Senior Associate - AI Process Improvement and Operations

AI Acceleration Senior Associate

Join us as we work to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Role summary: The AI Acceleration Senior Associate will lead and support process design and continuous improvement initiatives that accelerate athenahealth’s adoption of AI-enabled workflows and improve operational performance. This Chennai-based role is hybrid and combines hands-on process analysis, cross-functional project leadership, and data-driven improvement work to deliver measurable business outcomes. This position reports to the Senior Manager, Process Design.

Team Summary: The Service Platform Enablement (SPIES) Team is responsible for athenahealth’s issue resolution design and technical process, and the continuous improvement of our support methodologies and related platforms. The team defines a customer-centric issue resolution path and optimizes Salesforce Service Cloud and other engagement platforms to enable best-practice processes that ensure issues are managed efficiently and consistently. In partnership with colleagues across SPIES, this role will work to ensure teams have an optimal Salesforce configuration, clear documentation, robust support patterns, and actionable reporting to meet their operational needs while adhering to organizational standards.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

• Plan and execute process improvement initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent) from problem definition through implementation and control.
• Diagram, map, and evaluate current-state processes to identify inefficiencies, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Lead and facilitate cross-functional project teams, ensuring alignment on goals, timelines, and deliverables.
• Develop and maintain metrics and dashboards that measure process performance and surface indicators for future improvement.
• Collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to identify root causes and validate improvement hypotheses.
• Use AI-enabled tools and techniques to augment process analysis and execution—apply generative and assisted analytics tools to accelerate root-cause analysis, propose candidate process changes, and assess the impact of recommended improvements while ensuring human review and governance.

Additional Job Responsibilities:

• Support Salesforce Service Cloud configuration reviews and recommend process-driven platform changes to improve case routing, escalation, and resolution times.
• Partner with analytics and engineering teams to scope automation pilots and evaluate feasibility and ROI.
• Assist in developing standard operating procedures, playbooks, and knowledge content to sustain improvements.
• Conduct cost–benefit analyses and prepare business cases for proposed process changes or automation initiatives.
• Help onboard and coach colleagues on process improvement tools, templates, and methods.
• Participate in post-implementation reviews to capture lessons learned and ensure control plans are effective.
• Maintain a repository of process maps, improvement artifacts, and measurement definitions for reuse across the organization.
• Represent the team in cross-organizational meetings and working groups to ensure process standards are understood and adopted.

Expected Education & Experience:

• 6–9 years of experience in process improvement, operations, business process engineering, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience with Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent methodologies and applied process re-engineering techniques.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional projects and facilitate diverse stakeholder groups.
• Strong skills in process mapping, root-cause analysis, and designing measurable improvements.
• Experience developing metrics, dashboards, and reporting to measure process performance (tools such as Tableau, Power BI, or similar).Proficiency in data collection and analysis using Excel, SQL, Python, or comparable tools.
• Familiarity with Salesforce Service Cloud configuration or with platform-driven support systems is preferred.Experience delivering presentations and training to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, analytics, or equivalent practical experience

About athenahealth

Our vision: In an industry that becomes more complex by the day, we stand for simplicity. We offer IT solutions and expert services that eliminate the daily hurdles preventing healthcare providers from focusing entirely on their patients — powered by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Our company culture: Our talented  employees — or athenistas, as we call ourselves — spark the innovation and passion needed to accomplish our vision. We are a diverse group of dreamers and do-ers with unique knowledge, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives. We unite as mission-driven problem-solvers with a deep desire to achieve our vision and make our time here count. Our award-winning culture is built around shared values of inclusiveness, accountability, and support.

Our DEI commitment: Our vision of accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all requires addressing the inequities that stand in the way. That's one reason we prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in every aspect of our business, from attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce to maintaining an inclusive environment for athenistas, our partners, customers and the communities where we work and serve.

What we can do for you:

Along with health and financial benefits, athenistas enjoy perks specific to each location, including commuter support, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance, employee resource groups, and collaborative  workspaces  — some offices even welcome dogs.

We also encourage a better work-life balance for athenistas with our flexibility. While we know in-office collaboration is critical to our vision, we recognize that not all work needs to be done within an office environment, full-time. With consistent communication and digital collaboration tools, athenahealth enables employees to find a balance that feels fulfilling and productive for each individual situation.

In addition to our traditional benefits and perks, we sponsor events throughout the year, including book clubs, external speakers, and hackathons. We provide athenistas with a company culture based on learning, the support of an engaged team, and an inclusive environment where all employees are valued. 

Learn more about our culture and benefits here: athenahealth.com/careers  

https://www.athenahealth.com/careers/equal-opportunity

Experience Level

Senior Level