Lead Research Analyst / Principal Analyst - Healthcare Payor

About Avasant 
Avasant is a Los Angeles, California-based leading management consulting firm providing Strategic Sourcing, IT and Business Transformation, and Global Strategy services to the global Fortune 1000.  Since 2006, Avasant has negotiated over $250B in deals and operates in over 50 countries.  The firm has been recognized as "World's Best Outsourcing Advisor" by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) for ten consecutive years.  
Role Overview:
Avasant’s Research practice provides industry-leading insights to technology buyers and providers as they navigate the rapidly changing digital landscape. We develop deep market reports, including our flagship RadarView assessment reports, thought leadership papers, and insight articles to offer advice to industry stakeholders. We are ranked as a Top 5 analyst firm globally (link) by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR).

To know more about us and to see our portfolio of published research, please visit here.

Health plans and payors are fundamentally rethinking their business models, reimbursement constructs, member engagement approaches, and care management programs to address rising costs, regulatory complexity, and consumer-grade experience expectations. This large-scale shift toward digital-enabled, data-driven, and value-based models plays out very differently across commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, and specialty lines of business, and across geographies and regulatory regimes. To help payors make informed decisions, Avasant is expanding its coverage of how digital transformation, advanced analytics, and platform modernization are reshaping the healthcare payor ecosystem. This market-facing role is central to that expansion and includes research agenda design, research delivery, and market education focused on healthcare payors.

Responsibilities:

• Represent the firm and articulate a clear point of view on digital transformation in the healthcare payor industry, covering topics such as value-based care, population health, utilization management, network optimization, interoperability, and data-driven member engagement. This includes the application of digital technologies (cloud, artificial intelligence and GenAI, intelligent automation, advanced analytics, interoperability platforms, blockchain, internet of things/remote monitoring, and core admin modernization) to payor use cases in external conferences, boardroom presentations, industry events, and public videos.
• Engage with senior leadership teams and CXOs at health plans, PBMs, TPAs, and health-tech platform vendors to advise on future roadmaps and strategies across areas such as care management, claims and prior authorization, fraud/waste/abuse, benefit design, and member experience.
• Take end-to-end ownership of a payor-focused Research Product with an annual calendar of research artifacts (market reports, white papers, points of view, and RadarView assessments) on emerging themes such as value-based contracting, interoperability and FHIR, virtual care integration, AI-enabled claims, and omnichannel member engagement. This includes substantial original writing and synthesis by the candidate.
• Conduct in-depth primary and secondary research by directly participating in briefings and in-person/virtual discussions with business, technology, and clinical leaders (including CXOs) at payors, health-tech product companies, and platform providers, as well as ecosystem stakeholders such as providers and regulators when relevant.
• Design and refine innovative research processes, taxonomies, and evaluation frameworks tailored to healthcare payors—for example, assessing digital maturity, platform capabilities, AI/analytics readiness, and ecosystem partnerships—to structure and analyze qualitative and quantitative data and derive actionable, repeatable, and continually improving insights.
• Demonstrate exceptional project management while leading and mentoring a lean, diversified research team, ensuring high-quality outputs, efficient delivery, and alignment with the strategic direction of Avasant’s healthcare research practice.
• Actively engage with the broader healthcare ecosystem, including payors, health systems, digital health vendors, core administration and analytics platform providers, and research consumers, to validate hypotheses, test frameworks, and amplify Avasant’s perspectives in the market.

• MBA or equivalent from Tier 1 institutes. 6-9 years of experience in research, strategy, or consulting, with a strong focus on healthcare payors (health plans, PBMs, or related segments).
• Significant experience with Big 4 or leading healthcare/strategy consulting firms, or prior work with top technology industry analyst firms or healthcare-specific analyst organizations is an advantage.
• Strong aspiration to be recognized as an independent and respected industry voice in healthcare payor strategy, digital transformation, and technology.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills (English), including comfort presenting complex payor market, regulatory, and technology concepts to executive audiences.
• Demonstrated exposure to and interest in emerging technologies and data-driven operating models, with an inherent curiosity about how they will reshape benefit design, reimbursement, member experience, and care coordination in the payor space.
• Strong sense of ownership, with rigorous adherence to quality, analytical depth, and timelines in a fast-paced, market-facing environment.
• Exceptional quantitative, data interpretation, and storytelling skills, including the ability to work with claims data, clinical and social determinants of health data, and operational metrics to derive meaningful insights for healthcare payors.

•  Entrepreneurial environment, with the ability to lead and drive new initiatives to further personal and organizational goals 
• International exposure and a chance to work with global clients, including some of the largest multinationals 
• Industry-leading compensation and benefits program 
• Training and mentoring on the latest business and sector practices based on market requirements 
• Opportunity to work with and learn from an international team of industry specialists 
• Focused programs for career development, including funding of industry certifications and skill development programs 
• Dynamic and multicultural work environment 
• Leadership opportunities