Director, Access Strategy and Operations

About the Role

The Director, Access Strategy and Operations, serves as a strategic and operational partner to the Senior Director of Patient Access, providing enterprise-level support to advance performance, accountability, and transformation across the Patient Access Organization. This role strengthens initiative governance, execution tracking, and leadership alignment across centralized scheduling, referral intake, capacity management, and access optimization functions.

The Director, Access Strategy and Operations, is responsible for driving execution of complex initiatives, ensuring alignment across access functions, auditing quality and outcomes, and enabling leaders to deliver consistent, high-quality results at scale. This role establishes structured operating cadence, audits work products for quality and readiness, coordinates cross-functional initiatives, and ensures timely delivery of strategic priorities across a complex, matrixed health system environment.

Operating with significant autonomy and influence, this individual acts as an integrator, connecting strategy to execution, surfacing risks and gaps, and ensuring priorities move forward on time and with rigor. The role partners closely with the Patient Access Organization Directors, Administrators, Supervisors, and Access Performance Coaches, as well as cross-disciplinary stakeholders across the health system, to improve the end-to-end patient access journey.

Responsibilities

• Drive execution of complex initiatives across centralized scheduling, referral intake, capacity management, and access optimization functions
• Ensure alignment across access functions and enable leaders to deliver consistent, high-quality results at scale
• Establish structured operating cadence and audit work products for quality and readiness
• Coordinate cross-functional initiatives and ensure timely delivery of strategic priorities
• Surface risks and gaps, ensuring priorities move forward on time and with rigor
• Partner with Patient Access Organization Directors, Administrators, Supervisors, and Access Performance Coaches, as well as cross-disciplinary stakeholders across the health system
• Connect strategy to execution as an integrator across the organization

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Healthcare Administration, Business, Organizational Development, Education, or related field or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience required; Master's degree preferred
• 8+ years of progressive healthcare operations leadership experience with demonstrated advancement in responsibility within ambulatory operations, patient access, service line operations, or large-scale service organizations (required)
• 5+ years of experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives, including direct experience managing enterprise-level projects involving clinical stakeholders, IT, finance, patient experience, or revenue cycle teams (required)
• 5+ years of experience operating in a matrixed health system environment with proven ability to influence without direct authority across departments and leadership levels (required)
• 3+ years of experience supporting or advising senior executive leadership, including experience preparing executive-level materials, driving strategic initiatives, and managing high-visibility priorities (required)
• 3+ years of experience with patient access operations (centralized scheduling, referral intake, capacity management, call center operations, or workflow optimization) (preferred)
• 3+ years of experience in performance management, quality auditing, or operational governance with demonstrated ability to establish accountability structures, review work products for rigor, and standardize operational processes (preferred)