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The Director, Operations, Health Systems Optimization is responsible for the national strategy to optimize Quest managed hospital operations while enabling growth in hospital partnership business. The Director leads and motivates a dedicated national team focused on optimizing existing processes, workflows, & systems to improve cost efficiency, quality, and service in Quest managed hospital laboratories. This role drives change from the center resulting in enterprise improvements, embedding in regions to drive key operating margin savings targets. The Director will enhance our strategy to deepen our relationships w/ Professional Laboratory Services (PLS) clients by using benchmarks and incorporating best practices showing our value differentiator. Collaborates with the regional and Quest hospital leadership to ensure full execution on PLS service delivery improvement commitments. S/He will ensure service excellence with patient care as a primary objective while adhering to contracted terms.

• Management of key business and strategic Health System projects with focus on operations optimization and accelerating growth
• Manages a portfolio of initiatives that drive improvement in Quest managed hospitals meeting key timelines and deliverables.
• Direct and manage the Health System Optimization team of three Manager/Sr Manager level staff through improving & sustaining long term performance of Professional Laboratory Services partnerships.
• Optimize performance of Quest managed hospitals based on benchmark data. Improve operations in Quest managed hospitals by focusing on network & process optimization, people management, supply optimization and asset management.
• Applies continuous improvement tools and techniques, as well as other QMS principles and tools, toward a variety of large and complex problems. Actively identifies root causes of issues and designs solutions that address them.
• Leads design and process improvement addressing clinical and operational productivity performance, workforce efficiency, supply optimization & asset management while ensuring patient safety. Designs systems to monitor improvement to ensure performance is sustained and effective.
• Leads operational best practices to deliver flawless quality and service to HS clients.
• Collaborate w/ regional senior leadership and PLS hospital leadership to provide standardization in Quest hospital managed laboratory support & national network for collaboration post implementation.
• Collaborate with Key Accounts team to resolve quality and service-related operational issues for new or existing professional lab services clients.
• Will effectively manage internal and external stakeholders in a matrix environment, balancing needs and driving toward desired outcomes.
• Contributes toward building a grass-roots culture of continuous improvement, use of big data analytics techniques, system thinking, and cross-functional collaboration
• A true change agent that manages the assessment, measurement, and evaluation of the ongoing impact of changes, adjusting strategies as needed to drive sustainable change and maximize business value.

Qualifications:

• 10 or more years working in the laboratory industry and demonstrated experience in leading large or complex projects/continuous improvement initiatives with multiple workstreams from initiation to completion.
• Bachelor's Degree (Required); Master's Degree (Preferred)
• Experience in a hospital setting
• Experience with leading a team preferred
• Considerable knowledge of the hospital laboratory and laboratory industry in general.
• Lean six sigma, continuous improvement and/or project management and change management principles

• Demonstrate business growth focused leadership skills
• Demonstrated understanding of continuous improvement, process management, or system thinking (value stream thinking)
• Strong project management, organizational and analytical skills
• Ability to manage large and/or complex multi-hospital implementations
• Ability to manage multiple engagements concurrently.
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills
• Ability to work in a very dynamic team environment.
• Demonstrated management and leadership skills
• Strong client interaction skills
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Proficiency with key PC software (Microsoft Suite, mapping, minitab)
• ASCP Certification required
• Formal training in project management or continuous improvement methodologies (e.g., Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Lean, Theory of Constraints) (Required)
• Six Sigma Certified Black Belt (Required)

Competencies:

• Ability to drive results
• Strong project managers w/ diligent attention to timelines and budgets
• Skillful collaborators
• Have a sense of urgency to act on decisions with both speed and precision
• Proven experience in relentlessly identifying and delivering on cost reductions by working alongside the laboratory leaders and working on the lab floor (Gemba)
• Up to 50% Travel requirement
• Creative problem solver
• Identify innovative ways and tools ultimately resulting in the optimization playbook
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Strong Influential skills

Quest Diagnostics is an equal employment opportunity employer. Our policy is to recruit, hire and promote qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other status protected by state or local law. Quest Diagnostics observes minimum age requirements established by federal, state and/or local laws, and will ask an applicant for verification when deemed necessary.