Project Manager - Quality Management

St. Jude's Office of Quality and Patient Safety is looking for a project manager with hands-on experience in improvement science. Reporting to the Director of Improvement Science, this role sits at the intersection of project management and improvement practice. Our team takes a whole-system approach to quality, with programs spanning quality planning, improvement, assurance, and control.

You'll help manage the hospital's annual portfolio of quality improvement projects, support the annual quality planning process, and serve as an improvement advisor on select projects. You'll work with teams to scope problems, apply improvement methods, use data to understand whether changes are working, and sustain gains over time. You'll also keep the broader portfolio moving by anticipating risks, coordinating across teams, and providing clear updates to leaders.

Beyond individual projects, you'll help manage quality indicators, assess the level of improvement support teams need, and strengthen how improvement science is applied across the organization.

The role also offers the opportunity to join the core faculty of Safe and Sound Academy, our program for building improvement science capability across the institution. Faculty teach, develop new learning offerings, and mentor teams as they put improvement methods into practice.

This role is a strong fit for someone who has personally led or coached improvement work using the Model for Improvement or a similar methodology and enjoys helping others solve complex problems. Experience teaching or coaching improvement methods is a plus.

Job Responsibilities:

Coordinate and manage the annual portfolio of institutional quality improvement projects, including monitoring progress, dependencies, risks, barriers, and sustainment.

Serve as an improvement advisor to assigned quality improvement projects, applying improvement science methods to help teams understand problems, develop and test changes, measure results, and sustain improvement.

Support institutional quality planning processes, including assessment, prioritization, scoping, and monitoring of improvement opportunities and projects.

Analyze and interpret quantitative and qualitative data using appropriate improvement methods, including run charts and statistical process control, and communicate actionable insights to project teams and leaders.

Coach project leaders, project managers, and improvement teams in the application of improvement science methods and tools, including the Model for Improvement, PDSA cycles, process mapping, and development of theories of change.

Apply quality assurance and control methods to monitor performance, identify variation or emerging issues, and support sustainment of improvements.

Coordinate work across multidisciplinary teams, identify and escalate barriers and risks, and provide clear project- and portfolio-level updates and recommendations to leadership.

Serve as an educational resource in improvement science and contribute to organizational capability development through teaching, coaching, mentoring, and development of learning experiences.

Perform other duties as assigned to meet the goals and objectives of the department and institution.

Maintains regular and predictable attendance.

Minimum Education and/or Training:

Bachelor’s degree in relevant field required. Master's degree preferred.

Minimum Required Experience:

5+ years relevant project management experience.

Experience with quality improvement, utilization management, risk reduction/safety management, and related issues.

Experience working with accreditation and regulatory standards and their application to patient care.

Proven performance in earlier role.

Preferred Experience:

Experience with quality improvement, improvement science, or a related field, including experience leading complex, cross-functional projects preferred.

Hands-on experience leading or coaching quality improvement projects using the Model for Improvement or a comparable improvement methodology strongly preferred.

Quality experience in a healthcare setting preferred.

Experience using data to guide improvement, including run charts, statistical process control, or related methods preferred.

Experience teaching, coaching, or mentoring others in improvement methods preferred.

Experience working with healthcare quality, patient safety, regulatory, or accreditation requirements preferred.

Licensure, Registration and/or Certification Required by SJCRH Only:

Project Management Professional (PMP) or comparable project management certification preferred.

Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) preferred.

Formal training or certification in improvement science, quality improvement, Lean, Six Sigma, or a related methodology preferred.

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

Synthesizes quantitative and qualitative information from multiple sources to identify patterns, risks, opportunities, and actionable insights.

Applies improvement science methods and tools to understand systems, identify contributing factors, develop and test changes, and evaluate improvement.

Demonstrates working knowledge of project, program, and portfolio management methods and tools.

Uses data over time to distinguish meaningful change from routine variation and communicates findings clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.

Manages multiple complex projects with a high degree of independence, anticipating dependencies, risks, and barriers and escalating appropriately.

Builds effective working relationships across disciplines and organizational levels and can coach teams without relying on direct authority.

Communicates complex information succinctly and provides clear recommendations to project teams and organizational leaders.

Demonstrates skill in teaching, coaching, facilitation, and development of others.