Associate Chief Operating Officer
- Work
- Associate operations executive directing assigned healthcare services under delegated COO authority and addressing financial and service problems
Position directory
Executive Leadership: C-Suite & VP: positions we recruit
Healthcare Headhunters recruits healthcare professionals for employers. No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
This is what we do all day: recruit healthcare professionals.
Choose an executive whose authority matches the board, financial, clinical, operating, or growth decisions attached to the seat.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
Positions we recruit
Executive Leadership: C-Suite & VP
16 positions
16 matching positions
CEO / Hospital President
- Work
- Hospital executive leadership of service lines, budgets, staffing decisions, physician concerns, and board and community communications
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
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- Executive financial oversight of cash forecasts, service margins, capital requests, cost reports, and board reporting
Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)
- Work
- Executive workforce leadership covering labor costs, employee relations, benefits, union negotiations, recruitment barriers, and HR technology
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
- Work
- Executive coordination of hospital department operations, patient flow decisions, service expansion, staffing, and financial tradeoffs
Chief Strategy Officer
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- Executive evaluation of service expansion, referral patterns, competing capital proposals, financial exposure, and approved initiatives
Director of Facilities
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- Healthcare physical plant director overseeing maintenance, generator testing, shutdown plans, contractors, capital requests, and life safety corrections
Director of Human Resources (Healthcare)
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- Healthcare departmental HR leadership covering employee relations, payroll, benefits, supervisor guidance, grievances, and labor cost analysis
Director of Provider Network Management
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- Provider network departmental leadership covering contract negotiations, access gap investigation, provider relations staff, and agreement implementation
Director of Talent Acquisition (Healthcare)
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- Healthcare recruiting department leadership covering recruiter assignments, stalled searches, interview processes, hiring decisions, and recruiting expenditure
Health Plan Market President
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- Health plan market executive leadership with financial accountability, product oversight, membership review, and service performance decisions
President
- Work
- Healthcare enterprise executive reviewing service results, directing clinical and administrative leaders, and deciding spending within delegated authority
Service Line Administrator (Cardiovascular, Oncology, Ortho, Neuro)
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- Cardiovascular, oncology, orthopedic, or neuroscience service administration covering budgets, supply spending, capital planning, and physician coordination
Vice President of Business Development & Growth
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- Executive growth planning through referral analysis, physician and payer discussions, partnership evaluation, and compliant outreach review
Vice President of Operations
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- Executive oversight of site budgets, patient access, billing denials, support staffing, referral handoffs, and operating managers
Vice President of Physician Services
- Work
- Executive management of physician services, with oversight of physician service operations and associated departmental work
Start with the work
What should you settle before you hire?
Executive titles can conceal very different work. A chief executive sets organization-wide direction and works with the board. An operating executive turns plans into accountable work across sites or departments. A finance executive tests cash exposure, capital choices, and reporting.
A clinical executive links quality, workforce decisions, and care delivery. A VP usually owns a function, market, service line, or region.
The template supplies the titles and counts on this page. We help you define what the incoming leader owns, what remains with the board or corporate partners, and which decisions belong to peers, physicians, or department heads.
You define who approves spending, changes service-line plans, addresses physician concerns, reports difficult board results, and resets missed targets. We distinguish C-suite enterprise accountability from VP plan ownership, testing final approval authority versus recommendations.
Systems may need site alignment; standalone organizations may need local decisions and community relationships. Growth may mean post-acquisition reporting changes. For turnarounds, ask how leaders explain hard choices while protecting financial controls, workforce stability, and patient care.
Ask for evidence
What should you check before an offer?
Board judgment. Ask, “Describe a board discussion where the evidence did not support the preferred option. What did you recommend?” Useful answers identify the decision owner, separate facts from opinion, and explain how disagreement was handled. Operating ownership. Ask, “Which measures did you review with department leaders, and what changed when one moved off plan?”
- Look for named measures, a review rhythm, root-cause work, and a specific action the candidate led.
- Financial decisions. Ask, “Tell us about a capital, staffing, or service-line choice with competing clinical and financial consequences.” Listen for assumptions, alternatives, approval authority, and how results were reviewed afterward.
- Physician partnership. Ask, “When physicians or clinical leaders opposed an operating change, how did you define the issue and reach a decision?” Useful evidence includes direct discussion, clear authority, and attention to care quality.
- People leadership. Ask, “Tell us about a direct report who was not delivering an agreed result.” A useful answer covers expectations, follow-up, support, documentation, and the final decision.
- True scope. Ask, “What were your direct reports, budget authority, and external relationships?” The answer should separate personal ownership from work handled by corporate teams, consultants, or peers.
Different backgrounds, different fit
Where does relevant experience come from?
We recruit across providers, health systems, hospitals, ambulatory networks, post-acute organizations, physician enterprises, health plans, healthcare services, and related institutions. Your model guides sourcing: finance may need lender/investor/audit exposure; clinical executives need credible care-delivery leadership. People may consider a move after completing an integration, outgrowing a narrower portfolio, seeking closer board work, or taking responsibility for another care model.
We test the reason for a move against the work in your opening. A larger title alone does not show readiness for your decisions.
Avoid these
Which hiring mistakes should you avoid?
A common mistake is writing one brief for an enterprise executive and a functional VP. Candidates then arrive with the wrong board exposure, authority, or portfolio. Another is treating a familiar title as proof of comparable scope. Corporate teams may have held the financial, legal, strategy, or people decisions.
Leaving early outcomes unclear. Conflicting accounts of reporting lines, board contact, or spending authority weaken interviews.
Put it to work
What are the next steps?
We map reporting lines, decision rights, board and physician relationships, financial authority, team structure, and near-term outcomes. We screen work history, credentials, leadership scope, and fit through role-specific conversations. Your board and executive team compare shortlisted candidates’ evidence of spending authority, physician relationships, and accountability for missed targets.
Define the seat
We separate fixed conditions from areas the incoming leader can change.
Assess the evidence
We ask candidates to explain decisions rather than recite duties. Your team completes its own credentialing and final assessment.
Support the hire
Interviews test who made each decision and how results were measured. Before an offer, we help confirm scope and decision rights.
How do we decide whether the opening needs a C-suite executive or a VP?
Begin with authority rather than title. A C-suite seat may set enterprise direction, work directly with the board, and resolve tradeoffs across major functions. A VP may own a function, market, service line, or region within an established enterprise plan.
What should we define before meeting operating executive candidates?
Name the operating measures, direct reports, major decisions, and working relationships with physician and clinical leaders. State whether the leader can change structure or approve spending and whether either decision needs another executive’s approval.
How do we assess a finance executive coming from a larger organization?
Ask what the candidate personally owned. Clarify budget authority, lender or board contact, capital planning work, and decisions retained by corporate leadership. Large-system experience can matter, but it does not automatically show readiness for local accountability.
What distinguishes a clinical executive search from an operations executive search?
A clinical executive links quality, workforce, clinician practice, and operating choices. An operations executive may own site performance, growth plans, and department execution across clinical and nonclinical functions. Do not assume one leader covers both without comparable evidence.
Can Healthcare Headhunters recruit interim executive coverage while we conduct a permanent search?
We arrange locum tenens, travel and contract coverage on request. Credentialing, licensing and malpractice coverage are confirmed per engagement before anyone starts.
How can Healthcare Headhunters help with this hire?
Send us the role, where the person will work and what needs to change with this hire. We will ask about the work, not just the title. Share any license or schedule limits that could rule someone out before we begin the search.
Healthcare Headhunters conducts permanent contingency searches with no upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. Share the reporting structure and decisions attached to the seat, and we will help frame the search.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
Keep the hiring brief connected
Executive Leadership: C-Suite & VP hub
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