Trilogy Federal drives innovative solutions for complex business challenges across financial management, healthcare, and government industries. Our collaborative, client-first service approach, combined with our commitment to the rapid implementation of pragmatic solutions, has earned Trilogy an unparalleled reputation for delivering transformative results.
The Lead Terminologist provides authoritative clinical terminology leadership across the Department of Veterans Affairs and its partners, including the DoD, for developing, implementing, and maintaining medical and health information standards. This role is responsible for guiding enterprise-wide terminology strategy, ensuring the accurate and effective integration of national and international health terminologies into clinical information systems to support high-quality, reusable, and interoperable clinical data. Leveraging deep clinical expertise, advanced informatics training, and extensive experience in terminology development, the Lead Terminologist develops, implements, and curates value sets, concepts, ontologies, and semantic infrastructure. They serve as the primary consultant, curator, and creator of terminology solutions for enterprise and national VHA programs, and ensure ongoing compliance with emerging policy, regulatory, and technology standards.
Please note, this position is contingent upon award (August 2026)
Primary Responsibilities:
- Provide authoritative guidance for terminology development and implementation efforts; lead enterprise terminology activities and supervise agreement-wide terminology resources to ensure consistent quality and adherence to best practices and standards.
- Participate in the development, review, and verification of clinical terminology specifications in national VA, DoD, and partner initiatives; influence, recommend, and prioritize the adoption of appropriate standards (e.g., SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, FHIR) for interoperability and quality.
- Direct development of mappings and terminology modeling to relevant standards for various clinical domains; maintain and update value sets, concept domains, and information models in response to new standards, policies, or project activities.
- Architect, manage, and support the VA’s semantic infrastructure, ontologies, metadata standards, and related terminology tooling; ensure scalable and reusable information assets are in place for clinical care and health IT initiatives.
- Serve as terminology consultant to VHA program offices, Office of Connected Care, EHR Modernization, and external partners; contribute to project requirements, strategic planning, system selection, and project evaluation.
- Maintain comprehensive knowledge of all relevant policies, regulations, and best practices overseeing health standards and clinical vocabulary use; assure that all terminology work meets current regulatory, documentation, and performance requirements.
- Analyze the impact, feasibility, and effectiveness of current and proposed terminologies, standards, and models; evaluate existing and emerging terminologies and propose innovative solutions for achieving clinical and business objectives.
- Provide expert analysis, curation, and creation of clinical terminologies, ensuring clinical accuracy, relevance, and usability in support of VA and partner system/program needs.
Minimum Requirements:
- Master’s degree or higher in nursing, health informatics, pharmacy, medicine, or an equivalent clinical specialty. Eight (8) years of additional relevant experience may be substituted for education.
- Minimum of ten (10) years of experience in clinical terminology development, mapping, and implementation in healthcare information systems.
- In-depth experience mapping and modeling clinical data to SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, FHIR, and other key standards.
- Demonstrated ability to design, build, and update terminology value sets and ontologies, and to use terminology tooling at an expert level.
- Strong command of current policies, guidelines, and regulatory requirements governing clinical standards terminology
- Experience providing expert guidance and oversight for large-scale terminology initiatives, including experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
- Outstanding communication skills to effectively collaborate with clinical, informatics, technical, and executive stakeholders.
- Ability to analyze and articulate complex issues in terminology, standards, and clinical data integration clearly and succinctly.
- U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain/maintain a federal security clearance (Public Trust or higher).
Preferred Qualifications:
- Doctorate (PhD, MD, PharmD, or equivalent) in a clinical or informatics field.
- Clinical background and licensure/certification as a physician, nurse, pharmacist, or allied health professional, including experience with disability-related domains.
- Demonstrated national or international recognition for contributions to clinical terminology standards, value set stewardship, or interoperable health information exchange.
- Experience supporting terminology-related requirements for major federal initiatives (e.g., VA, DoD, ONC).
- Publication, teaching, or standards-setting committee involvement in health informatics or clinical terminology.
- Deep knowledge of and participation in the maintenance, curation, and governance of metadata, ontologies, and semantic frameworks in large healthcare organizations.
- Familiarity with interoperability standards, regulations (e.g., 21st Century Cures Act), and VHA-specific policy or technical environments
Benefits (including but not limited to):
- Health, dental, and vision plans
- Optional FSA
- Paid parental leave
- Safe Harbor 401(k) with employer contributions 100% vested from day 1
- Paid time off and 11 paid holidays
- No cost group term life/AD&D plan, and optional supplemental coverage
- Pet insurance
- Monthly phone and internet stipend
- Tuition and training reimbursement
$175,000 – $200,000 a year
This range is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, as Trilogy Federal conducts an individual equity review for every candidate based on experience, location, education, industry experience, and comparisons to internal pay bands. In addition to salary, Trilogy offers robust benefits including medical/dental/vision insurance coverage, 401(k) match, paid holidays, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, and a very supportive work/life balance.
Trilogy Federal is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
