Head of Operations

About the Role

A fast-growing, Medicaid-focused teen mental health company is hiring its first true Head of Operations to own and scale the entire provider delivery function. The company connects teenagers with certified peer specialist mentors, a non-clinical provider class that has proven far more engaging for youth than traditional therapy models, and partners primarily with Medicaid managed care organizations to serve low-income teens who would otherwise go without support. They raised a $20M Series A in early 2025 and are scaling aggressively, with a provider network currently around 50 and a target of 100-plus by year end. There is no mature ops infrastructure today, which means this person is building the system, not inheriting one.

The ideal candidate has already done this exact job. Patrick, the hiring manager, is explicit: he cannot absorb a six-month ramp, and this is the one role where prior directly relevant experience is non-negotiable. He is looking for someone who has personally scaled a distributed provider network to multi-hundreds or thousands (not just been present at a company that did it), owned multi-state credentialing, and driven real efficiency and margin outcomes in a healthcare services or digital health environment. Background pedigree is not the point; doing the work at scale is. A COO of a 3,000-provider organization who is genuinely excited to do IC work is as welcome as a senior director who has been the owner throughout. What will not work: SaaS, digital learning, community-building, or strategy-only backgrounds, or candidates whose largest provider network topped out around 60 to 100.

Key Responsibilities

1. Own provider forecasting and staffing plans, keeping the clinical recruiting team on track to hit quarterly and half-year growth targets
2. Build and manage end-to-end provider credentialing and organizational payer enrollment across multiple states, eliminating supply-side bottlenecks
3. Partner with the Head of Clinical Ops to design and implement operational processes that improve efficiency, drive utilization, and expand gross margins
4. Lead new health plan, state, and market launches, translating signed contracts into live, compliant care delivery
5. Leverage AI tools and automation to generate efficiency gains rather than defaulting to headcount
6. Operate as an individual contributor in the near term while building out the team and systems underneath you over time
7. Serve as a cross-functional connector across commercial, clinical, product, and growth teams, aligning everyone on operational priorities and outcomes

Required Skills & Experience

• 10-plus years of experience in healthcare services or digital health provider operations; exceptional candidates at 8 to 9 years with directly relevant scale will be considered case by case
• Has personally scaled a distributed provider network to multi-hundreds, ideally thousands; candidates whose largest network topped out around 60 to 100 are not a fit for this stage
• Owned multi-state provider credentialing and organizational payer enrollment end to end
• Owned provider recruiting, forecasting, and staffing plan execution
• Driven operational efficiency, utilization management, and margin expansion in a healthcare delivery context
• Comfortable being an IC builder before a team forms under them
• Based in or able to commute to New York City three days per week (Mon/Wed/Fri); no visa or relocation support available

Preferred Skills

• Experience operating a W2 or hybrid provider workforce (1099 marketplace models are a different motion and worth discussing openly during screening)
• Familiarity with Medicaid managed care or state health agency contracting and compliance
• Proficiency with AI tools and workflow automation for operational efficiency
• Low ego, high agency, outcomes-oriented; someone who speaks directly and brings teams together rather than siloing
• Genuine personal connection to or curiosity about youth mental health