Description The
Department of Medicine in the
Cumming School of Medicine invites applications for a
Strategic Operations Lead. This Full-time Fixed Term position is for approximately 1 year (based on length of grant funding), with the possibility of extension.
The Alberta Trusted Research Environment (TRE) is a landmark provincial initiative to build a secure, high-performance health data platform spanning cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure across Health Shared Services (HSS), the University of Alberta (UofA), and the University of Calgary (UofC). The TRE will enable centrally governed, secure secondary use of administrative data, electronic health information, and medical diagnostic imaging data †enhancing data integration and access for research and innovation across Alberta. The initiative is funded through the VITAL project and positions Alberta as a key node in Canada's national federated health data research network.
This senior position reports to the Senior Director, Centres for Health Evidence, Data, and Applied Research (CEDAR) and works closely the Principal Investigator of the VITAL project.
Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to):
Program Governance & Delivery:
- Own end-to-end project delivery across TRE workstreams - from planning and design through implementation, testing, and operational handover. This is grounded in a clear understanding of the TRE's overall goals and deliverables
- Establish and maintain project governance structures including reporting frameworks, RAID logs, decision registers, and change control processes
- Develop and manage project plans, schedules, milestones, resource allocations, and budget tracking; allocate and monitor project resources across partner institutions and workstreams to maximize initiative productivity
- Apply project management methodologies (agile, waterfall, hybrid) as appropriate at each stage of the initiative; adapt plans and priorities in response to operational, technical, and institutional challenges
- Proactively identify, escalate, and mitigate risks and issues; direct the resolution of highly
Multi-Institutional Coordination - Alberta & National:
- Serve as the primary coordination point across the three Alberta partner institutions: HSS, the UofA, and the UofC; exercise leadership through influence and consensus-building rather than direct authority
- Represent Alberta on the national VITAL stage: participate in and contribute to cross-jurisdictional governance bodies, working groups, and technical committees, working alongside technical leads who represent the platform's technical dimensions; negotiate and influence the direction of national initiatives to align with Alberta's research priorities and data infrastructure
- Facilitate provincial working groups, steering committees, and technical teams; build consensus across diverse institutional cultures, mandates, and priorities
- Manage vendor and partner relationships including Statements of Work, RFPs, SLAs, and contract staff engagements
- Anticipate and interpret internal and external challenges, including regulatory, technical, and institutional and recommend effective responses to senior leadership
- Assist in designing how industry and early innovators will access the TRE
Data Governance & Compliance:
- Support the development and implementation of TRE data governance frameworks, metadata standards, and secure data handling procedures
- Ensure alignment with relevant privacy legislation, health information regulations, and institutional research ethics requirements
- Contribute to the design of policies and procedures governing secondary use of administrative health data, EHR data, and diagnostic imaging data
- Liaise with privacy, legal, and compliance functions across partner institutions to maintain regulatory readiness
- Provide oversight of the OMOP team's implementation of standards such as the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM), including ETL pipeline planning, vocabulary management, and data quality validation
- Facilitate alignment between technical teams and research interested parties on data standards; track onboarding workstreams, tool selection (e.g., ATLAS, Achilles, DQD), and readiness for network research participation
- Facilitate connections in the Indigenous health data space, serving as the link for how Indigenous health data is stored and used within the TRE.
Interested Party Communication & Reporting - Develop and maintain core project documents including charters, communication plans, status reports, and executive dashboards; impact the direction and resource allocation for the initiative through clear, evidence-based reporting
Qualifications / Requirements:Required:
- 10+ years of progressive senior leadership experience in project and program management, including large-scale technology or data platform initiatives
- Demonstrated success leading multi-institutional or multi-party programs in complex health governance environments; proven ability to lead and influence across organizational boundaries without formal authority
- Broad and comprehensive understanding across multiple disciplines including technology program delivery, health data governance, research policy, regulatory compliance, and financial management
- Experience with health data systems, data governance frameworks, or health information management
- Experience developing sustainability or funding plans, and structuring industry partnerships or intellectual property (IP) arrangements, for research infrastructure or programs
- Proven ability to manage budgets, allocate project resources, oversee vendor relationships, and meet funder reporting requirements
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; demonstrated ability to communicate complex ideas to senior institutional leaders, government partners, and technical audiences and to negotiate and influence at the highest levels
- Experience representing an organization at a national, inter-provincial, or multi-jurisdictional level; comfort operating in high-visibility, politically complex environments
- Strong analytical capabilities, advanced judgment, and comfort directing resolution of highly complex problems across technical, operational, and governance domains
- Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in professional practice
Preferred:
- Project Management Professional (PMP) designation or equivalent certification
- Experience with cloud infrastructure migration or cloud-based data platform delivery
- Familiarity with health data privacy legislation and secondary use research frameworks (e.g., HIA, PHIA, PIPEDA)
- Experience coordinating implementation of standards such as the OMOP Common Data Model, including ETL development, vocabulary mapping, and data quality assessment
- Understanding of OHDSI network research principles and the role of standardized CDMs in enabling federated and distributed health data analytics
- Knowledge of data management best practices and the DAMA DMBOK framework
- Experience working within university research administration environments
Application Deadline: September 17, 2026
We would like to thank all applicants in advance for submitting their resumes. Please note, only those candidates chosen to continue on through the selection process will be contacted.
This position is classified in the
Professional Career Band, Level 4 of the Management and Professional Staff Career Framework.
For a listing of all management and staff opportunities at the University of Calgary, view our
Management and Staff Careers website .
