Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

Position Summary

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) serves as a senior executive leader responsible for translating Inteli-Care's strategic priorities into disciplined operational execution. Reporting directly to the CEO, the COO leads and integrates Inteli-Care's operational departments, builds strong and accountable leaders, establishes consistent operating rhythms, and ensures that services are delivered efficiently, compliantly, and at a level that supports the organization's continued growth. The COO is an in person role expected to operate with a high degree of independence, sound judgment, urgency, and accountability while maintaining strong alignment with the CEO and Inteli-Care's mission, culture, and strategic direction.

Primary Areas of Responsibility

Operational Leadership & Execution

• Provide executive oversight of Inteli-Care's day-to-day operational functions, including PCS, EPSDT, Intake, Scheduling, Client Services, Billing, Field Operations, and other assigned operational departments.
• Translate organizational priorities and strategic goals into executable operating plans with clear ownership, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
• Establish and maintain a disciplined operational cadence, including leadership meetings, performance reviews, planning cycles, goal-setting, and KPI reporting.
• Create consistency across departments through standardized workflows, SOPs, handoffs, escalation processes, and accountability structures.
• Identify operational barriers, capacity constraints, and inefficiencies and lead appropriate corrective action.
• Ensure operational infrastructure, staffing, processes, and technology are positioned to support organizational growth.
• Lead cross-functional and enterprise-wide initiatives with limited CEO involvement once direction and desired outcomes have been established.
• Apply strong business and financial judgment to operational decisions, including consideration of productivity, revenue, margin, staffing, and organizational resources.

People Leadership & Accountability

• Lead, coach, and develop operational directors, department heads, and other assigned leaders.
• Establish clear expectations, decision rights, performance standards, and accountability throughout the operational leadership team.
• Maintain a consistent leadership cadence through recurring one-on-ones, coaching, performance reviews, and development conversations.
• Build a high-performance culture that values ownership, collaboration, transparency, responsiveness, and measurable results.
• Identify and address performance concerns promptly and appropriately, including making difficult personnel decisions when necessary.
• Ensure succession and development plans exist for critical operational roles.
• Partner with HR and executive leadership to recruit, select, develop, retain, and appropriately transition operational talent.
• Strengthen employee engagement, retention, communication, and change readiness throughout operational departments.
• Model low-ego leadership and demonstrate the ability to operate both strategically and hands-on when business needs require it.

Operational Compliance & Quality

• Maintain executive oversight of compliance within all operational departments.
• Ensure operational processes align with applicable New Mexico Medicaid, Managed Care Organization, federal, state, privacy, safety, contractual, and organizational requirements.
• Ensure compliance expectations are incorporated into operational SOPs, training, scorecards, workflows, and leadership accountability.
• Maintain operational readiness for HCA, MCO, licensing, payer, and internal audits and reviews.
• Monitor documentation, EVV, authorizations, billing controls, incidents, complaints, quality indicators, privacy requirements, and fraud, waste, and abuse controls within the COO's operational scope.
• Ensure identified deficiencies and corrective actions are assigned, tracked, resolved, and sustained.
• Build a culture in which compliance is owned by operational leadership and embedded into everyday execution rather than treated as the responsibility of a single department.
• Promptly escalate material compliance, safety, financial, service, or organizational risks to the CEO and appropriate compliance, HR, legal, clinical, or other resources.

Executive Leadership Expectations

The COO is expected to:

• Serve as a trusted operational partner to the CEO.
• Maintain visibility into the health and performance of the organization without becoming unnecessarily involved in every tactical decision.
• Use reliable data and sound judgment to identify issues early and drive timely decisions.
• Hold leaders accountable while maintaining strong relationships and organizational trust.
• Communicate clearly and confidently across all levels of the organization.
• Balance immediate operational needs with the infrastructure required for future growth.
• Create clarity where ambiguity exists and maintain composure during periods of rapid growth, change, or organizational pressure.
• Consistently follow through on commitments and ensure organizational priorities reach completion.

Core Competencies

High IQ
Quickly processes complex information, identifies patterns and root causes, and makes sound, data-informed decisions.

High EQ
Demonstrates self-awareness, empathy, composure, maturity, and accountability while effectively navigating challenging interpersonal situations.

Executive Presence
Communicates with credibility, clarity, confidence, decisiveness, and calm and is capable of representing executive leadership across the organization.

Strong Interpersonal Skills / Low Ego
Builds trust across organizational levels, listens effectively, resolves conflict constructively, influences others, and places organizational outcomes above personal recognition.

Operational Focus
Demonstrates exceptional follow-through, prioritization, organization, and accountability with a strong orientation toward execution and measurable results.

Qualifications

• Significant progressive leadership experience in  operations, preferably within healthcare, home and community-based services, Medicaid-funded services, or another highly regulated  environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading multiple departments or complex operational functions.
• Proven ability to develop leaders and build  accountable, high-performing teams.
• Strong understanding of performance management, operational metrics, process improvement, and organizational scaling.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives from strategy through implementation.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to understand the financial implications of operational decisions.
• Experience operating within a regulatory, compliance, payer, or audit-driven environment strongly preferred.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and executive communication skills.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and executive leadership experience required; advanced degree preferred.

Measures of Success

Success in this role is demonstrated through:

• Consistent achievement of organizational and departmental operational KPIs.
• Timely completion of organizational Rocks, priorities, and operational milestones.
• Strong performance, accountability, retention, and succession across the operational leadership team.
• Consistent execution of operational and compliance review processes.
• High levels of EVV, documentation, quality, and regulatory compliance.
• Timely completion of corrective actions and regulatory or payer requirements.
• Reduction of repeat operational and compliance deficiencies.
• Increasing organizational capacity and operational maturity as Inteli-Care grows.
• The CEO's ability to remain focused on strategic leadership rather than routine operational management.

Leadership Philosophy

The COO's responsibility is not simply to oversee operations—it is to build an operating organization that performs consistently without requiring constant executive intervention.

The successful COO creates clarity, builds capable leaders, establishes accountability, protects the organization from operational and compliance risk, and ensures Inteli-Care can continue to grow without compromising its people, culture, service quality, or commitment to the individuals and families it serves.