Chief Clinical Operations Officer

Trilogy Careers•Chicago, IL

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Chief Clinical Operations Officer (CCOO) is a member of Trilogy’s executive leadership team and provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and programmatic oversight for Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) operations across multiple sites. Working in close partnership with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Program Officer (CPO), the CCOO helps advance the organization’s clinical vision, care delivery model, quality outcomes, and service innovation. The role aligns daily operations with federal, state, and clinical practice criteria and designs service delivery to address clients’ behavioral health needs and unmet community needs. The CCOO transforms legacy and emerging processes into flexible systems that can adapt to policy changes, regulatory requirements, evolving care models, evidence-based practices, client preferences, and workforce dynamics. The position leads efforts to improve behavioral health access and quality outcomes and to integrate primary care and substance use services through evidence-based, person-centered approaches. Guided by Trilogy’s recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and whole-person Philosophy of Care, the CCOO ensures operational systems, clinical practices, and service delivery models reflect these principles and support measurable improvements in client outcomes and community impact. The role provides executive oversight for implementation, standardization, and continuous improvement of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices across Trilogy’s CMHC and CCBHC programs. Practices include Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), Community Support Team (CST) services, care coordination and case management, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), Motivational Interviewing, trauma-informed interventions, and other behavioral healthcare and CCBHC-aligned practices. As an executive leader and ambassador for Trilogy’s mission and clinical impact, the CCOO engages the Board of Directors, board committees, donors, funding partners, healthcare systems, community stakeholders, and public sector partners. The CCOO also develops and coaches senior leaders to guide complex organizational change, build high-performing teams, and foster accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement. Select hybrid flexibility may be available, but the position requires regular in-person leadership, relationship building, change management, and operational oversight. The role is based at 1400 W. Greenleaf Ave, Chicago, IL 60626. The anticipated annual salary range is $170,000–$190,000.

Requirements

Master’s degree in social work, counseling, nursing, healthcare administration, public health, or a related field.
At least seven years of related experience, including progressive supervisory and administrative experience.
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret complex documents and respond effectively to sensitive inquiries.
Ability to make effective and persuasive speeches and presentations on complex or controversial topics to senior management, public groups, boards, funders, donors, and community stakeholders.
Ability to apply logical or scientific thinking to a broad range of intellectual and practical problems and work with abstract and concrete variables.
Extensive knowledge of mental illnesses, their diagnosis and treatment, and experience with dually diagnosed populations.
Experience and ability in managing crises.
Extensive knowledge of trauma-informed services, integrated care models, substance use treatment, CMHC and CCBHC standards, and evidence-based practices including ACT, CST, CBT, DBT, SBIRT, care coordination, and case management.
Excellent clinical supervisory and administrative management skills.
Extensive knowledge of HUD and other public housing funding structures, healthcare reimbursement systems, population health approaches, and community behavioral healthcare operations.
Proven capability to guide large multidisciplinary teams through operational ambiguity, funding updates, and complex health system integrations.
Strong background in clinical process mapping, workflow optimization, projects spanning multiple teams and departments, and continuous quality improvement frameworks.
Ability to design and implement streamlined, scalable clinical workflows that reduce unexplained variation, improve outcomes, and support operational excellence.
Ability to adapt clinical strategies to workforce shortages, community crises, or federal policy updates while maintaining care quality.
Deep knowledge of regulatory frameworks, CMHC and CCBHC standards, evidence-based practices, emerging care models, and current clinical research.
Ability to collaborate with senior leaders to integrate clinical excellence, operational effectiveness, human capital management, financial sustainability, and strategic growth.
Ability to present clinical and operational strategy, performance, community impact, and growth opportunities to boards and external stakeholders.
Regular in-person leadership, relationship building, change management, and operational oversight are required.

Responsibilities

Redesign access workflows, including open-access, same-day, and walk-in systems, to reduce scheduling bottlenecks and connect clients with appropriate care.
Design and implement standardized, evidence-based, population-appropriate workflows that are measurable, repeatable, scalable, and support consistent client outcomes.
Develop a fluid hybrid-care infrastructure that supports transitions among in-person, telehealth, and community-based settings and appropriate levels of care.
Ensure operational systems and clinical practices embody Trilogy’s person-centered, trauma-informed, recovery-oriented, culturally responsive, and whole-person Philosophy of Care.
Partner with the CMO and CPO to oversee implementation, fidelity, measurement, and improvement of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices, including ACT, CST, CBT, DBT, SBIRT, care coordination, case management, and trauma-informed services.
Advance integration of chronic disease management and substance use treatment with behavioral health services, including standardized assessments, interventions, and approaches aligned with ASAM.
Reduce programmatic silos and foster cross-trained, collaborative teams that can respond to mental health, substance use, and physical health needs.
Re-engineer workflows and Electronic Health Record configurations to reduce administrative burden, increase direct client-facing time, and improve clinical and operational efficiency.
Help design tools that translate clinical requirements and medical necessity standards into technical logic for clinical decision support systems, referral pathways, and population health management.
Work with the CMO and CPO to align clinical, medical, operational, and programmatic priorities.
Oversee clinical workforce planning, organizational design, and leadership effectiveness initiatives to align staffing and management practices with operational needs.
Maintain a meaningful onsite presence across clinical and administrative locations to assess operations, engage employees and leaders, remove implementation barriers, and lead care-model improvement.
Promote leadership accountability for employee engagement, retention, productivity, performance management, and adoption of evidence-based care models.
Lead the shift from traditional reactive treatment models toward agile, proactive, measurement-based care systems.
Use formal change management frameworks, such as ADKAR or Kotter, to prepare and support staff through operational and technology changes and mitigate change fatigue.
Create continuous feedback loops across clinical staffing tiers to test, refine, and scale organizational improvements.
Work with the CPO and grants management team to braid funding streams and support vulnerable populations; collaborate on selecting effective reimbursement models.
Design performance metrics and performance management systems that encourage adaptability, cross-functional collaboration, and adoption of evidence-based practices.
Present clinical and operational performance, strategic initiatives, quality outcomes, and service opportunities to executive leadership, the Board, board committees, donors, and external stakeholders.
Engage the Board, donors, funders, healthcare partners, community stakeholders, and public sector partners to strengthen relationships, communicate outcomes, and advance strategic growth.