Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead - PMO Enterprise

POSITION SUMMARY

The Performance Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead provides advanced enterprise support for performance improvement, operational excellence, patient safety, regulatory readiness, and care delivery improvement initiatives across Health First. The Performance Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead functions as a high-impact individual contributor within the Enterprise PMO and performance improvement structure, translating system priorities into structured improvement work, facilitating cross-functional alignment, and advancing complex initiatives through influence rather than direct supervisory authority.

In partnership with physician, nursing, operational, quality, patient safety, regulatory, finance, analytics, and executive leaders, the Performance Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead position drives measurable improvements in operational reliability, care delivery effectiveness, process standardization, reduction of unwarranted variation, patient experience, and organizational performance. The Performance Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead is not a departmental quality position; it provides enterprise improvement leadership and execution support across clinical, operational, regulatory, safety, financial, and performance priorities.

• Supports enterprise performance improvement, operational excellence, patient safety, regulatory readiness, and care delivery improvement initiatives that strengthen reliability, reduce unwarranted variation, improve efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and advance organizational priorities.
• Translates systemwide operational, clinical, safety, regulatory, financial, and performance priorities into structured improvement plans, charters, workplans, milestones, outcome measures, and sustainment strategies.
• Partners with physician leaders, nursing leadership, operational executives, quality, finance, analytics, regulatory, patient safety, and interdisciplinary teams to identify opportunities, prioritize improvement work, and implement evidence-based, operationally sustainable solutions.
• Applies Lean, Six Sigma, change management, project management, systems thinking, and structured problem-solving methods to optimize processes, reduce waste, strengthen standard work, and improve care delivery outcomes.
• Facilitates cross-functional governance routines, including meeting structure, agenda development, decision tracking, barrier escalation, risk mitigation, and executive-ready communication of progress and impact.
• Partners with data and analytics teams to define, monitor, interpret, and communicate performance measures, dashboards, scorecards, trends, and key performance indicators aligned to internal goals, external benchmarks, and regulatory requirements.
• Develops standard work, improvement playbooks, scalable toolkits, templates, and best practices that support consistency, compliance, spread, and sustained performance improvement across the system.
• Coaches project teams, clinicians, and frontline stakeholders in improvement methods, disciplined problem-solving, change adoption, sustainment planning, and performance monitoring.
• Supports regulatory, accreditation, patient safety, and quality readiness efforts by aligning improvement work with applicable standards, reporting expectations, operational requirements, and measurable performance outcomes.
• Influences stakeholders without direct supervisory responsibility, building consensus, maintaining momentum, and engaging partners across hospitals, service lines, departments, and enterprise teams.

• Education:
  
  Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration, Nursing, Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, Industrial…