Associate Vice President, Enterprise Laboratory Services

Gulf Coast Blood•Houston, TX

About The Position

The Associate Vice President, Enterprise Laboratory Services provides strategic, scientific, and operational leadership for enterprise laboratory operations, including blood banking, donor testing, immunohematology reference laboratory services, component quality testing, infectious disease testing, molecular testing, and other assigned laboratory functions. Reporting to the Chief Scientific Officer, this executive leader develops and executes a unified laboratory strategy advancing donor and patient safety, scientific excellence, regulatory compliance, service reliability, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth. The role establishes consistent performance expectations and standardized laboratory practices, ensuring laboratory services support blood collection, manufacturing, distribution, hospital customers, and patient care. The position collaborates with Medical Affairs, Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Operations, Information Technology, Finance, Supply Chain, People and Culture, and executive leadership. It provides enterprise administrative and operational oversight while partnering with designated medical and laboratory leaders who hold responsibilities established by applicable regulations. The role oversees laboratory operations, quality and regulatory readiness, financial and workforce management, technology initiatives, continuous improvement, risk management, and business continuity. This executive position does not automatically constitute appointment to a regulated laboratory or medical role; any such designation requires independently meeting the applicable requirements. The work is performed in office, laboratory, manufacturing, and blood-center environments at the organization’s designated primary work location. The position may require access to areas where blood, blood components, biological materials, chemicals, and other potential hazards are present; established safety procedures and required personal protective equipment must be followed. The role may require evening, weekend, holiday, or on-call availability during significant laboratory, quality, technology, or operational events. No routine travel is required, though occasional off-site attendance may be requested.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in medical laboratory science, clinical laboratory science, biological science, chemistry, healthcare administration, business administration, or a related field.
Ten or more years of progressively responsible leadership experience in blood banking, transfusion medicine, donor testing, clinical laboratory services, biologics manufacturing, or a closely related environment.
Five or more years leading directors, senior managers, or multiple laboratory functions.
Demonstrated experience in complex, highly regulated laboratory operations, including budget and capital accountability.
Demonstrated success improving laboratory quality, turnaround time, productivity, customer service, or financial performance.
Experience leading organizational change, technology implementation, laboratory consolidation, service expansion, or comparable enterprise initiatives.
Experience interacting with regulatory agencies, accreditation organizations, hospital customers, and executive leadership.
Comprehensive understanding of blood banking, laboratory operations, quality systems, and regulatory compliance.
Strong enterprise leadership, strategic planning, financial acumen, and organizational-change capabilities.
Ability to lead complex operations through direct accountability and influence; interpret scientific, quality, operational, workforce, and financial data; and apply advanced problem-solving, risk-assessment, and decision-making skills.
Strong written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex scientific and regulatory issues to technical and nontechnical audiences.
Demonstrated ability to build partnerships across Medical Affairs, Quality, Operations, Finance, Technology, Supply Chain, and People and Culture.
Ability to lead effectively during operational disruptions and high-consequence events.
Commitment to ethical conduct, confidentiality, inclusion, employee development, donor safety, and patient safety.
If also appointed to a formally designated laboratory or medical position, must independently meet all education, training, experience, certification, licensure, and continuing-education requirements applicable to that designation and the complexity of testing performed.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in healthcare administration, business administration, laboratory science, public health, or a related field.
Certification such as MLS(ASCP), SBB(ASCP), MT(ASCP), or another nationally recognized laboratory credential.
Experience within a blood center, large health system, reference laboratory, transfusion service, or multi-function laboratory organization.
Working knowledge of CLIA, FDA current good manufacturing practice requirements, AABB standards, quality systems, and applicable state requirements.
Experience with laboratory information systems, automation, data analytics, and enterprise technology implementations.
Lean, Six Sigma, project management, or change-management certification.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute an enterprise laboratory strategy aligned with the organization’s mission, scientific priorities, growth plans, customer commitments, and financial objectives.
Advise the Chief Scientific Officer on scientific capabilities, laboratory capacity, regulatory risk, emerging technologies, capital requirements, and service-development opportunities.
Translate strategic and scientific priorities into operating plans, budgets, workforce requirements, and performance expectations; define enterprise, functional, and site-level accountability.
Represent Laboratory Services in enterprise committees and strategic planning, scientific review, business continuity, emergency response, and customer-service discussions.
Provide executive oversight of blood banking and assigned laboratory operations, including donor infectious disease testing, immunohematology and compatibility testing, reference laboratory services, component quality control, molecular testing, product-release support, specimen management, equipment, and inventory.
Establish enterprise performance indicators, dashboards, and management-review processes for quality, accuracy, turnaround time, productivity, service reliability, and cost.
Lead capacity planning for demand, growth, new testing platforms, service expansion, and emergency operations; ensure effective escalation and response to critical results, testing disruptions, product-impacting events, and customer concerns.
Drive appropriate standardization of workflows, policies, procedures, equipment, reagents, platforms, and documentation.
Promote shared responsibility for quality, donor and patient safety, data integrity, and regulatory compliance; partner with Quality and Regulatory Affairs on inspection, assessment, accreditation, and regulatory-submission readiness.
Ensure compliance with applicable CLIA, FDA, AABB, OSHA, state, and organizational requirements; oversee investigation and resolution of deviations, nonconformances, proficiency-testing concerns, complaints, corrective and preventive actions, and audit findings.
Ensure new or modified testing systems, instruments, software, workflows, and facilities are evaluated, validated or verified, documented, approved, and implemented; monitor regulatory and scientific developments and assess their operational impact.
Collaborate with the Medical Director and designated laboratory leadership on testing strategy, clinical appropriateness, technical performance, risk management, and complex laboratory matters; ensure appropriate medical and technical review of policies, validations, significant deviations, and donor- or patient-impacting events.
Evaluate and sponsor emerging methods, automation, robotics, molecular technologies, and data analytics; support aligned research, publications, professional presentations, and educational activities.
Develop and manage operating and capital budgets; monitor labor, supplies, reagents, service contracts, equipment, utilization, and other cost drivers.
Identify opportunities to improve productivity, reduce waste, consolidate purchasing, standardize platforms, and optimize capacity without compromising quality or safety; develop business cases for investments, technology, facility improvements, and new services.
Partner with Finance and Supply Chain on pricing, service agreements, insourcing and outsourcing decisions, and vendor negotiations.
Build an inclusive, accountable, collaborative, mission-centered laboratory leadership team; select, develop, coach, and retain key laboratory talent; establish succession plans and career pathways.
Ensure staffing models support workload, testing complexity, regulatory requirements, business continuity, and employee well-being; set clear performance expectations and hold leaders accountable.
Sponsor laboratory information systems, middleware, automation, analytics, cybersecurity, and digital transformation initiatives; partner with Information Technology to maintain reliable, secure, validated, integrated systems and ensure laboratory data are accurate, traceable, protected, and available for decisions.
Use Lean, Six Sigma, or other appropriate improvement methods to strengthen quality, workflow, employee experience, and financial performance.
Maintain business-continuity and emergency-response capabilities for equipment failure, system downtime, supply shortages, utility disruptions, severe weather, staffing shortages, cybersecurity events, and demand fluctuations.
Partner with Supply Chain to mitigate risks involving critical reagents, consumables, equipment parts, and service support; escalate significant quality, operational, financial, workforce, and compliance risks.
Participate in enterprise incident command and emergency-preparedness activities as assigned.
Establish laboratory strategy, priorities, performance standards, and resource plans within assigned authority; approve enterprise operational policies and recommend capital expenditures, organizational changes, significant contracts, and new services.
Make staffing and leadership decisions within approved budgets and organizational policies; suspend or restrict operations when an immediate quality, safety, compliance, or business-continuity risk exists.
Escalate matters requiring Medical Director, Laboratory Director, Quality, Legal, Compliance, Finance, or executive approval, while preserving the independent authority of Quality and legally assigned responsibilities of designated leaders.