Strategic Operations Lead, TRE Alberta

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, elevate, 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 senio