Chief Operating Officer

Description

Chief Operating Officer (COO) 

Multi-State Primary Care (Value-Based)

Company: Southeast Primary Care Partners (Independent Primary Care Group)
Footprint: 50+ locations across 4+ states
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 

Partners closely with: Chief Financial Officer (CFO) & Executive Leadership
FLSA: Exempt | Location/Travel: HQ with regular multi-state travel to clinics and integration sites

Why this role matters

Southeast Primary Care Partners is scaling an independent, physician-led primary care platform built for value-based care. The COO is the executive owner of operational performance across our clinic network—turning strategy into repeatable execution, strengthening physician engagement, and ensuring every site delivers an exceptional, consistent patient experience while preserving local practice identity.  This is a highly visible role for an operator who can earn trust with physicians, standardize what should be standardized, and build systems that scale.

Requirements

 What you’ll own (Scope)

• Enterprise clinic operations across 50+ sites and multiple states (front office to clinical workflow to patient access)
• Practice optimization (throughput, quality, cost, experience, staffing models, scheduling, revenue cycle coordination with finance)
• Integrations (new practice onboarding, operational readiness, change management, standard work)
• New market / de novo support & operational due diligence (in partnership with CEO and growth teams)
• Operating cadence (KPIs, site performance reviews, leader development, accountability systems)

Key responsibilities

1) Drive operational excellence at scale

• Lead day-to-day operations across the network: clinic performance, access, patient flow, staffing, service recovery, and site leadership support.
• Establish and continuously improve standard operating systems (playbooks, workflows, policies) that improve consistency without sacrificing physician engagement.
• Identify operational bottlenecks; deploy Lean-style problem solving to improve cycle time, capacity, and reliability.

2) Win in value-based care (execution, not just strategy)

• Operationalize value-based priorities: preventive care reliability, chronic disease workflows, care gap closure, risk adjustment support, and patient engagement.
• Partner with clinical leadership to translate quality metrics into practical clinic workflows that physicians and teams will adopt.
• Ensure operational readiness for payer programs and audits; maintain strong documentation and performance discipline.

3) Lead physician-centered change

• Build strong working relationships with physicians and clinical leaders; create forums that surface barriers and drive rapid resolution.
• Motivate through clarity, transparency, and shared goals—aligning incentives, operations, and culture.
• Coach and develop medical directors/site leaders on operational leadership skills.

4) Integrations and growth execution

• Oversee integration planning and execution for acquired practices (people/process/technology readiness).
• Ensure each integration hits defined targets for patient access, team stability, quality performance, and patient experience.
• Support new business development operationally (diligence, transition planning, capacity planning).

5) Executive partnership, reporting, and accountability

• Prepare and present concise, data-driven reports to the CEO; elevate risks early with clear options and recommendations.
• Work closely with CEO and CFO on budgeting inputs, productivity assumptions, staffing models, and performance forecasting.
• Set enterprise performance goals with the executive team and build the operating rhythm to achieve them.

6) Build leaders and bench strength

• Develop high-performing regional/site operational leadership; create growth paths for rising talent.
• Hire, coach, and retain operational leaders who thrive in a physician-led, mission-driven environment.

Ideal Background (what we're looking for)

Required

• Multi-site healthcare operator: Extensive senior operations leadership across multiple locations (primary care strongly preferred) with clear, end-to-end accountability for performance outcomes.
• Experience depth:
  • 10+ years progressive leadership in multi-site healthcare operations / practice management with direct responsibility for results across access, staffing, patient experience, quality, and cost/productivity.
  • 5+ years leading leaders (e.g., regional directors, practice administrators, site managers) across multiple locations and/or states.
• Practice optimization track record: Proven success improving clinic performance through staffing models, scheduling templates, patient flow/throughput, access management, service recovery, and operational KPI systems (dashboards, routines, and accountability).
• Systems builder: Strong operator’s toolkit in process improvement, performance management, and building scalable operating systems (standard work, playbooks, governance/cadence) that reduce variation and sustain gains.
• Physician-centered change leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead, influence, and motivate physicians and clinical teams through trust-building, clear communication, and disciplined change management.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration, Business, Nursing, Public Health, or related field (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
• Travel: Comfortable with regular travel across multiple worksites as needed.

Strongly Preferred

• Advanced education: Master’s degree (MBA, MHA, MPH, or similar).
• Value-based care execution: Significant experience operating in value-based / risk-bearing environments (risk-based contracts or advanced APMs), including translating targets into clinic workflows for quality & care gap execution, risk adjustment support, utilization/cost management partnership, and care model operations.
• Integration & scaling: Experience leading integrations (M&A onboarding) and/or rapid growth across 25+ sites, including multi-state expansion and operational readiness.
• Team builder: Track record building and developing high-performing regional/site leadership teams with strong retention, accountability, and succession bench strength.

Leadership attributes (how you work)

• Physician/Patient first: respects clinical realities; translates business goals into workable clinic practices.
• Data-driven and pragmatic: uses metrics to find the truth and acts quickly.
• Standardizes wisely: knows what must be uniform vs. local.
• Calm, direct, accountable: creates clarity, sets expectations, follows through.
• Builder mindset: designs systems that scale and develops leaders.

Key physical and mental requirements

• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds
• Ability to push or pull heavy objects using up to 50 pounds of force
• Ability to sit for extended periods of time
• Ability to stand for extended periods of time
• Ability to use fine motor skills to operate office equipment and/or machinery
• Ability to receive and comprehend instructions verbally and/or in writing
• Ability to use logical reasoning for simple and complex problem solving
• Ability to travel to multiple work sites as needed
  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Southeast Primary Care Partners is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.