Director, Community Health Operations

Zócalo Health

2d•Remote

About The Position

Zocalo Health is a tech-enabled, community-oriented primary care organization serving people who have historically been underserved by the one-size-fits-all healthcare system. We partner with health plans, providers, and community organizations to deliver culturally competent primary care, behavioral health, and social care. Our model is built for populations with high medical and social complexity, where fragmented care drives poor outcomes and unnecessary cost. We combine local, community-based teams with virtual care and modern technology to deliver coordinated, whole-person care where members live. Community-based care is the part of our model that members actually experience, and it is the part that is hardest to scale without losing what makes it work. This role owns the operational backbone of it: the community health worker workforce and Community Supports. You will lead two teams through two leaders, across twelve counties and eight health plan contracts, as the organization converts to a new RN-led care model plan by plan. The work is making sure the right people are in the right counties against forecast demand, that community teams and clinical teams operate as one care team rather than two functions with a handoff between them, and that what we tell health plans about how we work is what actually happens in the field. This is an operating role rather than a program role. You will own deployment decisions, audit accountability and performance reporting into health plan forums, and you will be the peer counterpart to Payer Operations for anything touching community-based delivery.

Requirements

Eight or more years leading community health, care management or population health programs, including managing through other leaders.
Experience running distributed frontline teams across multiple counties or markets.
Medicaid experience. CalAIM is strongly preferred, and direct experience of Enhanced Care Management or Community Supports is a significant advantage.
A track record of integrating community-based teams into clinical care delivery rather than operating them alongside it.
Comfort using operational data as the basis for decisions, and defending those decisions to a health plan.
Experience of audit and regulatory readiness in a Medicaid setting.
Ability to design operational workflows and management structures for a growing frontline workforce.
Must be authorized to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a tech-enabled delivery organization, particularly through a period of operational change.
Experience designing career pathways and training frameworks for frontline staff.
Experience with housing navigation or other social services programs delivered under a Medicaid benefit.
Bilingual Spanish, or experience leading teams serving predominantly Spanish-speaking members.
Advanced degree in public health, social work, healthcare administration or a related field.

Responsibilities

Operational performance of the community health worker workforce and of Community Supports, through the CHW Operations Manager and the Community Supports Senior Team Lead.
Geographic footprint and hiring plan. Which roles are needed in which counties, and when, against the care model conversion schedule and the enrollment forecast.
Integration between community teams and clinical care teams, so that community health workers, RNs and care coordinators operate as a single care team.
Audit accountability for community-based operations, including health plan fidelity requirements and DHCS readiness.
Operational performance reporting into health plan forums.
Unit economics for Community Supports and the CHW Benefit, working with Finance, including the recommendation on whether the CHW Benefit continues.
Career pathways, training frameworks and management structures for a frontline workforce that will grow across markets.
A community health worker deployment plan by county, tied to the care model conversion schedule and to the enrollment forecast rather than to historical placement.
Community health worker workflows integrated into the new care model in every converted county, with the role in Enhanced Care Management delivery defined against health plan requirements.
A management structure that holds without you in the room: capable leaders at the level below, developed team leads, and documented decision rights.
Community Supports operating at a known contribution by plan, with a decided position on the CHW Benefit rather than an inherited one.
Performance measures connecting community health worker engagement to outcomes that health plans and Finance both recognize.