Vice President, Central Operations and Strategy - Remote

UnitedHealth Group•Torrance, CA

11d•$159,300 - $273,200•Hybrid

About The Position

The Vice President, Central Operations and Strategy establishes and executes the operating strategy for the California IPA business. The role is accountable for technology enablement, network management, complex transitions, and cross-functional business outcomes, aligning market, regional, and national leaders around enterprise priorities, measurable results, and an integrated operating model. The primary accountability is the IPA business, with defined oversight of Group operations when shared technology, provider data, contracting, network processes, or transitions require an integrated approach. The position leads California IPA strategy and transformation, provider-facing technology and workflow improvements, network governance and provider-data coordination, and executive oversight of complex provider, practice, site, pod, network, and system transitions. It defines and tracks performance measures, conducts governance and performance reviews, makes decisions within delegated authority, and escalates material investment or operating-model tradeoffs to the COO or appropriate executive forum. The role provides leadership through management layers, senior professionals, and matrixed teams, and partners across operations, technology, product, analytics, contracting, provider relations, data, medical management, population health, quality, finance, regulatory, and payer operations. The role may be performed remotely within the U.S., subject to the stated in-office requirements. The posting also specifies the ability to work in person at the Torrance office 2–3 days per week, travel up to 25%, and a minimum of four office days per week for hires in Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. Remote employees must follow UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

Requirements

At least 7 years of extensive leadership experience in healthcare operations, managed care, medical group, IPA, network, or healthcare technology environments, with demonstrated success leading complex teams, leaders, or enterprise portfolios.
At least 7 years of experience with provider operations, network management, contracting, provider data, technology enablement, or complex transitions.
At least 7 years of experience in a risk-bearing or delegated environment and across employed and contracted provider networks.
Ability to translate business needs into clear priorities, roadmaps, governance, and implementation plans.
Executive presence and ability to influence physicians, operators, technical teams, and senior leaders without relying on direct authority.
Ability to travel up to 25%.
Ability to work in person at the Torrance office 2–3 days per week.
Remote employees must adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

Nice To Haves

California healthcare experience and familiarity with IPA and employed medical-group models.
Experience with IPA technology enablement and improving the supporting technology stack, including Optum Pro, CURO, Cozeva, DataCORE, VIM, and related tools.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the California IPA operating strategy and transformation agenda, setting priorities and driving performance across provider experience, operational effectiveness, quality, affordability, growth, and financial outcomes.
Partner with market, functional, and executive leaders to prioritize investments, establish strategic roadmaps, and develop scalable capabilities.
Assess regional performance, network needs, provider experience, technology gaps, and growth opportunities.
Determine where IPA and Group capabilities should be aligned and where separate approaches are needed.
Lead the IPA technology roadmap, including platform integration, workflow modernization, automation, and digital experience improvements.
Align business priorities across Optum Pro, CURO, Cozeva, DataCORE, VIM, and related data and workflow tools; identify fragmented workflows, manual processes, duplicative tools, and data issues for improvement.
Partner with technology, product, data, and operations teams to define requirements, ownership, dependencies, and outcomes, and represent California priorities in national technology and investment planning.
Establish cross-functional governance for provider network operations, including decision rights, accountability, performance expectations, and escalation pathways.
Set California network priorities and hold national and regional partners accountable across contracting, provider relations, network services, Partner Data Integrity (PDI), and provider-data functions.
Define governance, ownership, and handoffs for contracting, provider loading, roster and network changes, data maintenance, and issue resolution.
Direct resolution of systemic network and provider-data issues affecting provider experience, operations, attribution, network status, contract configuration, and data integrity.
Establish executive governance and oversight for complex provider, practice, site, pod, network, and system transitions.
Assign accountable leaders and ensure transitions have milestones, dependencies, communications, risk-mitigation plans, decision points, and completion criteria.
Hold functional leaders accountable for transition dependencies, including provider and membership changes, payer notifications, provider-data updates, contracting changes, and system readiness.
Monitor transition readiness, unresolved issues, provider and member impacts, and decisions requiring escalation; validate post-implementation outcomes and ensure outstanding risks and actions are addressed.
Define and track measures for technology adoption, network performance, provider-data quality, transition readiness, and operating results.
Lead governance and performance reviews, make decisions within delegated authority, escalate material investment and operating-model tradeoffs, and drive agreed actions to completion.
Partner with accountable leaders on regulatory, contractual, accreditation, and delegated requirements.
Lead through multiple management layers, senior professionals, and matrixed teams responsible for strategy, technology enablement, network management, and transition execution.
Partner with Regional Operations, Technology, Product, Analytics, Network Contracting, Provider Relations, Provider Data, Medical Management, Population Health, Quality, Finance, Regulatory, and Payer Operations.
Represent the work with executive leaders, physician leaders, health plans, and national partners.