Executive Vice President/COO

Arkansas Children's; Little Rock (AR); On-site; USD 350,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Arkansas Children’s seeks an Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer to lead systemwide clinical and operational excellence across hospital, ambulatory services, access, capacity, and operations. Reporting to the President and CEO, this role aligns leaders, translates strategy into disciplined execution, and advances safe, high-quality, family-centered care.

The EVP/COO will develop leadership capacity, foster collaboration, and serve as a senior advisor to the CEO, with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field required.
• Master's degree preferred.
• 15 years of relevant experience with at least 10 years in a leadership role; alternative: high school diploma with 19 years of experience and leadership.
• Clinical background preferred but not required; supports partnerships with physicians, nurses, and clinicians.

Responsibilities

• Set operational strategy for clinical and operational enterprise across hospital and ambulatory settings.
• Lead high-performing leadership teams and drive continuous improvement and accountability.
• Align service lines, capacity, and external partnerships with mission, values, and long-term goals.
• Oversee budgets for large operational areas and ensure resource allocation and financial resilience.
• Represent the organization in external forums and lead enterprise-level performance metrics and governance.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Healthcare operations

Executive communication

People development

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Master's degree preferred

Job description

Summary:
Lead systemwide clinical and operational excellence.

Additional Information:
Reporting to the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (EVP/COO) provides enterprise leadership for Arkansas Children’s clinical and operational functions, including hospital, ambulatory, service line, access, capacity, and systemwide operations. The EVP/COO serves as an operator, transformer, and integrator—aligning leaders, translating strategy into disciplined execution, and advancing safe, high-quality, accessible, family-centered care.

As an executive leadership team member and senior advisor to the CEO, the EVP/COO aligns clinical and operational leaders, develops high-performing leadership teams, strengthens organizational capabilities, and fosters a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. The EVP/COO serves as a senior liaison with key external partners and may represent the CEO internally and externally. The role requires enterprise judgment, Board-facing presence, stakeholder influence, external credibility, philanthropy and advocacy orientation, and statewide mission leadership.

A clinical background demonstrated through clinical training, prior clinical practice, or active professional licensure is preferred but not required. This background should support credible partnerships and effective collaboration with physicians, nurses, and other clinical professionals.

Description:
Set and communicate the operational strategy for Arkansas Children's clinical and operational enterprise, aligning leaders, teams, service lines, locations, and key external partners around the organization's mission, values, and long-term goals. Serve as a senior advisor and representative of the CEO as appropriate, demonstrating Board-facing presence, stakeholder influence, external credibility, philanthropy and advocacy orientation, and statewide mission leadership. Inspire, develop, and empower a large and diverse workforce, fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, accountability, and leadership excellence to deliver safe, high-qualify, accessible, family-centered care and achieve enterprise business outcomes.

Develop and implement operational strategies for a significant enterprise function, anticipating changing healthcare trends, workforce needs, access challenges, capacity demands, financial pressures, regulatory expectations, and care delivery opportunities. Advance regionalization of care by aligning services, capacity, partnerships, virtual care, ambulatory access, referral management, scheduling access, and other delivery models to bring specialized pediatric care closer to children and families. Ensure strategies are translated into practical priorities, integrated plans, and sustainable results that meet long-term organizational needs.

Lead the design, development, and delivery of the organization’s operational strategy and outcomes across hospitals, ambulatory settings, service lines, access, capacity, patient flow, and systemwide operations. Establish effective operating models, decision rights, and execution routines that strengthen coordination with physician, nursing, clinical, and operational leaders; reduce unnecessary variation; improve the human experience; and support timely, enterprise-focused decision-making.

Lead the creation, execution, and implementation of an organization-wide business performance metrics strategy that aligns operational, quality, safety, access, workforce, patient and family experience, growth, regulatory readiness, and financial goals across business units. Use data and disciplined performance routines to identify opportunities, address gaps, improve accountability, strengthen trust, satisfaction, and loyalty, and sustain measurable results.

Lead the creation, execution, and implementation of a continuous improvement strategy for major areas of the enterprise, challenging traditional operating models and advancing innovation, disciplined experimentation, adaptability, risk-aware decision-making, and sustainable transformation. Partner across clinical, physician, nursing, research, academic, technology, and operational functions to accelerate evidence-based practices, new treatments, digital connectivity, and innovative models of care.

Take overall responsibility for setting, approving, and stewarding budgets for large operational areas or major parts of the business in alignment with organizational strategy. Ensure responsible resource allocation, productivity management, margin improvement, capital planning, facility and technology investment, and sustainable performance while balancing mission, quality, access, affordability, innovation, resilience, and growth.

Lead the development of annual and multiyear business plans for significant operational functions, ensuring alignment with enterprise strategy and integration across key activities, projects, stakeholders, and infrastructure needs. Define expected outcomes, accountabilities, resource requirements, key performance indicators, financial and workforce assumptions, operational workforce strategies, leadership capability needs, emergency preparedness, enterprise risk readiness, coordinated response and recovery, and execution priorities.

Lead the creation of a strategic workforce plan for the organization to provide a framework for sourcing and developing talent and enable delivery of the business strategy.

Identify the organizational and leadership capabilities needed to meet current and emerging enterprise needs. Evaluate capabilities across clinical and operational functions, identify gaps, and prioritize development investments that support business strategy. Partner with Human Resources to optimize talent by aligning workforce strengths and capabilities with enterprise priorities. Hold senior leaders accountable for developing their teams and creating meaningful opportunities for employee growth. Embed continuous learning and people development into the organization’s culture, and strengthen capabilities across the organization through executive coaching, mentoring, and shared learning.

Manage and report on business performance; hold direct reports accountable for achievement of business plans, and take corrective action where necessary to ensure the achievement of business objectives, balancing the need to deliver short-term business objectives with the longer-term delivery of stakeholder value.

Represent the organization or institution in a variety of industry, institutional, and/or professional forums, boards, and committees in order to promote the company or institution brand or efforts. Represent the organization in external relations with investors, clients, industry, partners, the public, and others. Will focus on a significant function, department, or equivalent area of the business. May involve preparation of presentations and materials for professional partnering meetings, seminars, and conferences.

Take overall responsibility for designing, developing, and delivering the organization's corporate social responsibility strategy and services, ensuring full compliance and accountability.

Participate in the development of corporate strategy for a local organization, applying functional expertise to test the viability of the strategy and contributing creative ideas and insights to support the strategy formation process.

Develop strategic organizational policies for an extensive area of the business.

Identify and manage stakeholders up to and including the C-suite, finding out their needs, issues, and concerns and reacting to them by leading and coordinating the development of stakeholder engagement plans to support the communication of business information and decisions.

Required Education:
Bachelor's degree in a related field of study.

Recommended Education:
Master's degree in a related field of study.

Required Work Experience:
Bachelor’s degree and 15 years of relevant experience, including at least 10 years in a leadership role, OR High School Diploma/GED with 19 years of relevant experience, including at least 10 years in a leadership role