaps, identifying gaps, and driving the unified vision for best-in-class solutions for providers, members, and the business. This leader balances strategic foresight with pragmatic, incremental progress and is responsible for translating complex technical and policy concepts into actionable, human-readable narratives for senior leadership and the broader organization.** **Key Responsibilities:** **- Develop, align, and communicate a unified interoperability strategy across all Aetna business lines, ensuring integration of emerging and existing solutions.** **- Synthesize and maintain a comprehensive, enterprise-wide view of all interoperability and platform roadmaps; identify synergies, dependencies, and opportunities for consolidation or acceleration.** **- Convene and align product owners, business leaders, and key stakeholders—including technology, product, quality, revenue integrity, interfacing tools, and all lines of business—to ensure strategic alignment and resource optimization.** **- Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including national provider networks, to drive adoption and execution of interoperability strategies at scale.** **- Advise on the intersection of technology, policy, and business, providing guidance on standards (FHIR, HL7, X12, NCPDP, and others), regulatory trends, and the implications for product and operational roadmaps.** **- Lead the creation of executive-level, human-readable strategy materials that abstract and synthesize technical and operational roadmaps for leadership audiences.** **- Represent and communicate interoperability strategy across the CVS Health enterprise and externally to the market, including industry forums and with vendor partners.** **- Serve as a visible leader and ambassador for Aetna’s interoperability vision—representing the organization internally at the enterprise level, across business units, and externally in industry forums, conferences, and with key partners.** **- Guide long-term planning (3–5 years), balancing immediate tactical needs with future-state vision and supporting initiatives in prior authorization, clinical data exchange, population management, cost/price transparency, and claims.** **- Evaluate and recommend technologies and vendors, leveraging deep market and standards knowledge to ensure Aetna remains at the forefront of interoperability innovation.** **- Provide strategic recommendations for resource allocation, convergence, and simplification—ensuring investments are maximized and value is realized across all business lines.** **- Support and help lead governance processes, ensuring that strategy is translated into actionable deliverables, tracked, and measured for impact.** **- Champion the storytelling of interoperability—using data visualization, narrative, and executive communication to build understanding, drive change, and inspire action across the organization.** **- Facilitate and convene productive, sometimes difficult, conversations using a variety of facilitation models; drive consensus and momentum in complex, matrixed environments.** **- Identify gaps, advocate for investment in new areas, and ensure that interoperability solutions are designed with both business value and end-user experience in mind.** **- Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement, supporting people and culture change as the organization evolves toward a more interoperable future.** **- Ensure all strategies and solutions are designed for scalability, flexibility, and compliance, with a clear understanding of the art of the possible while remaining grounded in pragmatic, incremental progress.** **Required Qualifications:** **- 8–10 years’ experience in U.S. healthcare technology, with deep exposure to interoperability standards, vendor landscape, and product/program management.** **- Demonstrated experience working across cross-functional teams and driving outcomes in large, complex, matrixed organizations.** **- Strong understanding of policy, regulatory, and technology intersections in healthcare, including direct experience with standards development organizations and FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resources) and Implementation Guides.** **- Proven ability to separate tactics from long-term strategy, drive organizational alignment, and deliver results through influence rather than authority.** **- Experience leading cross-functional teams, managing complex stakeholder environments, and building collaborative partnerships with technology, product, quality, revenue integrity, and interfacing tools teams.** **- Deep understanding of provider and payer workflows—including prior authorization, clinical data exchange, population health, and member experience optimization.** **- Exceptional communication skills, with experience translating technical content into executive-level strategy and storytelling—both internally and externally.** **- High emotional intelligence, adaptability, and skill in synthesizing and summarizing complex, sometimes conflicting, information from multiple sources.** **- Expertise in software development lifecycle, flexible roadmap creation, and user-centered product design.** **- Ability to crosswalk between technical requirements and end-user experience, simplifying and designing for usability and impact.** **- Skilled at describing the “art of the possible” and future vision, while remaining pragmatic and focused on incremental, measurable progress.** **- Proven ability to facilitate and convene productive, challenging conversations, using a variety of facilitation models to drive consensus and action.** **Preferred:** **- Direct experience with Aetna or other large payer/provider organizations.** **- Track record of driving large-scale transformation in healthcare technology and interoperability.** **- Experience representing organizational strategy at industry forums, with vendors, and to executive leadership.** **Other Requirements:** **- Ability to represent Aetna internally, at the enterprise level, and externally in industry settings as a visible leader and ambassador.** **- Willingness to travel up to 15% for enterprise, partner, and industry engagements.** **Pay Range** The typical pay range for this role is: $100,000.00 - $231,540.00 This pay range represents the base hourly rate or base annual full-time salary for all positions in the job grade within which this position falls. The actual base salary offer will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education, geography and other relevant factors. This position is eligible for a CVS Health bonus, commission or short-term incentive program in addition to the base pay range listed above. This position also includes an award target in the company’s equity award program. Our people fuel our future. Our teams reflect the customers, patients, members and communities we serve and we are committed to fostering a workplace where every colleague feels valued and that they belong. **Great benefits for great people** We take pride in our comprehensive and competitive mix of pay and benefits – investing in the physical, emotional and financial wellness of our colleagues and their families to help them be the healthiest they can be. In addition to our competitive wages, our great benefits include: + **Affordable medical plan options,** a **401(k) plan** (including matching company contributions), and an **employee stock purchase plan** . + **No-cost programs for all colleagues** including wellness screenings, tobacco cessation and weight management programs, confidential counseling and financial coaching. + **Benefit solutions that address the different needs and preferences of our colleagues** including paid time off, flexible work schedules, family leave, dependent care resources, colleague assistance programs, tuition assistance, retiree medical access and many other benefits depending on eligibility. For more information, visit https://jobs.cvshealth.com/us/en/benefits We anticipate the application window for this opening will close on: 02/13/2026 Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state and local laws. We are an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We do not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, promotion, or any other personnel action based on race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex/gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.