Chief Strategy and Operations Officer

University of Chicago•Hyde Park, IL

About The Position

The Chief Strategy and Operations Officer serves as the strategic and operational executive leader for the newly established office of AI, Precision Medicine, and Data Analytics, partnering directly with the Vice Dean and Senior Vice President. The office brings together academic research and clinical operational leadership across the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) and UChicago Medicine (UCMC), unifying clinical and research informatics, omics, AI, and precision medicine. Its mission is to connect discovery and operations and position UChicago Medicine as a national leader in clinical-first, AI-powered precision medicine. The role oversees execution of a multi-year enterprise strategy, including resource allocation, cross-functional governance, large-scale infrastructure development, and institutional partnerships. It supports research initiatives, scientific programs and events, funding and grant opportunities, external partnerships, and donor-facing activities in coordination with faculty and University leadership. The officer also supports talent recruitment and organizational growth, oversees a multi-year investment plan, supervises staff, and serves as a senior problem-solver and primary point of contact for internal and external constituencies. The position manages multiple related teams, establishes department priorities, manages the center budget, allocates resources, and executes strategic plans. It works with faculty, students, and campus leaders to foster experimentation and multidisciplinary inquiry and teaching through programming such as workshops, conferences, colloquia, training programs, and community outreach. The role may perform other related work as needed.

Requirements

College or university degree in a related field.
10 or more years of work experience in a related job discipline.
Demonstrated ability to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling, and thoughtful messaging.
Ability to cultivate relationships and work with multiple stakeholders to build successful partnerships.
Ability to lead a data-driven team toward organizational goals and objectives.
Ability to work in an academic unit and/or complex research university environment.
Strong executive functioning skills, including directing complex, multifaceted projects with diverse partners.
Problem-solving skills.
Self-motivated, with the ability to work independently.
Attention to detail and organizational skills.
Ability to prioritize multiple competing priorities.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
Ability to train and supervise others, including students, volunteers, and support staff.
Ability to exercise discretion regarding confidential project matters and maintain patient confidentiality.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Nice To Haves

MBA and/or advanced degree in the sciences.
Background in biomedical research and university administration.
Proven track record as a strategic thinker with a results orientation, using thoughtfulness, drive, data, and appropriate urgency.

Responsibilities

Lead coordination, consolidation, and operationalization of UChicago’s distributed informatics, AI, and precision medicine capabilities into a unified enterprise structure.
Manage consolidated budgets, personnel strategies, and enterprise-wide funding allocations in support of biomedical enterprise priorities.
Support development of a democratized clinical-research data platform integrating the electronic health record (EHR), multiomics, imaging, digital pathology, and participant-mediated data, in partnership with UCMC IT and leadership.
Support integration of real-time and participant-mediated information—including wearables, remote monitoring, patient-reported outcomes, and sociomic data—into the platform architecture.
Help direct and establish adoption of the strategy, scaling, and execution of precision medicine efforts, including research-to-clinical implementation and translation.
Conduct internal and community engagement and manage internal and external advisory boards to position UChicago as a national leader in clinical biobanking.
Drive collaboration across university organizations, including Argonne National Labs, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Booth School of Business, the Physical Sciences Division, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the Polsky Center.
Cultivate and manage external affiliate partnerships, including UChicago Medicine AdventHealth collaborative hospitals, regional health systems, and industry leaders in sequencing, proteomics, digital pathology, AI, and multimodal analytics.
Partner with academic and clinical leadership to execute division-wide strategic faculty searches in areas such as artificial intelligence in biomedicine, clinical/computational phenomics, and pharmacogenomics.
Oversee strategic deployment of multi-year enterprise investment plans and start-up packages to build a team of researchers, clinician-scientists, and operational experts.
Partner with University Development on philanthropic engagement, external grant opportunities and writing, industry co-investments, and commercialization strategies.
Oversee day-to-day department operations, directly supervise staff, and establish organizational capacity to execute goals at scale.
Serve as senior problem-solver and primary operational point of contact for internal and external constituencies across BSD and UCMC.
Manage multiple related teams; establish department priorities; manage the center budget; allocate resources; and execute strategic plans.
Work with faculty, students, and campus leaders to coordinate and develop Center programming, including workshops, conferences, colloquia, training programs, and community outreach.
Perform other related work as needed.