Senior Director, Infection Prevention

Kaiser Permanente; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaiser Permanente is seeking a leader to define and develop annual infection prevention and control programs across the organization. You will establish action plans to address outbreaks, exposures, and pandemics, and lead performance improvement design efforts to align with national standards.

You will partner with the occupational health department to deploy initiatives that protect staff from infectious diseases while ensuring standardization across departments and regions.

Responsibilities

• Builds organizational capacity and develops talent; fosters collaboration and feedback to improve performance.
• Oversees multi-unit operations; translates strategy into actionable requirements and allocates resources.
• Educates staff on infection prevention; aligns standards with national accreditation.
• Provides epidemiology expertise; partners with leadership and occupational health on threats.

Job description

Job Summary:

Defines and develops annual infection prevention and control programs. Establishes and integrates action plans to address infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics, and pandemics. Leads performance improvement design efforts. Establishes and aligns infection prevention and control educational programs with national standards and accreditation requirements. Partners with occupational health department to define and deploy initiatives to protect and prevent injuries from occupational exposure to infectious disease(s).

Essential Responsibilities:

• Builds organizational capacity and prepares high potentials for growth opportunities and advancement; builds collaborative networks inside and outside the organization for self and others. Provides framework for soliciting and acting on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Models and drives continuous learning and oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; stays current with industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Acts as a thought leader on industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; shares best practices within and across teams to drive improvement. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning cross-functional resource plans with business objectives. Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact across teams.


• Oversees the operation of multiple units and/or departments by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment allocation and completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and/or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Engages strategic, cross-functional business units to champion and drive support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and ensures resolution of escalated issues. Sets and communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; obtains and distributes resources. Anticipates and removes obstacles that impact performance; addresses performance gaps and implements contingency plans accordingly; 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 the larger organizational or business strategy.


• Educates others on infection prevention and control by: overseeing the development and implementation of all education and training programs; establishing and aligning KP standards with national standards and accreditation requirements; and championing the development and dissemination of best practices in infection prevention and control.


• Provides expertise in epidemiology by: serving as an expert and partnering with leadership in preparations and responses to emerging infection disease threats and/or exposures; and partnering with occupational health department to define and deploy initiatives to protect and prevent injuries from occupational exposure to infectious disease(s).


• Utilizes epidemiological principles to conduct surveillance by: evaluating findings from investigations and interviews and establishing and implementing action plans to address infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics, and pandemics; ensuring alignment and deployment of surveillance program to monitor infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics and pandemics; partnering with key stakeholders and agencies (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], Department of Health, Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA]) to ensure infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics, and pandemics are addressed promptly.


• Participating in performance improvement initiatives by: leading performance improvement design efforts to facilitate key organizational objectives and evaluating the process and effectiveness of infection prevention and control programs; developing overall direction of strategic continuous improvement initiatives; actively participating in leadership meetings and partnering with key stakeholders to ensure alignment of priorities; providing strategic support to alleviate issues or blockers to performance improvement initiatives; and serving as a subject matter expert on external councils, committees, and groups.


• Engages in ongoing surveillance by: defining and developing annual infection prevention and control program plan; ensuring infection prevention and control programs are uniform and consistent and provide standardized quality of care across the continuum of care; establishing infection prevention and control policies and protocols standards and ensuring adherence to KP and national (e.g., Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], National Healthcare Safety Network [NHSN]) standards; coordinating with key stakeholders to address problems in clinical space and practices related to infection prevention/control (e.g., patient waiting areas, respiratory etiquette station, cleaning procedures, sterilization); synthesizing and presenting changes to infection prevention and control regulatory and accreditation standards at the local, state, and federal levels to key leaders to ensure and maintain compliance standards.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: (Core)

• Ambiguity/Uncertainty Management


• Attention to Detail


• Business Knowledge


• Communication


• Constructive Feedback


• Critical Thinking


• Cross-Group Collaboration


• Decision Making


• Dependability


• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Support


• Drives Results


• Facilitation Skills


• Health Care Industry


• Influencing Others


• Integrity


• Leadership


• Learning Agility


• Organizational Savvy


• Problem Solving


• Short- and Long-term Learning & Recall


• Strategic Thinking


• Team Building


• Teamwork


• Topic-Specific Communication

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: (Functional)

• Bloodborne Pathogen Knowledge


• Business Documentation


• Business Process Improvement


• Change Management


• Compliance Management


• Confidentiality


• Consulting


• Critical Facility Operations Knowledge


• Emergency Preparedness


• Facilities Management/Operations


• Hazard Mitigation


• Health Care Compliance


• Health Care Data Analytics


• Health Care Outcome Data


• Information Gathering


• Issues and Crisis Management


• Laboratory Procedures


• Maintain Files and Records


• Operational Excellence


• Patient Safety


• Preventative Maintenance


• Quality Assurance Process


• Risk Management


• Safety and Environmental Health Management


• Trend Analysis


• Written Communication

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.


• Minimum seven (7) years of experience in infection prevention, clinical quality management, or a directly related field.


• Masters degree in Nursing, Public Health, Epidemiology, Microbiology, or related field AND ten (10) years of health care/professional experience INCLUDING minimum seven (7) years of experience in patient management, occupational health, clinical rounds, laboratory, public health, or a directly related field OR Bachelors degree in Nursing, Public Health, Epidemiology, Microbiology, or related field AND minimum twelve (12) years of health care/professional experience INCLUDING minimum nine (9) years of experience in patient management, occupational health, clinical rounds, laboratory, public health, or a directly related field OR Minimum fifteen (15) years of experience in patient management, occupational health, clinical rounds, laboratory, or a directly related field.

• Infection Control Certificate

Preferred Qualifications:

• Registered Nurse License in the state where care is provided.