Strategy and Ops Lead

Alpaca Health; New York (NY); On-site; USD 80,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct exposure to company-building

Ownership of critical initiatives

Opportunity to impact families and clinicians

Fast learning curve

Job summary

Alpaca Health is seeking a Strategy and Ops Lead in New York City. This role involves managing prior authorization workflows and enhancing operational processes in insurance. Ideal candidates possess strong analytical skills and experience in consulting or healthcare strategy. The position promises direct exposure to company-building, real ownership of initiatives, and the opportunity to impact families and clinicians positively. This role is in-person, 5 days a week, and best suited for ambitious individuals keen to evolve into leadership roles.

Qualifications

• Experience in consulting, investing, or startup operations.
• Ability to translate complex insurance scenarios into actionable processes.
• Desire to potentially advance towards a founding or senior operation role.

Responsibilities

• Manage prior authorization workflows to ensure timely submissions.
• Identify and implement improvements to the prior authorization process.
• Conduct research on payer pathways and manage eligibility operations.
• Develop patient financial responsibility tools and streamline communications.

Skills

Strong analytical skills

Experience in consulting or healthcare strategy

Ability to manage multiple priorities

Clear communication

Systems thinking

Job description

Alpaca Health enables clinicians to be entrepreneurs, starting in autism care.

We help clinicians launch and scale their own clinics by providing AI-powered software, payer contracting, and full back-office infrastructure. Our goal is simple: shift power in healthcare away from large consolidated entities and back to clinicians.

We are growing quickly and expanding into new states this year. The problems we are solving are operationally complex, high-stakes, and deeply meaningful for families.

We've raised over $14M in funding from early-stage investors like Core Innovations Venture Capital, Adverb Ventures, and South Park Commons, and are building for long-term category leadership. More importantly, we're serving hundreds of patients, while growing 30% MoM.

Role: Strategy and Ops Lead

We are hiring a Strategy and Ops Lead to figure out insurance.

You’ll turn messy, fragmented insurance feedback into clear processes and scalable systems.

Bridge ops and product to use technology to standardize workflows, reduce ambiguity, and drive reliable execution.

This role is perfect for people who are fascinated by the details -- who think strange edge cases are interesting, not (just) annoying.

Note: Salary range represents two levels. Analyst level (80-110k) and Manager level (110-140k), determined based on experience and interview performance.

What You’ll Do

Own prior authorization operations

Manage day-to-day prior authorization workflows across providers and payers.

Partner with providers to resolve issues and ensure timely submissions and approvals.

Improve the prior authorization system

Track and synthesize provider feedback to identify failure points in the process.

Translate insights into product and workflow improvements that increase approval rates and speed.

Build and maintain a system of record for payer-specific documentation requirements.

Continuously refine documentation standards to reduce denials and rework.

Manage reassessments and authorization timelines

Track authorization periods and reassessment deadlines across patients.

Ensure proactive renewals to prevent gaps in care and revenue disruption.

Research complex payer pathways

Investigate and operationalize single case agreements and out-of-network billing strategies.

Develop playbooks for edge cases and non-standard payer scenarios.

Own eligibility operations and escalations

Manage eligibility check workflows and resolve escalations quickly.

Improve accuracy and turnaround time of benefits verification.

Build patient responsibility workflows

Develop tools and processes to clearly determine patient financial responsibility.

Design and implement systems for collecting copays, coinsurance, and balances.

Streamline payer communications

Own fax and payer mailbox operations, including intake, triage, and response workflows.

Identify and implement automation opportunities to increase speed and reliability.

Drive continuous operational improvement

Identify bottlenecks across insurance operations and design scalable solutions.

Work closely with Product and Engineering to embed these improvements into the platform.

• You are extremely ambitious and want to build something meaningful at high velocity.
• You are comfortable working harder and moving faster than most people.
• You thrive in environments with little structure and high accountability.
• You are a systems thinker who instinctively turns chaos into repeatable processes.
• You can manage a large volume of parallel priorities without dropping details.
• You communicate with clarity and judgment, internally and externally.
• You bring strong analytical horsepower and can move between strategy and execution seamlessly.
• You have experience in consulting, investing, startup operations, healthcare strategy, or similarly demanding roles.

This role is best suited for someone who wants to become a founder or senior operator and is willing to earn that opportunity through real responsibility.

NYC-based candidates (or candidates open to relocation). We work 5 days a week in person.

• Direct exposure to company-building at an early stage.
• Real ownership of critical initiatives from day one.
• The opportunity to materially impact families and clinicians.
• A fast learning curve that few roles can match.