Director of Program Integrity & Risk Management

The Executive Office of Aging & Independence (AGE) is seeking a strategic leader to join our team as the Director of Program Integrity & Risk Management. This position is a senior leader focused on enterprise program integrity and risk management. The Director will serve as a central resource for identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and supporting the mitigation of systemic operational, fiscal, compliance, data, vendor, and performance risks across state- and federally funded programs.

The Director of Program Integrity & Risk Management will support agency leadership through objective analysis, structured risk assessment, project management, root-cause analysis, and the development and monitoring of mitigation and corrective action plans. A key responsibility of the Director will be to build upon AGE’s existing oversight infrastructure to develop a more comprehensive and consistent approach to program integrity and risk across the agency’s portfolio. The Director will partner with all AGE teams to strengthen oversight of the Commonwealth's aging networks. This work will integrate indicators of fiscal health, program performance, quality, compliance, data integrity, governance, operational capacity, and other sources of risk information.

This position will be expected to establish mechanisms to incorporate risk signals arising outside traditional program monitoring, including constituent affairs, Information & Referral activity, complaints, inquiries, incident patterns, and other operational information that may contribute to an organization, program, or agency risk profile. The Director will use the principles, tools, and lessons from this work to develop appropriately tailored risk-based oversight approaches for AGE programs and entities outside existing structures. The intent is to establish consistent agency-wide principles for identifying risk, monitoring performance, escalating concerns, implementing corrective action, and determining whether identified issues have been successfully resolved.

Duties and Responsibilities (These duties are a general summary and not all-inclusive):

· Lead cross-functional teams to investigate significant or cross-cutting concerns, assess root causes and potential impact, develop mitigation strategies, and support implementation through resolution.

· Lead targeted assessments and reviews in areas identified as high risk based on financial, operational, compliance, data, performance, quality, or other indicators.

· Develop and maintain an enterprise risk log/register and related reporting for executive leadership, including clear risk ratings, accountable owners, mitigation actions, milestones, and escalation criteria.

· Build agency-wide capacity, tools, processes, and a culture of shared accountability so that program integrity and risk management principles are incorporated into program design and routine operations.

· Partner with program, fiscal, procurement, and legal teams to strengthen program integrity, monitoring, reporting, audit, data, and compliance provisions in contracts, regulations, policies, and program guidance, as appropriate.

· Coordinate AGE’s response to significant audits, reviews, and oversight activities, including federal and state audits, as applicable. Partner with program and subject-matter experts to assess findings and agency risk, develop management responses and corrective action plans, and track significant actions through resolution, with centralized coordination for cross-program or enterprise issues.

· Partner with Quality, program, technology, data, procurement, and operational leaders to ensure significant findings inform enterprise risk assessment and corrective action. Identify and mitigate systemic risks involving programs, critical systems, and vendors, including risks related to data integrity, system controls, business continuity, vendor performance, and operations.

· Develop clear escalation protocols for material risks, including criteria for when issues should be elevated to the steering committee, General Counsel, Secretary, EOHHS, or other appropriate parties.

· Provide concise, decision-oriented briefings to senior leadership describing significant issues, available evidence, potential impact, options, recommended actions, accountable owners, and timelines for resolution.

· Respond to urgent agency priorities, emerging issues, external inquiries, and executive requests requiring rapid, cross-functional assessment and coordinated follow-through.

Preferred Qualifications:

· Ability to exercise independent judgment on ambiguous, sensitive, and high-consequence matters and reach defensible conclusions from incomplete information.

· Ability to design and facilitate cross-functional processes that produce decisions, clear ownership, and committed timelines.

· Ability to secure cooperation and accountability from colleagues and external partners without direct supervisory authority.

· Ability to deliver difficult findings candidly and constructively while sustaining working relationships.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including concise, decision-oriented briefings for executive audiences and translation of complex issues for lay audiences.

· Ability to handle confidential, privileged, and sensitive information with discretion.

· Established executive presence and the ability to advise senior leadership, oversight bodies, and network partners.

· Working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and dashboard or data visualization tools.

Agency Mission

The Executive Office of Aging & Independence provides quality aging-related resources, tools, and support through a network of regional non-profit agencies and municipal agencies across the state. The Agency partners with providers, caregivers, and the 1.7 million older adults in Massachusetts to help individuals live and thrive throughout the aging process. To learn more about AGE, please visit: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/executive-office-of-aging-independence-age

Pre-Offer Process:

A criminal and tax history background check will be completed on the recommended candidate as required by the regulations set forth by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services prior to the candidate being hired. For more information, please visit http://www.mass.gov/hhs/cori

Education, licensure, and certifications will be verified in accordance with the Human Resources Division’s Hiring Guidelines.

Education and license/certification information provided by the selected candidate(s) is subject to the Massachusetts Public Records Law and may be published on the Commonwealth’s website.