Innovation Core, Associate Director

University of Washington Medical Center

10d

About The Position

The UW School of Medicine has an outstanding opportunity for an Innovation Core, Associate Director. The UW Medicine Innovation Core is a strategic hub dedicated to guiding the ethical and responsible use of AI and emerging technologies across the health system. By developing system-wide processes and uniting efforts across research, care delivery, and education, the Innovation Core team ensures that innovative tools are thoughtfully integrated to support patient care, operational effectiveness, and UW Medicine strategic priorities. Whether enabling researchers to analyze disease, clinicians to envision the hospital of the future, or administrators to improve systems, the Innovation Core accelerates promising innovations into real-world pilots and builds pathways for successful adoption system-wide, promoting equity and benefit for all communities served by UW Medicine. This position will report to the Senior Director of Enterprise Initiatives on an interim basis until leadership for Innovation Core has been finalized. UW Medicine is seeking a forward-thinking, technology-savvy leader to help guide the responsible adoption of AI and emerging technologies across UW Medicine. The Innovation Core, Associate Director is responsible for providing operational leadership and oversight of the Innovation Core team while collaborating with other Innovation Core leadership to establish and evolve the program vision, strategy, education and engagement across UW Medicine. Additionally, the Associate Director provides leadership in managing the Innovation Core portfolio, overseeing and facilitating the evaluation, execution, and adoption of individual innovation initiatives, including pilot programs and system-wide implementation and plays a key role in supporting the Innovation Core governance committees. This role will utilize specialized knowledge of the program to advise and direct key partners and stakeholders across UW Medicine on how to navigate and successfully implement innovation at UW Medicine while mitigating risk. They also inform how the program will allocate resources, establish and revise policies, procedures, and processes. The Associate Director operates with a high level of program and project management proficiency, providing direction, counsel and guidance to the Innovation Core Business Analysts (Innovation Core BAs), business owners, and leaders across UW Medicine to ensure successful review and execution of innovation initiatives. This role ensures that all use cases within the Innovation Core portfolio align with UW Medicine's strategies and priorities through effective intake processes, comprehensive risk assessments, development of key performance indicators, and clear communication with stakeholders. This role requires exercising discretion, independent judgment, and self-direction, and involves access to restricted or confidential information such as patient information, institutional strategies, financials, and other sensitive materials.

Requirements

Master’s degree and a minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience demonstrating the following:
Program operations and/or management (e.g., scope definition, performing cost/benefit analysis, advancing multiple projects, managing team portfolio, KPI tracking)
Ability to lead, facilitate, and participate in cross-functional teams and workgroups to implement projects or organizational changes.
Leading, supervising, managing and/or mentoring staff.
Process improvement and standards development.
Curiosity and ability to translate complex technological concepts into actionable strategies.
Strong communication and presentation skills for engaging various levels of stakeholders, including senior leadership
Strong organizational, analytical, and multitasking abilities, with a results-driven mindset and adaptability to shifting priorities and ambiguity.
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, Project/Project Online, SharePoint), data analysis, information management, and process mapping.
Equivalent education and/or experience may substitute for minimum requirements.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience in academic healthcare environments and information systems.
Demonstrated ability to partner with leaders, employees, and teams to work toward deploying a different future state.
Strong grasp of AI principles, healthcare data, and the evolving landscape of digital health technologies, including automation, predictive analytics, and cloud-based platforms.
Ability to apply service management methodologies/concepts and financial concepts (e.g., return on investment, or ROI).

Responsibilities

Oversee the Innovation Core program and direct the work of the Innovation Core team while providing program and project leadership in alignment with UW Medicine’s mission and strategic goals.
Actively shape and champion the Innovation Core’s vision to future-proof UW Medicine through ethical, impactful technology adoption.
Responsible for identifying opportunities for disruptive innovation, anticipating industry trends, and positioning UW Medicine as a national leader in healthcare technology adoption while mitigating risk in a highly regulated and evolving field.
In collaboration with other Innovation Core leadership, maintain responsibility for evolving the program vision, strategy, education and engagement across UW Medicine.
Work directly with executive leadership across UW Medicine and the University of Washington to determine best practices for emerging technologies.
Responsible for institution-wide policy development around innovative technologies (e.g., AI Policy).
Responsible for oversight of the AI governance structure across UW Medicine including Chairing several committees, Streamlining/standardizing processes and procedures to enhance Innovation Core’s operational efficiency and improve stakeholder compliance, Influencing and/or driving decision-making, Managing and facilitating the review of individual use case proposals with applicable governance committees to seek approvals; and Developing and facilitating the evolution of risk evaluation frameworks that balance innovation speed with patient safety, ethics, and equity.
Lead, staff, or support future committees within Innovation Core governance structures.
Understand interdependencies between technology, operations and business needs to help Innovation Core and stakeholders achieve organizational goals/objectives.
In collaboration with other Innovation Core leadership, maintain responsibility for enabling the development of innovative solutions with venture partners and help identify and prioritize problem areas within UW Medicine to solve.
Responsible for enabling a rapid pilot environment within UW Medicine for validation and testing of innovative solutions.
Oversee feasibility studies, vendor selections, and proposals for evaluation by appropriate key stakeholders to help ensure consistent risk mitigation strategies and organizational goals/objectives are being met.
Demonstrate a functional acumen to support how individual use cases and solutions will meet specific goals while maintaining alignment with UW Medicine and industry best practices.
Develop and nurture trusted relationships with various stakeholders, including leadership across UW and UW Medicine.
Responsible for managing system-wide impacts to ensure alignment with enterprise strategic goals.
Develop and manage the strategic budget for Innovation Core investments in innovation activities across the system, partnering with the Strategy Committee to ideate year-over-year goals.
Manage Innovation Core office budget, including its submission through the UW Medicine process and identification of resources for the team.
Responsible for recommending and executing on certain budget responsibilities including but not limited to operational budget management, forecasting for future needs, identifying new initiatives, reviewing and assessing existing allocations, procurement and vendor oversight, budget compliance and documentation, and long-term planning.
Drive the AI and innovation portfolio, ensuring rigorous evaluation of pilots and rapid scaling of technologies that enhance patient care, research, and operations.
Collaborate and partner with IT leaders and IT governance committees to drive successful collaboration, coordination, decision making and project delivery.
Lead the end-to-end execution of prioritized innovation initiatives, ensuring the initiatives are completed on time, within scope, and within budget.
Conceptualize and communicate solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, effectively translating and connecting complex concepts into actionable insights while navigating and collaborating across both domains.
Oversee the UW Medicine AI intake process, in partnership with IT, for new AI use cases.
Partner effectively with business owners, participate in meetings to review and assess individual business cases and assess use cases for strategic alignment, budget, cost/benefit analysis and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Partner with Strategic Marketing and Communications and IT in the implementation of the Innovation Core strategic communication, engagement and literacy plans, including aligning specific content and timing.
Address issues escalated by Innovation Core governance committees, Innovation Core BAs, IT owners, and business owners on Innovation Core use cases.
Regularly document and communicate progress of Innovation Core initiatives and use cases to key stakeholders, including UW Medicine executive and department leadership.
Provide direction to and oversee the Innovation BAs in developing and maintaining tools, templates, standards, and reports to support the Innovation Core team’s functions.
Adopt new methodologies as appropriate.
Lead ongoing reviews of business processes and develop optimization strategies, in close collaboration with IT and key stakeholders within the Innovation Core governance.
Continuously scout, evaluate, and champion emerging technologies (AI, automation, digital health, cloud, data analytics) to modernize systems and deliver measurable improvements.
Supervise and provide oversight for the Innovation BAs and other future program roles in the Innovation Core, including conducting annual performance reviews.
Provide leadership to Innovation BAs by motivating them to meet goals, adhering to their responsibilities and team standards.
Continue professional development to keep abreast of emerging technologies, methods, and best practices.
Schedule meetings to support the Innovation Core and innovation use cases as needed.
Lead team and departmental meetings as appropriate.
Other duties as assigned.