THE OPPORTUNITY

Under the direction of Seattle Children’s new Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) will be responsible for the execution, coordination, integration, and optimization of clinical operations. The COO will be accountable for translating institutional priorities into operational tactics to achieve Seattle Children’s goals and objectives.

As a key member of the executive leadership team, the COO will work closely with clinical, research, and business operations leadership to ensure Seattle Children’s provides outstanding outcomes, experience and value for patients and families. The COO will ensure the optimization of clinical and business operations, simultaneously, driving a patient and family centered service culture that continues to position Seattle Children’s as a nationally recognized leader for superior quality and patient safety.

Furthermore, this role is responsible for providing executive direction and management for all clinical operations (inpatient and ambulatory), including direct supervision of nursing, ambulatory services, clinical support services, service lines and specialty programs, facilities management, operational excellence/continuous improvement, and other duties as assigned. The COO participates with the executive leadership team to develop overall strategic and operating plans to ensure the appropriate procurement, deployment and effective use of human, facility and supply resources required to support current and anticipated operations. These activities occur within the context of developing policy and procedure, participating in goal development, decision making regarding resource allocation and development of continuous process improvement strategies. This executive will participate in decision making with other key leaders, medical leadership, executive leadership and other clinical leaders.

The COO is expected to be a highly effective, experienced, consensus-building leader who will inspire the organization and support continued operational excellence as it continues evolving into a new kind of pediatric health system—highly integrated with its academic partners and deeply mission-driven in its commitment to the communities it serves.

The individual will share the vision and values of Seattle Children’s and be regarded by stakeholders as a trustworthy, transparent, optimistic, and values-driven leader.

SEATTLE CHILDREN'S OVERVIEW

Seattle Children’s Hospital was founded in 1907 with the goal to care for all children regardless of their ability to pay, a vision that continues to guide Seattle Children’s to this day. Over the ensuing years, Seattle Children’s has cemented itself as one of the world’s top centers for pediatric medicine, specializing in meeting the unique physical, emotional, and developmental needs of children from infancy through young adulthood. Serving patients primarily across four states and nearly one million square miles, Seattle Children’s generated almost $4 billion in gross revenue and had over 400,000 patient visits in 2024.

Seattle Children’s is anchored by its 423-bed hospital in Seattle while also providing care at 43 outreach sites across the Pacific Northwest, serving the largest region of any pediatric hospital in the country. Since 1970, Seattle Children’s has operated the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC) to bring medical, dental and behavioral healthcare with dignity to children from birth to young adulthood in the Central District of Seattle and beyond. OBCC’s diverse team reflects the communities it serves and advocates for their overall well-being. In 2024, OBCC cared for 32,255 children.

Seattle Children’s, ranked among the Top 10 Best Children’s Hospitals in the U.S. and the best in the Pacific Northwest by U.S. News & World Report, serves as the primary teaching, clinical, and research site for the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. More than 1,000 faculty physicians and researchers practice at Seattle Children’s through appointments at the University of Washington and employment with Children’s University Medical Group, the joint practice plan between the two institutions. Together with its more than 10,000 employees, this academic partnership significantly expands the reach and impact of the health system. To support future growth and improve access across the region, Seattle Children’s has also invested in 43.9 acres of land in Renton, Washington, positioning the organization to continue meeting the needs of children and families for decades to come.

Seattle Children’s has cemented itself as one of the world’s top centers for pediatric medicine, specializing in meeting the unique physical, emotional, and developmental needs of children from infancy through young adulthood. Through the collaboration of physicians in nearly 60 pediatric subspecialties, Seattle Children’s provides inpatient, outpatient, diagnostic, surgical, rehabilitative, behavioral, and emergency and outreach services, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS

Challenges

• Ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of the enterprise during a time of turbulence and uncertainty driven by industry-wide disruption and transformation.
• Develop and sustain a peer partnership with the CPE and CNO to enable a unified approach to clinical operations across the enterprise.
• Effectively lead and inspire a broad portfolio of leaders and organizational functions to ensure the leaders are poised to execute upon the strategy.
• Operating effectively amid the complexity and ambiguity associated with organizational transformation.
• Be a champion for unity and systemness, especially among the Executive Leadership Team as the organization continues to evolve.
• Balance flexibility with decisiveness to create a cohesive system that evolves and optimizes patient care.
• Maintain a keen awareness of how services are working across the system and respond appropriately.

Critical Experiences

• Progressive experience in leading complex clinical operations within, with demonstrated knowledge of the whole continuum of patient care (preventative, outpatient, inpatient, post-acute, etc.)
• Demonstrated track records as a “systems thinker” who effectively engages and aligns the various entities within a large, integrated organization.
• Demonstrated ability to drive the implementation of strategic and annual operating plans.
• Proven ability to build positive, effective relationships and work from a position of influence with academic, clinical and faculty leaders, as well as diverse management teams to set and execute performance goals.
• Experience in aligning, scaling, and sustaining quality, safety, and performance improvement initiatives to drive superior outcomes.
• Strong track record of external partnership-building, with a demonstrated ability to understand and translate the needs of the community into critical success factors for the organization.
• Proven track record of staying up-to-date on current health care-related legislation and best practices in healthcare delivery systems.

Additional Behavioral Requirements

• Balancing perspectives – Making decisions with reference to the needs and priorities of a variety of stakeholders simultaneously – including, for example, patients, organizational leaders, external partners, and inter-organization groups.
• Relationship building – Building and/or maintaining friendly, reciprocal and warm relationships with networks of people who may be able to assist in the business.
• Collaboration – Actively working with and through others in the pursuit of shared objectives.

Critical Leadership Capabilities

Driving Operational Results

In a patient-centric organization that prides itself on delivering high-quality, effective patient care, the COO will be a strong operator with a relentless focus on performance excellence, efficiency and value. They will translate strategy into implementation and drive toward top business performance by:

• Making process changes to existing ways of working to significantly improve results.
• Proactively seeking to improve processes and productivity through efficiencies or by implementing best-in-class solutions.
• Enabling higher performance by incrementally improving approaches based on calculated risks.
• Benchmarking performance of the business or function against industry best practices.

Leading and Managing Organizational Change

The COO will have a track record of advocating for, leading and successfully achieving change in complex healthcare environments. The COO will do this by:

• Taking personal ownership for advancing significant change.
• Communicating a new direction or change with a clear rationale and/or sense of urgency.
• Creating or taking advantage of multiple opportunities to promote needed change.
• Adapting communication content, approach or style around change to appeal to various audiences.

Collaborating and Influencing

The COO must not only lead operations across the enterprise, but also engage, communicate and partner effectively with executive leaders, faculty leaders, school of medicine administration and numerous external stakeholders. They will:

• Facilitate discussions that enable people to collaborate independently with each other.
• Promote collaboration and partnership among multiple parties inside the organization.
• Orchestrate events for key players and stakeholders to engage in dialogue and shape consensus.
• Build and leverage a network of relationships that are important to the organization and its stakeholders.

Other Personal Characteristics

• Executive presence, maturity and gravitas to represent the organization effectively and credibly to external and internal constituents.
• Visible and hands-on leader who engages, communicates with, inspires and leads front line teams.
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship-building skills; authentic, transparent communication skills.
• Honesty, integrity, humility and self-awareness.
• Compassionate, inclusive and approachable.
• Willingness to make difficult decisions and hold individuals and teams accountable for their performance.
• Analytical thinker with problem-solving skills, creativity and a sense of urgency to make an impact.
• Commitment to the mission and values of Seattle Children’s.
• Commitment to health equity, ensuring a respectful and inclusive culture that permeates the Seattle Children’s community.

EXPERIENCE AND CREDENTIALS

• While an advanced degree in health services, business administration, or related field (MBA, MHA, MD/MBA or equivalent) is preferred, candidates without an advanced degree may be considered. A degree must be obtained through an accredited institution.
• 10+ years of progressive operational experience, with 5+ years spent at the senior executive level
• Experience within a multi-site, highly complex healthcare organization
• Pediatric and academic medical center experience preferred; experience with a unionized workforce preferred.
• Experience recruiting, managing and developing high-performing teams
• Experience with continuous process improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, etc.)
• P&L experience
• Lived experience promoting health equity, and inclusion efforts with a track record of significant contributions and impact in health equity and inclusion
• Preferred background in facilities expansion and construction management

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Korn Ferry shall provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified candidates, and will refer candidates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected basis. Artificial Intelligence tools may be used in connection with the recruitment process for this position.