052-ACI-Ops Services - Sr. Dir, Central Operations

The Senior Director, Central Operations is an enterprise-level operations leader responsible for leading the Operations Services function and ensuring that major field-facing initiatives, programs, operating standards, and performance management routines are execution-ready, analytically grounded, and sustainable in the field.

This role leads a team responsible for rollout readiness, cross-functional coordination, operational project management, reporting, analytics, and the continued maturation of the Affordable Way. The Senior Director serves as the connective tissue between strategy and field execution-ensuring the organization is focused on the right priorities, decisions are supported by clear facts, initiatives are clinic-ready before launch, and operating changes are embedded into sustainable routines.

The Senior Director partners closely with Field Leadership, Lab, Finance, IT/Data, Marketing, HR, Clinical, Compliance, and Training to ensure enterprise work is properly sequenced, clearly owned, measured, and built to stick.

** Note: ** This role does not own day-to-day clinic operations. It owns the Central Operations Services function, including enterprise operating standards, initiative readiness, execution sustainability, operational reporting, and cross-functional operating cadence.

** GENERAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES **

** Operations Services Leadership **

• Lead the Operations Services team, including direct oversight of director-level and manager-level roles responsible for field readiness, operational project management, executive reporting, analytics, business cases, and enterprise operating routines.

• Establish clear priorities, roles, decision rights, and performance expectations across the Operations Services function.

• Coach and develop team members to operate with high ownership, strong judgment, executive-ready communication, and consistent follow-through.

• Ensure the team is focused on the highest-value operational priorities and not simply responding to ad hoc requests.

• Create a disciplined operating rhythm for the function, including team priorities, project status, escalation paths, decision logs, and measurable outcomes.

• Serve as the senior point of accountability for Central Operations Services work quality, stakeholder alignment, and execution reliability.

** Enterprise Initiative Readiness & Rollout Excellence **

• Own the enterprise operational readiness process for major corporate initiatives prior to field launch.

• Ensure initiatives are pressure-tested through an operational lens, including clinic workflow impact, staffing feasibility, system readiness, SOP clarity, training needs, reporting, field capacity, and cumulative change load.

• Establish and enforce readiness standards so initiatives are:

• Clearly documented with SOPs, playbooks, and field-facing tools

• Properly sequenced for field execution

• Supported with training, communications, reporting, and escalation paths

• Piloted, refined, and clinic-validated before broad rollout

• Measured for adoption, execution quality, and business impact

• Make go/no-go or delay recommendations to the COO, SVP of Lab & Central Operations, and SVP Field Operations when initiatives are not ready for field deployment.

• Reduce fragmented, rushed, or under-supported rollouts by ensuring clear ownership, practical field design, and disciplined change management.

• Serve as a senior operational gatekeeper and field advocate in enterprise planning forums.

** Affordable Way Leadership & Enterprise Operating Standards **

• Lead the continued development, maturation, and operationalization of the Affordable Way as a durable enterprise operating model.

• Ensure the Affordable Way translates into clear, practical, and measurable operating expectations for clinics, field leaders, and support teams.

• Oversee the development and maintenance of standardized operating routines, including daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly rhythms.

• Partner with Training, Clinical, Compliance, HR, IT, Lab, and Field Operations to embed Affordable Way standards into SOPs, tools, leader expectations, performance management, and field execution routines.

• Support governance of enterprise operating standards, including documentation, version control, change control, adoption tracking, and continuous improvement.

• Ensure operating standards are practical, field-tested, and designed to improve consistency without eliminating necessary local flexibility.

• Monitor adoption, execution quality, and business impact of Affordable Way routines and standards.

** Operational Analytics, Reporting & Insights-to-Action **

• Own the Operations Services reporting and insights agenda, ensuring leaders have a clear view of performance, trends, exceptions, root causes, and required actions.

• Direct the development of weekly executive scorecards, Week-in-Review reporting, dashboards, QBR materials, and operational performance readouts.

• Ensure reporting moves beyond data sharing to clear “so what / now what” recommendations.

• Oversee driver-based analysis on operational performance, including revenue growth, margin, scheduling, show rates, capacity, labor, clinic execution, patient experience, and initiative adoption.

• Ensure dashboards and recurring reports are self-serve, reliable, field-relevant, and aligned to one source of truth.

• Partner with IT/Data and Finance to define metrics, improve data quality, pressure-test assumptions, and ensure reporting supports operational decision-making.

• Ensure ad hoc analyses and deep dives are prioritized against business value and converted into action plans with owners, dates, and expected impact.

** Strategy, Business Cases & Decision Support **

• Lead the team in developing business cases, operating models, and decision briefs for key enterprise initiatives.

• Ensure strategic recommendations are grounded in clear problem statements, operational facts, financial impact, risks, tradeoffs, and implementation requirements.

• Oversee scenario modeling and ROI analysis for staffing changes, channel mix, vendor options, routing, market pilots, centralization opportunities, operating model changes, and major field initiatives.

• Partner with Finance on forecasts, sensitivity analyses, and performance outlooks.

• Translate complex operational topics into concise executive-ready materials that clarify options, decisions needed, owners, timelines, and expected outcomes.

• Ensure leadership discussions are supported by clear facts, practical recommendations, and disciplined follow-through.

** Cross-Functional Operational Alignment **

• Serve as a senior liaison between Field Operations and corporate functions to ensure enterprise work is aligned to clinic realities and execution capacity.

• Partner with Operations, Lab, Finance, IT, HR, Marketing, Clinical, Compliance, and Training to align workplans, dependencies, owners, timing, and field support requirements.

• Ensure cross-functional partners understand field workflows, operational constraints, change load, and practical execution requirements.

• Facilitate structured operating forums that improve coordination, decision-making, and accountability across functions.

• Protect the field from unnecessary complexity, redundant work, unclear ownership, or poorly sequenced initiatives.

• Translate field feedback into actionable improvements in initiative design, SOPs, reporting, training, and operating routines.

• Maintain strong relationships with SOLs, DFOs, PDSs, LOMs, GMs, clinical leaders, lab leaders, and corporate stakeholders.

** Operational Project Management & Execution Cadence **

• Oversee operational project management routines for priority Central Operations initiatives.

• Ensure major initiatives have clear charters, milestones, owners, dependencies, decision logs, risks, communications, and success metrics.

• Direct team members responsible for agendas, pre-reads, follow-ups, stakeholder preparation, and project cadence.

• Maintain visibility into key initiatives and escalate risks early when work is off-track, under-resourced, or misaligned.

• Ensure project management is practical and outcome-oriented-not process for process’s sake.

• Drive closure on decisions, action items, and unresolved cross-functional dependencies.

** SOPs, Sustainability & Continuous Improvement **

• Own the enterprise SOP development roadmap in partnership with operational and functional leaders.

• Prioritize SOP development based on value creation, execution risk, field pain points, patient experience, revenue growth, margin improvement, compliance needs, and scalability.

• Ensure SOPs are field-tested, practical, clear, and embedded into daily operations.

• Build mechanisms to measure whether SOPs and operating standards are adopted and sustained.

• Identify material operational gaps and translate them into clear, sequenced improvement priorities.

• Reinforce a culture of accountability, simplicity, continuous improvement, and disciplined execution.

** MEASURES OF SUCCESS **

• Strong execution and sustained adoption of enterprise initiatives

• Reduced rework, relaunches, field confusion, and initiative fatigue

• Clearer operating standards and stronger consistency in clinic execution

• Improved quality and usefulness of executive reporting, dashboards, QBRs, and operational insights

• Better prioritization and sequencing of field-facing work

• Stronger cross-functional alignment, ownership, and decision discipline

• Clear business cases and measurable impact from major operational initiatives

• High confidence from field and corporate leaders in the Operations Services function

• Effective development and performance of direct reports

** EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS / EXPERIENCE **

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Management, Operations, Finance, Analytics, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.

• 7+ years of progressive operations, strategy, analytics, project leadership, or multi-site healthcare/dental operations experience.

• Experience leading teams and influencing senior cross-functional stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to lead enterprise initiatives from strategy through field execution.

• Strong operational and financial acumen, with ability to translate data into practical action.

• Experience with executive reporting, business cases, KPI management, operational dashboards, and performance management routines.

• Experience with dental, healthcare, retail, field operations, or multi-site service environments preferred.

• Familiarity with Dentrix, Power BI, Excel, PowerPoint, and enterprise reporting tools preferred.

• Willingness and ability to travel as required.

** GENERAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES **

• Enterprise operations leadership: able to connect strategy, field execution, operating standards, and measurable business outcomes.

• People leadership: sets clear expectations, develops talent, holds a high bar, and creates accountability without unnecessary bureaucracy.

• Strategic prioritization: distinguishes urgent from important and focuses the team on work that materially improves the business.

• Operational judgment: understands field realities and can identify when an initiative is or is not ready to launch.

• Analytics and decisioning: understands drivers, variance, ROI, sensitivity analysis, and operational performance trends.

• Executive communication: creates clear narratives, concise materials, and decision-ready recommendations.

• Cross-functional influence: can challenge, align, and move senior partners without relying on formal authority.

• Project discipline: ensures priorities have owners, dates, risks, decision points, and follow-through.

• Change management: understands how to sequence work, reduce complexity, and drive sustainable adoption.

• Systems thinking: sees connections across clinic operations, central operations, lab, call center, finance, technology, training, and field leadership.

• Continuous improvement: identifies operational friction and translates it into scalable process improvements.

** PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES **

• Strategic, disciplined thinker with a strong execution bias

• High-credibility operator with a field-first mindset

• Direct, respectful, and comfortable having difficult conversations

• Strong coach and developer of talent

• Highly accountable, organized, and calm under pressure

• Bias toward simplicity, clarity, and measurable outcomes

• Strong judgment, integrity, and professionalism

• Able to negotiate, challenge, align, and drive consensus

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity while creating structure for others

• Focused on outcomes over activity