Executive Director, Strategy & Operations, Agentic AI in Healthcare Delivery

Job Summary:

We are seeking an Executive Director to serve as the senior operational and strategic leader for a large, multi-center, multi-year AI initiative focused on one of the largest and most robust evaluations of agentic AI solutions ever conducted. The program is funded by the U.S. Government and involves Kaiser Permanente health system leadership, external vendors, and federal stakeholders with a specific focus on optimization heart failure care at scale within a real world, integrated healthcare delivery system. The Executive Director will function as the chief integrator and operational executive, partnering closely with the project-s Multiple Principal Investigators (MPIs). This role carries enterprise-level responsibility to align strategy, execution, finances, and governance across key stakeholders and teams. The executive director will help lead a multidisciplinary program team including data scientists, cardiologists, data analysts, information technology leaders, and senior physicians in the organization and coordinate all deliverables (operational and financial) for the project. The position will report to the Contact Principal Investigator and will be based at the Division of Research within Kaiser Permanente Research - Northern California.

Manages the delivery of large-scale projects from initiation to close-out. Manages project team(s), holding them accountable for results, and provides guidance to teams regarding internal and/or external resource requests. Proactively monitors, identifies, and mitigates risks, issues, and trigger events within and across multiple inter-dependent projects. Manages the alignment, buy-in, and support of project stakeholders. Manages vendor performance, provides guidance for service improvements, and manages relationships and contract negotiations with vendors.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Creates and advocates for developmental opportunities for others; builds collaborative, cross-functional relationships. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; works with leaders and employees to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to drive performance improvement. Pursues professional growth; hires, trains, and develops talent for growth opportunities; strategically evaluates talent for succession planning; sets performance management guidelines and expectations across teams / units. Oversees implementation, adapts, and stays up to date with organizational change, challenges, feedback, best practices, processes, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Fosters open dialogue amongst team members, engages, motivates, and promotes collaboration within and across teams; motivates teams to meet business objectives. Delegates tasks and decisions as appropriate; provides appropriate support, guidance and scope; encourages development and consideration of options in decision making; fosters access to stakeholders.
• Manages designated units or teams by translating business plans into tactical action items; oversees the completion of work assignments and identifies opportunities for improvement; ensures all policies and procedures are followed; partners with key stakeholders and business leaders to ensure products and / or services meet requirements and expectations while aligning with departmental strategies. Aligns team efforts; builds accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results; assumes responsibility for decision making; fosters direct reports to resolve escalated issues as appropriate. Communicates goals and objectives; incorporates resources, costs, and forecasts into team and unit plans; ensures matrixed resources are fulfilling service or performance requirements across reporting lines. Removes obstacles that impact performance; identifies and addresses improvement opportunities; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; influences teams and units to operate in alignment with operational and business objectives.
• Manages the delivery of large-scale projects with responsibility and accountability for project outcomes from initiation to close-out. Oversees development and execution of assigned project plans, including scope identification and management, schedule, inter-dependencies, and resource forecast. Ensures project financials of assigned projects are managed within budget allocations. Proactively monitors project performance (e.g., on time, on budget, within scope, and with quality) against plan, ensuring measurement of business benefits and outcomes, and makes adjustments as needed. Manages project activities related to organizational change management (e.g., development and execution of user adoption, implementation, and training plans) as defined by the project. Establishes proper allocation of resources, establishes schedules, and task assignments to ensure established project management practices are in place.
• Manages project team(s) and holds team members accountable for results. Provides guidance to teams in reference to internal and/or external resource requests based on the alignment of team member skills and project demands. Empowers teams to develop and communicate a clear vision of project goals and objectives to the team. Delivers performance feedback to project managers.
• Proactively monitors, identifies, and mitigates project risks, issues, and trigger events across multiple inter-dependent projects by developing mitigation plans and strategies; and resolving or escalating risks or issues as appropriate.
• Manages adherence of project activities to policies and procedures by ensuring project plans and team members follow KP, departmental, and/or business line policies and procedures.
• Manages the alignment, buy-in, engagement and support of diverse project stakeholders by building and maintaining relationships as well as communicating appropriately with internal customers, third party vendors, senior and/or executive management, and business leaders; and clarifying accountability and authority across stakeholders. Builds close relationships with key stakeholders across multiple functions based on their level of influence and decision making. Manages project goals, influences the prioritization of deliverables, coordinates all business processes (e.g. project change management, communication) and facilitates decisions necessary for project delivery by partnering with project sponsors and/or review boards. Communicates tough issues to stakeholders while maintaining an independent opinion, providing recommendations, delivering formal presentations, and providing reports to senior and/or executive audiences.
• Manages vendor performance and provides guidance for service improvements or revisions to strategy. Partners with Procurement and/or Legal to develop service level and/or scope of work agreements as appropriate. Manages relationships and contract negotiations with vendors, and resolves issues with vendor invoices.