Director of Operations

Director of Operations

About us: Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness (WVCW) is an innovative nonprofit providing comprehensive services to individuals impacted by mental health, addictions and developmental disabilities. We hire individuals that are skilled and motivated to meet our mission through outcome-based strategies that foster personal and community transformation.


Position Summary

The Director of Operations is responsible for the dependable daily execution of WVCW's operational infrastructure.

Working under the direction of the COO, the Director ensures that facilities, front office/access operations, physical operations, service-support workflows, operational logistics, and routine cross-department processes function consistently across WVCW locations.

The Director of Operations converts executive priorities and operating standards into practical daily systems. The position actively identifies bottlenecks, follows operational issues to resolution, coordinates work across departments, monitors service reliability, and ensures managers have the processes and support necessary to operate effectively.

The Director of Operations is a hands-on operational leader. Unlike the COO, this position does not hold organization-wide executive responsibility for corporate strategy, Health IT strategy, cybersecurity governance, organizational quality/compliance, or enterprise performance management.

Supervisory Responsibility

The Director of Operations will oversee the Front Office/Access leadership, Facilities leadership, and other operational staff or functions assigned by the COO.

Essential Functions

Daily Operations & Service Continuity

• Maintain visibility into daily operational conditions across WVCW locations and assigned departments.
• Identify operational problems early and coordinate timely resolution.
• Develop reliable systems for escalation, follow-up, issue tracking, and completion.
• Ensure operating expectations are translated into practical procedures and workflows.
• Coordinate operational coverage during vacancies, absences, emergencies, and periods of increased demand.
• Maintain clear operational communication between departments.
• Approve routine operational spending, staffing coverage, workflow changes, and partner communication within authority delegated by the COO and organizational policy.
• Escalate significant capacity, financial, safety, compliance, or service-continuity issues to the COO.

Front Office, Access & Customer-Service Operations

• Provide leadership oversight to front-office and access operations.
• Monitor access-to-service workflows and operational access metrics.
• Identify scheduling, registration, referral, communication, and customer-service barriers.
• Work with clinical and administrative leadership to improve client flow and reduce preventable access problems.
• Support resolution of significant customer-service concerns and recurring workflow issues.
• Ensure front-office practices are consistent across sites as appropriate.
• Develop procedures and training that support dependable access and customer service.

Facilities, Physical Operations & Infrastructure

• Provide operational oversight of WVCW facilities and physical infrastructure.
• Supervise and support Facilities leadership.
• Maintain visibility into maintenance needs, work orders, capital priorities, space utilization, repairs, facility safety, and service interruptions.
• Establish systems for prioritizing competing facility demands.
• Monitor preventive maintenance and reduce reliance on reactive repair.
• Coordinate facility-related projects, relocations, expansions, remodels, and site preparation.
• Support the operational infrastructure of residential, housing, clinical, and administrative sites without assuming clinical or programmatic authority.
• For residential programs, this role oversees facilities, maintenance, physical safety, logistics, and operational infrastructure; Residential Administrators retain responsibility for residents, services, and program operations.
• Coordinate facility vendors and contractors as assigned.

Operational Safety, Emergency Preparedness & Continuity

• Coordinate routine operational components of safety, emergency preparedness, drills, physical-security planning, and business continuity.
• Maintain operational emergency procedures and ensure staff know how to use them.
• Serve as the operational incident coordinator under the designated incident lead, implementing site-level response, logistics, continuity, and communication procedures.
• Track corrective actions arising from safety reviews, incidents, drills, and physical-security assessments.
• Coordinate with clinical leadership, IT, QA/QI, HR, facilities, security contractors, and other responsible parties.
• Escalate organization-wide safety or risk concerns to the COO.

Workflow Standardization & Process Improvement

• Map and improve operational workflows.
• Identify recurring inefficiencies, duplication, handoff failures, bottlenecks, or unclear responsibility.
• Develop standardized procedures where appropriate while preserving necessary program flexibility.
• Facilitate implementation of operational changes and ensure new processes actually reach frontline practice.
• Maintain appropriate documentation for routine operational processes.
• Support managers in redesigning systems when staffing, technology, regulations, or service models change.

Operational Project/Grant Implementation

• Manage operational implementation of assigned organizational projects and grants.
• Maintain project timelines, task ownership, follow-up and status reporting.
• Coordinate vendors, facilities, equipment, staffing logistics, implementation schedules and related operational dependencies.
• Escalate project risks or decisions requiring executive authority to the COO.
• Ensure completed projects transition into sustainable normal operations.

Operational Metrics & Follow-Through

• Maintain practical operational dashboards and tracking systems.
• Monitor agreed measures involving access, service continuity, facilities, workflow performance, customer experience, outstanding operational issues and other assigned indicators.
• Work with managers to understand performance variation and implement corrective actions.
• Provide concise regular operational reports to the COO.
• Ensure assigned corrective actions are completed and documented.
• Important distinction: the Director monitors and acts on operational measures; the COO owns the organization-wide performance-management framework and executive accountability system.

Staff Leadership & Management Support

• Supervise assigned managers and staff.
• Establish clear expectations, priorities, deadlines and accountability.
• Coach managers in operational problem-solving and decision-making.
• Encourage appropriate independence and reduce unnecessary upward delegation.
• Support managers during periods of unusually high operational demand.
• Coordinate cross-training and continuity planning for critical operational functions.
• Implement and maintain written procedures, backup coverage, and documented ownership for assigned operational systems and processes.

Vendor, Procurement & Operational Resource Coordination

• Coordinate routine operational vendor relationships as assigned.
• Assist with procurement, equipment, supplies, facility services and operational contracts.
• Monitor vendor performance and escalate significant performance, financial, security, or contractual concerns.
• Work with Finance to ensure operational purchasing and resource decisions follow organizational requirements.

Cross-Department Coordination

• Serve as a practical bridge among Front Office, Facilities, Clinical programs, Finance, IT, QA/QI, HR, DD and other operational partners.
• Facilitate resolution of issues that cross departmental boundaries.
• Ensure handoffs have clear owners and timelines.
• Bring unresolved structural or executive-level issues to the COO rather than allowing them to remain stalled between departments.

Measures of Success

• Operational issues are identified and resolved promptly.
• Front-office/access workflows are reliable and measurable.
• Facilities work is prioritized, tracked and increasingly preventive rather than reactive.
• Assigned projects move consistently to completion.
• Staff know where operational decisions belong.
• Cross-department handoffs improve.
• Routine operational problems no longer routinely require COO or CEO intervention.
• Managers demonstrate greater independence and operational accountability.
• The COO has sufficient capacity to remain focused on executive-level work.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, healthcare administration, public administration, operations management, or related field; equivalent experience will be considered.
• Five years of progressively responsible management experience in healthcare, behavioral health, human services, operations, facilities, or another complex service environment.
• Demonstrated experience supervising staff and managers.
• Demonstrated ability to organize multiple competing priorities and move work to completion.
• Strong project-management, communication, problem-solving and follow-through skills.
• Ability to interpret operational data and translate findings into action.
• Working knowledge of regulated healthcare or human-service environments preferred.
• Preferred - Experience with multi-site operations, facilities, behavioral healthcare, Medicaid-funded services, emergency preparedness, workflow improvement, or rural healthcare.
• Must pass a pre-employment drug screen and criminal background check. WVCW adheres to federal drug screening guidelines, this includes marijuana.
• Must hold a valid driver's license for a minimum of three years, successfully pass a DMV background check, and meet the criteria for an "acceptable" driver as outlined in WVCW's Fleet Safety Policy.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable persons with disabilities to perform the essential function.

Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness is an equal opportunity employer.