Assistant Director of Sterile Processing and Clinical Support Operations - School of Dental Medicine

Overview

Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) offers one of the most forward‑looking educational environments in dental medicine in the country. Since its founding in 1868, TUSDM has been committed to leadership in education, patient care, research, and community service. Students obtain an interdisciplinary education, integrated with medicine, with access to training in dental specialties. Clinics managed at TUSDM provide quality comprehensive care to more than 20,000 individuals annually.

Nationally and internationally, the School promotes health and educational programs and researches new procedures, materials, and technologies to improve oral health.

Clinical Administration supports the clinical and educational efforts within the pre‑doctoral and postgraduate clinic operations. The Clinical Administration staff provides courteous, professional, and effective support services and is committed to providing patients, students, and faculty with information, guidance, and quality service to contribute to a successful dental clinic experience. This includes maintaining a safe environment, assuring that patients’ dental needs are addressed in a caring, confidential, timely, and thorough manner, and ensuring that patients are informed about their treatment and clinic procedures and that patients’ finances are handled accurately and efficiently.

The Assistant Director of Sterile Processing and Clinical Support Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for the Central Sterilization Facility and related clinical support workflows within Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. This role is responsible for ensuring the safe, compliant, efficient, and service‑oriented delivery of sterile processing operations that support patient care, clinical education, and special programs across the School.

The Assistant Director leads through supervisors and frontline staff to ensure that instrumentation, handpieces, burs, files, and related clinical support assets are properly decontaminated, inspected, assembled, packaged, sterilized, stored, distributed, tracked, and maintained in accordance with institutional expectations and all applicable regulatory and professional standards. The role is also responsible for strengthening operational discipline, workflow reliability, documentation standards, staff development, quality assurance, readiness planning, and cross‑functional communication across the sterile processing environment.

This individual will serve as the senior operational leader for sterile processing and associated clinical support operations, with emphasis on governance, standardization, accountability, customer service, continuous improvement, and risk reduction. The Assistant Director will partner closely with clinical leadership, Materials Management, Infection Control, Quality and Safety, Facilities, vendors, and other internal stakeholders to ensure that sterile processing operations remain aligned with the needs of the clinics, the educational mission of the school, and all relevant standards and requirements.

The Assistant Director must be comfortable operating in a complex, fast‑paced, highly regulated environment and must be able to translate strategic priorities into sustainable operational processes. This role is expected to build strong teams, develop leaders, strengthen systems, and identify opportunities to improve service, reduce operational risk, and support future growth in scope and integration.

• Sterile Processing and Clinical Support Operations Leadership

  Oversees the daily operations of the Central Sterilization Facility and provides senior operational leadership for sterile processing functions and associated clinical support workflows across the dental school. Ensures that instruments, handpieces, burs, endo files, and related clinical assets are appropriately inventoried, decontaminated, inspected, assembled, packaged, sterilized, stored, distributed, and tracked in a quality and timely manner. Ensures that reprocessing workflows are designed and maintained in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions for use, regulatory…