Director of Operations Excellence

Established in 1980, the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC) is a multi-site mission-driven non-profit organization employing over 700 staff whose primary focus is providing the highest quality patient care to residents throughout the Merrimack Valley. Nationally recognized as a leader in community medicine (family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, and geriatrics), GLFHC has clinical sites throughout the service area and is the sponsoring organization for the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency program.

GLFHC is currently seeking a Director, Operation Excellence to join our team. Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Chief Operations Officer, the Director of Operations Excellence (OE) leads the strategy development, implementation, and management of Operations Excellence at Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. This role ensures that the organization’s training programs, methodologies, and tools for project management, process design, and process improvement are effective, sustainable, and aligned with organizational goals.

The Director of Operations Excellence is responsible for driving organization-wide operational performance, leading strategic improvement initiatives, and embedding a culture of continuous improvement across the organization. This position partners closely with executive leadership to standardize processes, improve operational efficiency, strengthen organizational capabilities, and support achievement of strategic and operational objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Operations Excellence Leadership

• Lead the development, implementation, and sustainability of the organization’s Operations Excellence strategy.


• Drive organization-wide adoption of continuous improvement methodologies and principles.


• Lead or oversee mission-critical strategic and operational improvement initiatives.


• Develop and implement enterprise-level work processes, systems, and project management standards.


• Identify organizational risks and develop mitigation and risk management plans.


• Diagnose operational inefficiencies and collaborate with stakeholders to implement solutions.


• Facilitate execution of the Strategic Plan through development of goals, objectives, metrics, and performance tracking.


• Standardize methodologies and tools for project management, process design, and process improvement.


• Build organizational capability and OE expertise across departments.

Business Management

• Oversee a matrixed Operations Excellence structure, including Champions, Belts, and Project Managers.


• Ensure alignment of OE initiatives with strategic and operational priorities.


• Develop, direct, and deliver internal OE and Lean Six Sigma training programs.


• Monitor and report key performance indicators (KPIs) and OE dashboard metrics to senior leadership.


• Support operational decision-making through data analysis, reporting, and performance management.

Leadership Competencies

• Establish and communicate a shared vision aligned with organizational values and goals.


• Foster employee engagement, accountability, professional development, and succession planning.


• Build collaborative, high-performing teams across departments and functions.


• Develop and maintain strong professional relationships based on trust and respect.


• Promote service excellence and continuously improve patient, employee, and customer experience.


• Drive innovation, continuous improvement, and organizational change management.


• Demonstrate strong business acumen to achieve operational, financial, quality, and service outcomes.


• Ensure compliance with all organizational policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years of process improvement experience.


• 7–10 years of leadership and management experience.


• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional teams and managing large-scale organizational initiatives.


• Proven project management experience leading more than 20 projects.


• Experience coaching and mentoring Lean Six Sigma practitioners, including Champions, Belts, and Project Managers.


• Strong facilitation, communication, and interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively engage senior leadership.


• Demonstrated ability to design, develop, and implement process improvement initiatives across an organization.


• Strong consultative, relationship-building, and collaboration skills.


• Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification preferred.


• Extensive experience training Lean Six Sigma practitioners.


• Extensive experience deploying process improvement methodologies organization-wide.


• Experience leading more than 100 projects, including enterprise-wide strategic initiatives.


• P&L management experience preferred.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree (BS/BA) required.


• Master’s degree or MBA preferred.

GLFHC offers a great working environment, comprehensive benefit package, growth opportunities and tuition reimbursement.