Head of Strategy & Operations

SafeRide Health

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

SafeRide is hiring a Head of Strategy & Operations to lead the Strategy & Operations function and serve as a key operating partner to the COO. This is one of the most leveraged roles in the company. You will work directly with the COO and senior leadership on the business’s highest-priority operating and strategic problems. Your mandate is simple and hard: make SafeRide more scalable, more profitable, and more operationally disciplined. This is not a strategy-only role. It is not a pure PMO role. It is not a deck-making role. It is a hands-on operating leadership seat for someone who can lead a high-performing team, go deep into data, influence executives, solve ambiguous problems, and personally do the work when required. You will inherit an existing Strategy & Operations team and lead work across Operations, Product/Engineering, Client Success/Growth, Finance, Legal, and People. The highest-volume work will be with Operations, but the highest-impact work will often cut across multiple functions. The right person will help SafeRide continue its transition from high-growth startup to durable enterprise organization. SafeRide has reached the scale where the binding constraint on the next phase of growth is the gap between our current operating sophistication and the operating sophistication the next phase requires. Closing that gap — across Operations, client economics, Product partnership, and net-new value creation — is the mandate of this seat. You will be the COO's lever for getting that done. When the company has a hard problem that cuts across functions, you will be in the room. When an analysis is needed to make a high-stakes decision, you will be the person called upon. When a part of the operating model needs to be rebuilt, you will own the rebuild. The story is not "come maintain a function." The story is "help us turn a high-growth startup into a true enterprise organization, from one of the highest-leverage seats in the company."

Requirements

8–10 years of total experience in strategy, operations, consulting, or a combination
Strong consulting foundation — MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) is strongly preferred
Post-consulting experience leading a Strategy & Operations, BizOps, or Strategic Operations function at a high-growth, top-VC-backed startup
Proven track record managing and developing people; comfort leading high-autonomy operators through influence and standards, not micromanagement
Demonstrated ability to use data — Excel proficiency is non-negotiable, and you should be the kind of person who reaches for the spreadsheet before reaching for the meeting
Communication range across executives, peers, and frontline operators — you can run a working session with the COO at 9am and a process review with the Call Center at 2pm without changing your effectiveness
A history of operating in ambiguous environments where the problem isn't defined for you
Willingness to operate as a true player-coach — still building the model, cleaning the data, or writing the memo when the work requires it

Nice To Haves

MBA from a top program or equivalent achievement signal.
Post-consulting experience leading Strategy & Operations, BizOps, Strategic Operations, or similar at a high-growth, VC-backed company.
Experience scaling a team, operating function, or company through a meaningful growth phase.
Experience working directly with C-suite or senior executive leadership.
Familiarity with healthcare, logistics, transportation, marketplaces, or regulated operating environments.
Advanced Data Skills (SQL, Python, R, etc.)

Responsibilities

Lead the Strategy & Operations Function
Lead and develop the S&O team (~10 FTEs)
Own the S&O roadmap, prioritization, operating cadence, and quality of output
Preserve and strengthen a culture of autonomy, accountability, and communication
Coach and develop the team — without micromanaging
Lead Strategy, Analysis, and Executive Decision Support
Diagnose and structure SafeRide’s most ambiguous, high-stakes operating and strategic problems.
Build models, analyses, and executive-ready recommendations that drive major business decisions — personally when needed, not just through the team.
Partner directly with the COO to shape operating strategy, prioritize the highest-leverage work, and move executive conversations from discussion to decision.
Improve Operations Scalability and Performance
Identify and solve operating constraints across Member Services, Client Services, Network Management, Routing, and related teams
Improve people, process, tooling, workflows, management systems, and operating discipline
Translate ambiguous operating problems into clear workplans, owners, metrics, decisions, and scalable processes
Build operating workarounds where product capability lags operational need
Influence cross-functional teams without direct authority through data, judgment, communication, and operating credibility.
Improve Client Economics and Profitability
Optimize mode mix, ride assignment logic, provider allocation, benefit utilization, and prevention/control motions
Partner with Operations, Client Success/Growth, and Finance to convert profitability opportunities into operating changes
Translate Operating Reality into Product and Tooling Leverage
Serve as the translation layer between frontline operating reality and the Product/Engineering roadmap.
Help Product identify the real business problems behind operational pain points and prioritize the highest-leverage tooling opportunities.
Measure whether shipped solutions actually reduce operational drag, improve workflows, or create better business outcomes.