Director of Referral Management

Job Description

Job Description

At HonorBridge, our mission is to build connections that save and heal lives through organ and tissue donation. Every donation opportunity begins with a critical first step: recognizing the potential to give life and ensuring that opportunity moves forward.

We are seeking a  Director, Referral Optimization to lead the teams and strategies responsible for that important front end of the donation continuum. This is an opportunity for an experienced healthcare or donation leader to shape how potential donors are identified, evaluated, and advanced—and to lead work that has a direct connection to the number of lives we are able to impact.

The Opportunity

The Director, Referral Optimization provides strategic leadership for HonorBridge's referral management continuum, including referral generation and intake, donor evaluation, hospital engagement, and organ allocation.

This leader will bring together people, processes, data, technology, and partnerships to ensure potential donation opportunities are identified and evaluated effectively and that our teams are positioned to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

You will lead efforts to strengthen referral performance, improve donor identification and evaluation, optimize organ allocation and utilization, and build strong partnerships with hospitals and other healthcare partners across our service area. Just as importantly, you will develop leaders and teams who understand both the operational importance of their work and the mission it makes possible.

What You'll Lead

In this role, you will:

• Set the strategic direction for referral optimization in alignment with HonorBridge's organizational strategy and mission.
• Lead the referral management continuum, including referral generation, referral intake, donor evaluation, hospital engagement, and organ allocation.
• Develop strategies to maximize referral opportunities, strengthen donor evaluation, optimize organ allocation, and increase organ utilization.
• Establish operational standards and performance expectations that create consistency, quality, responsiveness, and accountability across referral operations.
• Lead hospital engagement strategies that improve referral performance, strengthen donor identification, enhance clinical collaboration, and expand donation opportunities.
• Ensure staffing models, workflows, technology, and operational systems support effective 24/7 referral, evaluation, and allocation operations.
• Use performance data and key indicators—including referral quality and timeliness, donor evaluation, referral conversion, organ allocation and utilization, and healthcare partner experience—to identify opportunities and drive measurable improvement.
• Partner closely with Donation Advancement, Organ Services, Recovery Services, transplant centers, physicians, hospital leaders, and internal clinical teams to create strong transitions across the donation continuum.
• Ensure compliance with OPTN policies, regulatory requirements, and organizational standards while staying ahead of emerging industry practices.
• Lead process improvement efforts that strengthen workflows, technology, operational design, resource utilization, and overall organizational performance.
• Develop, coach, and mentor leaders while building a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, engagement, and service excellence.
• Manage departmental budgets, staffing models, and operational resources with a focus on responsible stewardship and long-term sustainability.

What You'll Bring

We're looking for a leader who can see both the mission and the operation—someone who understands that strong outcomes require thoughtful strategy, disciplined execution, excellent partnerships, and teams equipped to perform at their best.

Minimum qualifications include:

• Bachelor's degree in Healthcare Administration, Nursing, Business Administration, Healthcare Management, or a related field.
• 7+ years of progressively responsible leadership experience in healthcare, organ donation, transplantation, or related clinical operations.
• 5+ years of experience leading others, particularly managers and/or multiple operational areas.
• Demonstrated leadership experience overseeing healthcare operations, referral management, call center operations, hospital partnerships, or other complex operational environments.
• Strong understanding of donor identification, referral management, donor evaluation, organ allocation, and hospital engagement practices.
• Strong knowledge of OPTN policies, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices related to organ allocation and referral management.
• Demonstrated ability to use operational and performance data to identify trends, establish priorities, and implement strategies that improve outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to establish operational standards, improve consistency, and drive accountability across multiple functional areas.
• Experience leading process improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement methodologies.
• Experience with strategic planning, organizational performance management, and operational improvement.
• Experience managing departmental budgets and operational resources.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and relationship-building skills, including the ability to work effectively with hospital partners, physicians, clinical teams, and organizational leaders.
• Strong organizational skills, sound judgment, and the ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining a focus on quality, responsiveness, efficiency, and partner experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Nursing, Public Health, or a related field.
• 2+ years of experience in organ and tissue donation.
• CPTC, RN, or CTBS credential.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification.
• Experience leading enterprise-level process improvement initiatives.

Why HonorBridge?

Donation is a mission that depends on people—people willing to recognize an opportunity, make a connection, solve a problem, support a family, collaborate with a hospital partner, and keep moving the work forward when every moment matters.

At HonorBridge, you'll lead at the intersection of mission, healthcare operations, and organizational performance . You'll have the opportunity to influence how we identify and advance donation opportunities across our service area, develop the people who make that work possible, and help shape how HonorBridge continues to grow and improve.

If you're energized by complex operations, meaningful leadership, strong partnerships, and the opportunity to use your expertise in service of a mission that saves and heals lives, we'd like to hear from you.

What's in it for you?

• 100% Company-Paid Employee Medical Premiums: Coverage for employees, with the company covering a significant portion of spouse and family premiums.
• Health Reimbursement Account (HRA): Helps reduce your medical deductible and out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
• Company-Paid Life Insurance & Long-Term Disability Insurance , plus voluntary Short-Term Disability Insurance.
• Up to 8% Employer Retirement Match after one year of employment.
• Generous Paid Time Off: Vacation and sick leave, 10 paid holidays, and 2 floating holidays.
• $500 Annual Work-Life Balance Benefit
• $500 Annual Mental Health Benefit
• Dental & Vision Insurance