Director of Practice Operations

 At Playground Pediatrics, our purpose is to give every child what they need to grow up healthy, cared for, and celebrated. We are writing a new chapter?for?children’s health by strengthening pediatric care and support within communities that we serve. If you are motivated to advance the future of pediatric care, we would love to have you join our team.? 

Values that bring you to Playground 

• You question the way things have always been and explore what could be better?? 
• You hold yourself accountable to do?what’s?right, always putting the needs of children and families at the center of decisions?? 
• You assume good intent, listen first, and treat every interaction as a chance to build trust? 
• You bring energy and passion into your work 
• You embrace challenges and believe that you can build something better? 

Position Summary

The District Director of Operations is responsible for leading the operational performance and growth of eight pediatric practice locations, with continued expansion expected. This leader oversees and develops Practice Managers, drives accountability for financial and operational performance, and partners with providers and centralized teams to optimize staffing, productivity, patient access, and patient experience. The ideal candidate is a hands-on, results-driven leader who thrives in a growing multi-site healthcare environment and can translate strategy into consistent execution across practices. 

Reports to: Head of Operations
Location: North Carolina (preferably in or around the Fayetteville, NC area)
Travel:  50-75% travel in North Carolina 

Key Responsibilities 

• Accountable for the overall operational performance of assigned pediatric practices, ensuring each location consistently achieves organizational, financial, clinical, and patient-service expectations.  
• Establish, monitor, and drive performance against key practice KPIs, including patient volumes, provider productivity, patient access, scheduling utilization, staffing, labor costs, overtime, patient experience, and other operational targets. Develop and execute action plans when performance falls below expectations.  
• Directly lead, coach, and develop Practice Managers, establishing clear expectations and accountability for practice performance, team leadership, employee engagement, operational execution, and financial results.  
• Own the operational partnership with physicians and APPs to optimize provider schedules, templates, patient access, capacity, productivity, and clinic workflows. Identify barriers to provider performance and ensure appropriate solutions are implemented.  
• Ensure practices maintain appropriate staffing levels and structures based on provider schedules, patient volumes, productivity, and business needs. Proactively identify workforce gaps and partner with HR and Recruiting to address hiring, retention, and staffing risks.  
• Accountable for managing practice operations within established budgets and financial targets, with particular focus on labor management, overtime, staffing efficiency, operating expenses, and practice profitability. Develop corrective plans for practices operating outside expectations.  
• Own operational readiness and execution for new practice openings within the assigned district, including staffing plans, provider onboarding, workflows, scheduling, systems readiness, patient access, and launch execution.  
• Lead operational integration of newly acquired practices, ensuring successful adoption of organizational systems, workflows, performance expectations, and operating standards while identifying and addressing integration risks.  
• Identify operational variation across practices and implement scalable, standardized processes and best practices. Hold practice leadership accountable for consistent execution while allowing appropriate flexibility for local market needs.  
• Ensure provider templates, scheduling practices, staffing models, and clinic capacity are optimized to support patient access, practice growth, provider utilization, and an effective patient experience.  
• Proactively identify operational risks, performance gaps, and barriers to growth; determine root causes; establish corrective action plans; and hold leaders accountable for timely and sustained improvement.  
• Serve as the primary operational leader connecting practices with HR, Finance, Revenue Cycle, IT, Marketing, Credentialing, Clinical Leadership, and other centralized functions. Ensure initiatives move from discussion to successful execution at the practice level.  
• Hold practice leadership accountable for building strong teams and healthy practice cultures. Partner with HR on employee relations, performance management, retention, engagement, leadership development, and other workforce matters requiring escalation.  
• Ensure assigned practices consistently follow organizational policies, regulatory requirements, safety standards, and established clinical and operational protocols, escalating and remediating identified risks appropriately.  
• Own implementation and adoption of new systems, workflows, policies, and organizational initiatives across assigned practices. Establish implementation plans, monitor adoption, address resistance or barriers, and ensure changes are sustained.  
• Regularly evaluate district and practice-level performance, identify trends and risks, and provide executive leadership with clear recommendations and action plans related to financial performance, staffing, provider productivity, patient access, growth, and operational priorities. 
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned to support the needs of the practice and organization. 

 Required Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration, Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant healthcare operations experience.  
• 7+ years of progressive healthcare operations experience, preferably within physician practices, ambulatory care, medical groups, or other multi-site healthcare environments.  
• 3+ years of multi-site or regional leadership experience, with direct accountability for the operational performance of multiple locations.  
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing Practice Managers or other operational leaders, including setting expectations, managing performance, and driving accountability.  
• Proven ability to own and improve operational and financial performance, including staffing, labor management, productivity, patient access, scheduling, operating expenses, and practice-level KPIs.  
• Experience working directly with physicians and advanced practice providers, with demonstrated ability to build effective physician-administrator partnerships while balancing clinical and operational priorities.  
• Strong understanding of medical practice operations, including patient flow, scheduling, staffing models, provider templates, capacity management, front- and back-office workflows, and patient experience.  
• Demonstrated ability to analyze operational and financial data, identify performance gaps, develop action plans, and drive measurable improvement.  
• Experience managing budgets, labor expenses, workforce planning, and operational performance across multiple locations.  
• Demonstrated success implementing and standardizing processes across multiple practices or locations, including holding local leadership accountable for adoption and sustained execution.  
• Experience leading teams through organizational change, including implementation of new systems, workflows, policies, or operating models.  
• Working knowledge of healthcare regulatory and compliance requirements applicable to physician-practice operations.  
• Strong leadership, communication, problem-solving, and conflict-management skills, with the ability to influence physicians, practice leaders, employees, and executive stakeholders.  
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment while maintaining strong attention to execution and follow-through.  
• Ability to travel regularly among assigned practice locations and support on-site operational needs as required.  

Preferred Qualifications 

• Master’s degree in healthcare administration (MHA), Business Administration (MBA), or related field.  
• Experience in pediatrics, primary care, or another high-volume outpatient physician-practice environment.  
• Experience within an MSO, PE-backed healthcare organization, or rapidly growing multi-site healthcare organization.  
• Experience supporting de novo practice openings, including operational readiness, staffing, provider onboarding, and post-opening ramp-up.  
• Experience with M&A and practice integration, including transitioning acquired practices onto standardized systems and operating models.