Senior Director, Laboratory Operations Management

Senior Director, Laboratory Operations Management

Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States | Job ID: CLI-45859-7 | Job Type: Permanent

Job Summary:

This position is responsible for ensuring timely and accurate laboratory reporting and directing the day-to-day operations of the clinical laboratory within a labor management partnership environment. This includes overseeing both credentialed and non-credentialed personnel. The role also involves maintaining competency in laboratory testing, performing bench work as appropriate, and establishing strategies for aligning with quality assurance, safety, compliance, regulatory, and accreditation standards and activities.

Key Responsibilities:

Organizational Development & Talent Management:

• Builds organizational capacity and prepares high potentials for growth opportunities.
• Develops collaborative networks inside and outside the organization.
• Provides a framework for soliciting and acting on performance feedback; drives collaboration for goal setting and performance improvement through feedback and coaching.
• Models and drives continuous learning; oversees recruitment, selection, and development of talent.
• Stays current with industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices.
• Ensures performance management guidelines meet business needs.
• Acts as a thought leader on industry trends and best practices, sharing them across teams.
• Motivates and empowers teams, maintaining a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning resource plans with business objectives.
• Provides guidance for difficult decisions and creates opportunities for expanded decision-making scope.

Operations Oversight & Strategic Alignment:

• Oversees the operation of multiple units/departments by identifying member and operational needs.
• Manages work assignment allocation and completion.
• Translates business strategy into actionable business requirements.
• Ensures products/services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies.
• Engages strategic, cross-functional business units to champion business plans and priorities.
• Assumes responsibility for decision-making, setting standards, measuring progress, and resolving escalated issues.
• Sets and communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts for business plans.
• Anticipates and removes obstacles impacting performance; addresses performance gaps and implements contingency plans.
• Ensures teams accomplish business objectives; serves as a subject-matter expert and trusted source to executive leadership.
• Provides influence and consultation in the development of larger organizational or business strategy.

Testing & Training Standards:

• Champions strategic initiatives through the development and implementation of technical and/or non-technical training materials.
• Oversees standards for training and/or training resources.
• Establishes competency standards for personnel.
• Ensures current and future training needs are met through comprehensive plans for in-service and competency training programs.
• Completes own training.

Compliance & Accreditation:

• Oversees a comprehensive framework of policies and work instructions for alignment with regulations, license requirements, accreditation standards, and inspection checklists for laboratories.
• Establishes and implements standards to evaluate adherence to requirements for recruitment, processing, testing, storage, and distribution of materials and samples.
• Champions corrective and preventive actions for regulatory/accreditation deficiencies.
• Communicates the importance of timely renewal of all applicable licenses.
• Sets standards for updating technical and/or non-technical documentation.

Inter-Service Liaison & Strategic Relationships:

• Guides the organization's response to regulatory/accreditation changes, inspection citations, and relevant trends.
• Provides strategic guidance to cross-functional teams on evaluating and improving quality management systems.
• Champions strategies for networking and collaborating across internal teams to align lab operations, quality, and utilization.
• Initiates and manages strategic relationships with external stakeholders, including vendors, public health organizations, and other healthcare providers.
• Oversees efforts to align with healthcare providers on community health concerns and referred testing.
• Develops and communicates strategic expectations for alignment with local and national standards, regulations, and technology utilization.

Medical Laboratory Operations & Process Improvement:

• Oversees and enhances strategies for efficient operations, quality, service, patient safety, member/customer satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness.
• Ensures innovative work plan process deployment to improve systems across the continuum of care.
• Champions new testing methodologies, processes, and technology.
• Ensures resolution of onsite facilities issues and establishes strategies for resolving them with internal and external vendors.
• Establishes strategies with internal and external vendors.
• Drives strategic priorities for personnel needs during varying workloads.
• Ensures comprehensive inventory and maintenance systems, driving efficient utilization of supplies and conducting strategic analyses for usage and costs.
• Ensures appropriate communication and support for ongoing project management, including status reports and progress reviews.

Service Quality Management:

• Aligns policies and procedures for audit and process improvement projects with overall organizational strategy.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of corrective actions, preventive actions, and process improvements based on quality audits.
• Formulates and drives plans for correcting deviations from expected quality control results.
• Develops and oversees comprehensive strategies to ensure tests are performed properly and results are verified.
• Promotes adherence to procedures and protocols for specimen collection and processing.
• Provides expert guidance to resolve proficiency testing concerns.
• Oversees the application of innovative strategies to resolve problems related to pre-analytical, analytical, or post-analytical testing.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum four (4) years of experience managing operational or project budgets.
• Minimum five (5) years of experience in a leadership role with direct reports in a healthcare-related field.
• Bachelor's degree in medical lab science or equivalent, or health care related field AND minimum twelve (12) years of experience in medical technology, clinical laboratory sciences, or health care related field OR Minimum fifteen (15) years of experience in medical technology, clinical laboratory sciences, or health care related field.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs):

• Business Process Improvement
• Cost Optimization
• Operational Excellence
• Operations Management
• Compliance Management
• Confidentiality
• Health Care Compliance
• Maintain Files and Records
• Employee Training
• Stakeholder Management
• Legal and Regulatory Requirements
• Safety Management
• Computer Literacy
• Member Service
• Medical Sanitation and Infection Control
• Medical Terminology
• Health Care Quality Standards
• Medical Equipment
• Quality Improvement
• Quality Assurance and Effectiveness
• Patient Sample Collection

Employee Status: Regular | Travel: Yes, 25% of the Time | Job Level: Director/Senior Director | Job Type: Standard