Operations Project Manager

Position Highlights

Location: This position is remote with occasional travel required to Oregon. Oregon-based candidates are preferred. The successful candidate will be hired by the CDC Foundation and will be organizationally located with Oregon Health Authority (OHA).

Salary Range: $90,000-$120,000 plus benefits. Individual salary offers will be based on experience and qualifications unique to each candidate.

Position Type: Grant funded, limited-term opportunity

Position End Date: October 30, 2028, with extension possible

Overview

The CDC Foundation is seeking a Project Manager to lead project management efforts for the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) Operations team at the Oregon Health Authority, ensuring cohesive planning, implementation and oversight of RHTP Operations workstreams. This position serves as a senior operational strategist responsible for building and maintaining the project schedule for operations workstreams, monitoring daily task progression, coordinating operational responsibilities across the central RHTP team, elevating emerging operational risks and ensuring operational excellence in alignment with CMS requirements. They will provide collaborative partnership to the Senior Operations Policy Lead, both of whom work with the Deputy Director of Operations to lead the team ensuring strategic alignment and efficient operations.

The position ensures integration across operational systems by managing internal team communications, coordinating cross-functional workflows, maintaining operations-led implementation schedules and supporting the development and refinement of tracking systems that uphold compliance and performance. The Operations Project Manager plays a critical role in building and improving the operational infrastructure needed to manage multi-year deliverables and funding pathways, ensuring RHTP operations run efficiently, consistently, and transparently. This includes applying advanced project management methodologies; supporting streamlined processes for grant execution and procurement; and supporting system improvements that strengthen internal operations across the five-year grant period.

The position works closely with the Policy & Programs Project Manager, the Program Affairs & Communications Project Manager, the RHTP Program Manager and RHTP leadership to ensure that operational activities are strategically aligned, on schedule, well-documented and progressing in accordance with CMS guidelines, timelines and priorities—supporting overall program and CMS coherence, impact and operational excellence.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Translate CMS cooperative agreement requirements into actionable operational plans, schedules and process workflows.
• Build and maintain detailed project plans using advanced tools such as Smartsheet to monitor daily operational tasks, key deadlines, dependencies and milestones.
• Track team meetings and cross-team interactions to monitor operational performance, collaboration effectiveness and workstream progress.
• Support operational data collection and documentation systems to ensure timely reporting on CMS-required metrics, targets and deliverables.
• Manage operational components of RHTP grantmaking, including supporting development of Smartsheet dashboards and workflows used to track grant execution, agreement routing and compliance processes.
• Coordinate operational partnerships with the Office of Contracts and Procurement (OC&P) and HPA Contracts to ensure timely signing, countersigning and processing of RHTP grant agreements.
• Leads strategic project management for all RHTP Operations workstreams, ensuring cohesive planning, sequencing and completion of operational tasks aligned with CMS cooperative agreement requirements.
• Develops and manages integrated project plans, schedules, Smartsheet dashboards, task logs and milestone trackers for operations activities, including procurement workflows, grant execution and operational readiness.
• Coordinates operational responsibilities and workflows across the RHTP Operations Team, ensuring clarity of roles, timelines, interdependencies and required deliverables.
• Monitors daily task progression for operations staff and contractors, proactively removing barriers and resolving operational conflicts that impact timelines or CMS deliverables.
• Designs and executes operational meeting structures, agendas, materials and follow‑up tracking to support consistent cross‑team alignment and execution.
• Synthesizes operational updates into executive‑level summaries and reporting for program leadership, highlighting risks, accomplishments, and required decisions.
• Leads development, implementation, and continuous improvement of operational systems, procedures, tools, and templates that increase efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and support consistent workflows across the five year program.
• Creates standardized Smartsheet platforms, operational SOPs, intake workflows, and documentation systems to support operations staff, grant coordinators, procurement partners, and contractors.
• Evaluates internal operational systems for inefficiencies, gaps, or performance challenges; designs and implements corrective strategies that strengthen operational reliability and scalability.
• Establishes and maintains comprehensive documentation for operational processes, ensuring sustainability, staff onboarding support, and knowledge transfer for long range program operations.
• Models operational technology improvements such as AdobeSign workflows, routing processes, or automation of multi‑step operational tasks.
• Coordinates operational components of competitive RHTP grantmaking, including Smartsheet tracking systems, workflow automation, document management and agreement routing.
• Partners with OC&P and HPA Contracts to ensure timely preparation, routing, review, signing, countersigning and filing of RHTP grant agreements and related procurement documents.
• Ensures operational activities adhere to CMS requirements, cooperative agreement conditions, state procurement policies and agency‑wide operational guidelines.
• Tracks and monitors operational compliance across RHTP systems, escalating concerns or deviations to leadership when needed.
• Identifies, monitors, and evaluates operational risks including constrained timelines, staffing capacity challenges, system bottlenecks and shifting annual funding requirements.
• Maintains and governs operational risk logs, ensuring risks are documented, actionable, monitored and used to inform decision‑making.
• Designs and oversees mitigation strategies to prevent operational issues from escalating or impacting program‑wide deliverables.
• Advises leadership on implications of operational delays, resource needs, scope changes and system readiness issues, recommending operational adjustments to maintain alignment with CMS expectations.
• Performs other duties related to Rural Health Transformation Program operations as assigned.

Qualifications and Necessary Skills:

• Master’s degree in public health or related field from an accredited college or university required (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
• Minimum of 10 years leading complex projects or programs, with project management as a core responsibility.
• Proven ability to scope, estimate and allocate resources for multifaceted initiatives with interdependent deliverables.
• Advanced experience with project scheduling, risk management and coordinating workflows across diverse teams.
• Demonstrated leadership in project or program management, ideally within a healthcare-related organization.
• Experience creating, maintaining and regularly utilizing project trackers within enterprise project management tools to monitor project activities, deliverables, timelines, milestones and progress; Smartsheet experience preferred.
• Strong capability in evaluating organizational systems, monitoring performance and driving corrective actions or process improvements.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to develop executive-level presentations and comprehensive reports.
• Understanding of Oregon’s healthcare landscape, with emphasis on rural health systems and related challenges preferred.
• Highly skilled in organizing, prioritizing, and managing multiple concurrent activities, timelines and impacted or interested party needs.
• Ability to set long-term strategic objectives and define the plans and actions required to achieve them.
• Skilled in identifying operational issues and leading efforts to design and implement process improvements.
• Experience applying regulatory knowledge and sound judgment to ensure compliance with laws, standards and organizational policies.
• Other duties as assigned.

Special Notes

This position requires the operation of a motor vehicle as a component of the job responsibilities and duties. In adherence with CDC Foundation’s Driver Safety Motor Vehicle Policy (“Policy”), offers for employment for this position require the Applicant to provide authorization to the CDC Foundation to conduct a Motor Vehicle Record (“MVR”) review both pre-employment and also annually post-employment while in this position. Additionally, if an offer of employment is accepted, employees in these positions must possess and maintain a valid driver's license in their state of residence, self-report motor vehicle violations/convictions, and provide proof of acceptable insurance coverage with mandatory minimum coverages as set forth within the Driver Safety Motor Vehicle policy. All offers of employment and continued employment for this position are contingent upon meeting all minimum qualifications of this Policy.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, mental or physical disabilities, veteran status, and all other characteristics protected by law. We comply with all applicable laws including E.O. 11246 and the Vietnam Era Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 governing employment practices and do not discriminate on the basis of any unlawful criteria in accordance with 41 C.F.R. §§ 60-300.5(a)(12) and 60-741.5(a)(7). As a federal government contractor, we take affirmative action on behalf of protected veterans.

The CDC Foundation is a smoke-free environment.

Relocation expenses are not included. .

About the CDC Foundation

The CDC Foundation is an independent nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners to support the public health system, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in preventing and responding to threats to health. In this role, we are focused on one priority: building catalytic, flexible and impactful partnerships—with corporations, philanthropies, individuals and organizations—to help improve the health and lives of people in all communities, everywhere. Visit for more information

Originally posted on Himalayas