Senior Healthcare Data Engineer

About Milliman's Seattle Health Practice

Milliman's Seattle Health Practice is seeking an experienced data professional to join our VRDC analytics team. You will be responsible for developing and maintaining data pipelines that process healthcare claims and enrollment data, implementing measure logic and business rules from CMS and industry specifications, and contributing to the ongoing improvement of our analytic codebases and data products.

Our practice partners with a wide array of organizations, including insurance companies, health plans, government agencies, healthcare providers, reinsurers, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), health technology firms, and employers. Our team comprises over 180 actuarial professionals, supported by expert consultants, IT specialists, and dedicated operations staff. Join Milliman to collaborate with accomplished professionals in the health industry. Our mentor program provides a dedicated colleague for career guidance, offering the support and resources you need to thrive. This is an exceptional opportunity for motivated candidates to advance professionally while making a meaningful impact in healthcare.

About The Role And Team

A significant portion of this role involves working with Medicare data through the CMS CCW Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC), a secure environment where individual-level data must be processed in place and can only be exported after aggregation, cell suppression, and CMS review. You will also work outside the VRDC on post-processing exported results, integrating client data and other non-VRDC sources, and developing tools and analytics in standard development environments. Code is maintained outside the VRDC using standard version control practices.

The position reports to a senior manager who leads technical direction for the team. The VRDC is a secure virtual desktop environment operated by CMS. All code is managed outside the VRDC, but some individual-level data may only be accessed and processed within the VRDC. Success in this role requires comfort working within these constraints and resourcefulness to solve problems using available documentation, data dictionaries, and direct data inspection.

Our codebases span multiple languages and platforms and are actively evolving. We value team members who bring informed perspectives on code organization and maintenance, recognizing that pragmatic tradeoffs are part of a production analytics environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain data pipelines processing healthcare claims, enrollment, and related administrative data.
• Own components of data pipelines end-to-end, from raw data processing to final analytic outputs.
• Translate technical specifications and business rules into well-structured, maintainable code.
• Work with large-scale healthcare datasets (tens to hundreds of millions of rows) within the VRDC's secure computing environment.
• Perform data validation, quality checks, and reconciliation to ensure analytic accuracy.
• Identify opportunities to improve code quality, reduce duplication, and strengthen testing, validation, and documentation.
• Ensure reproducibility and traceability of results across data refreshes and measurement years.
• Communicate technical findings, methodology, and data issues clearly to actuarial and consulting staff.
• Manage concurrent workstreams across multiple measurement years and data refresh cycles.
• Develop the ability to manage client relationships and successfully generate new business.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering, analytics, or a quantitative analyst role with substantial hands-on coding.
• Healthcare data experience—Medicare/Medicaid/commercial claims, enrollment files, pharmacy data, or similar.
• Strong SQL proficiency, including complex joins, window functions, conditional aggregation, and careful handling of NULLs and edge cases.
• Programming experience in Python, SAS, or both; willingness to work across languages as needed.
• Experience processing large datasets and an understanding of performance considerations at scale.
• Experience implementing business logic from technical specifications.
• Familiarity with data modeling and structuring large analytical datasets for reuse.
• Demonstrated ability to learn complex domains and business rules quickly.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• A genuine interest in code quality—you think about naming, structure, validation, and maintainability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with healthcare quality measures, such as HEDIS, PQA, and CAHPS.
• Experience with Databricks, PySpark, or distributed data processing frameworks.
• Git-based version control and collaborative development workflows.
• Experience working within the CMS CCW/VRDC or comparable restricted research data environments.
• Experience with agentic AI coding tools such as Cursor, Copilot, Codex, or Claude Code.
• Background in healthcare consulting or health plan analytics.

Location

This position is based out of the Milliman office in Seattle, WA. It is preferred that this employee work in-office, but remote candidates anywhere in the US will be considered. The expected application deadline for this job is July 21, 2026.

Compensation

The overall salary range for this role is $85,100 - $161,575. For candidates residing in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York City, Newark, San Jose, San Francisco, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, or the District of Columbia, the salary range is $97,865 - $161,575. For all other locations, the salary range is $85,100 - $140,500. A combination of factors will be considered, including, but not limited to, education, relevant work experience, qualifications, skills, certifications, etc. Employees are also eligible for a bonus under our standard bonus policy.

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employees’ health, financial security, and well-being. Benefits include Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage; Employee Assistance Program (EAP); 401(k) Plan with company matching; Discretionary Bonus Program; Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA); Paid Time Off (PTO); Holidays; Family Building Benefits; Paid Parental Leave; Life Insurance & AD&D; and Short-Term and Long-Term Disability.

About Milliman

Independent for over 75 years, Milliman delivers market-leading services and solutions to clients worldwide. We help companies address critical and complex issues in retirement funding, healthcare financing, risk management, regulatory compliance, data analytics, and business transformation. Milliman invests in skills training and career development, providing access to learning and mentoring opportunities. Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are employee-led communities that influence policy, develop leaders, and amplify voices. We encourage employees to contribute to their professions and lead in professional organizations. Learn more about Milliman’s commitments to people, inclusion, and sustainability at https://www.milliman.com/en/social-impact.

Through a diverse team of professionals, we offer unparalleled expertise in employee benefits, investment consulting, healthcare, life insurance, financial services, and property and casualty insurance.

Equal Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Key skills/competency

• Data Engineering
• Healthcare Data
• SQL
• Python
• SAS
• Data Pipelines
• Large Datasets
• CMS CCW/VRDC
• Data Modeling
• Code Quality