Senior Director, Laboratory Operations Management

Kaiser Permanente; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta, GA leads a comprehensive clinical laboratory operation, directing day-to-day bench work, quality assurance, safety, and regulatory compliance across sections of the laboratory in a labor-management partnership environment.

The role emphasizes building leadership capacity, preparing high potentials, aligning staffing with business goals, and ensuring timely, accurate reporting while maintaining competency and advocating continuous improvement in collaboration with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in medical lab science or related field and experience requirement as stated in the job posting.
• 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.

Responsibilities

• Directs day-to-day operations of the clinical laboratory.
• Ensures timely and accurate laboratory reporting.
• Maintains competency in laboratory testing and bench work.
• Establishes strategies for quality assurance, safety, compliance, and accreditation.
• Oversees training, competency, and development of personnel.
• Guides regulatory/accreditation readiness and document control.
• Coordinates with executive leadership and external stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Budget management

Healthcare knowledge

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor's degree in medical lab science or related field

Job description

Job Summary

In addition to the responsibilities listed below, this position is also responsible for ensuring timely and accurate laboratory reporting in the section they oversee; directing day-to-day operations of the clinical laboratory in a labor management partnership environment, including both credentialed and non-credentialed personnel; maintaining competency in laboratory testing and performing bench work as appropriate; and establishing strategies for aligning with quality assurance, safety, compliance, regulatory, and accreditation standards and activities.

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.
• Maintains testing and training standards by: championing the departments strategic initiatives and their advancement through the development and implementation of comprehensive technical and/or non‑technical training materials while also overseeing standards for training and/or training resources; establishing the organizations competency standards for personnel; and ensuring current and future training needs are met, developing comprehensive plans for regular, in‑service, and competency training programs, and completing own training.
• Maintains compliance and accreditation by: overseeing a comprehensive framework of policies and work instructions to drive alignment with applicable regulations, license requirements, accreditation standards, and inspection checklists pertaining to laboratories and facilities where testing is performed; establishing and implementing standards to evaluate adherence to all requirements related to the recruitment, processing, testing, storage, and distribution of materials and samples; championing innovative corrective and preventive actions for addressing technical and/or non‑technical deficiencies in regulatory/accreditation inspection processes; communicating the importance of timely renewal of all applicable licenses; and setting standards for updating technical and/or non‑technical documentation across the department.
• Serves as a link between medical laboratory services and other services by: guiding the organizations response to regulatory/accreditation changes and issues, inspection citations, current events, and trends relevant to services, quality, and training; providing strategic guidance and direction to cross‑functional teams on evaluating and improving technical and/or non‑technical quality management systems; championing strategies for networking and collaborating across internal teams locally and nationally to coordinate and align lab operations, quality, and utilization; initiating and managing strategic relationships with stakeholders/senior leadership at external vendors, local/state/national public health and safety organizations, and other health care providers; overseeing efforts to align with health care providers on community health concerns and referred testing; and developing and communicating strategic expectations for alignment with local and national standards and regulations, and utilization of technology and initiatives.
• Ensures medical laboratory operations and improves processes by: overseeing and enhancing strategies and efficient operations, quality, service, patient safety, member/customer satisfaction, and cost effectiveness through evaluation and standardization of technical and/or non‑technical services and processes; ensuring innovative work plan process deployment to improve systems across the continuum of care; championing new testing methodologies, processes, and technology that have the potential to improve service, quality, and/or efficiency; ensuring resolution of onsite facilities issues of varying complexity and establishing strategies for resolving such issues with internal and external vendors; establishing strategies with internal and external vendors; ensuring organizational efforts to cultivate teams and promote a progressive work environment; driving strategic priorities for personnel needs during periods of varying technical and/or non‑technical work load, as applicable; ensuring comprehensive inventory and maintenance systems, driving efficient utilization of supplies inventory, and conducting strategic analyses to estimate short‑term and long‑term usage and costs; and ensuring appropriate communication and support for ongoing technical and/or non‑technical project management, including local, regional, and national initiatives, status reports, and periodic progress reviews.
• Manages service quality by: aligning applicable policies and procedures for audit and process improvement projects with overall organizational strategy; evaluating the effectiveness of corrective actions, preventive actions, and process improvements based on internal and external quality audits of technical and/or non‑technical processes; formulating and driving plans for correcting deviations from expected quality control results; developing and overseeing comprehensive strategies to ensure that tests are performed properly and results are verified before being shared; promoting adherence to procedures and protocols to ensure specimens are collected and processed according to established time and quality standards; providing expert guidance to resolve proficiency testing concerns; and overseeing the application of innovative strategies to resolve problems of varying complexity related to pre‑analytical (collection, processing, etc.), analytical, or post‑analytical testing, as applicable.

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.
• Bachelors 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.

Additional Requirements

• 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

Preferred Qualifications

• Technical Supervisor Certification from the American Board of Bioanalysis.
• Medical Technologist Certification.