Regional Director of Operations (Post-Acute & Senior Living) Recruiters
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.
Hire a regional operator who turns P&L variance, census movement, survey follow-up, and local leader commitments into action.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
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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.
- RDO
- Regional VP Operations
What does an open seat cost you every week?
An open role costs you more than the recruiting fee. Someone covers the work, waits for care, or stops a service. We ask what is falling behind and who is carrying it. Use your own figures to compare the cost of waiting with the cost of hiring.
The seat is costing you every week.
Overtime, diverted patients, a stretched team and a schedule held together by favors.
The posting brought the wrong people.
Applicants arrive, but the person who has done this exact work is employed and not looking.
You are the one chasing.
Screening calls, no-shows and follow-ups land on the desk of someone with a facility to run.
What does this hire really come down to?
A Regional Director of Operations directs several post-acute sites, senior living communities, or a combined portfolio through Administrators and Executive Directors. Their week often includes reviewing census, labor results, operating statements, survey work, leadership vacancies, and site action plans. They decide which location needs attention, what a local leader must report back, and when unresolved work needs escalation.
We recruit permanent RDOs and Regional VPs of Operations for employers seeking tighter regional oversight.
This person needs more than finance fluency or clinical familiarity. A credible RDO can read a site P&L, question an occupancy decline, examine the staffing choices behind labor variance, and follow survey-related action through to local completion. They distinguish a short-term disruption from a repeated operating problem.
The strongest regional leaders do not absorb every building-level issue themselves. They assign an owner, set a review date, inspect the result, and address missed follow-up directly. During interviews, ask what they would request after a community misses census goals, posts unfavorable labor results, or receives survey findings. Look for facts, decisions, named owners, and a method for checking progress.
What do we check before you see anyone?
Multi-site P&L ownership. We ask about the portfolio they directed, the reports they reviewed, and a variance they investigated. We ask what they found, what changed at the site, and how they decided whether the Administrator’s response was enough. Census and survey outcomes.
- We ask how they reviewed referrals, move-ins, discharges, occupancy, survey findings, and local action plans. If they describe a recovery, we ask which data informed the decision and what the local leader did differently.
- NHA license where required. If your operation or state rules call for an active Nursing Home Administrator license, we screen for that credential. Your organization completes license verification, credentialing, and its own clinical assessment. An NHA license does not by itself show regional leadership ability.
- Staffing and operating decisions. We ask how they discuss staffing hours, overtime, agency use, resident needs, and budget effects with building leaders. Their answer should show they can question spending patterns without treating care decisions as a spreadsheet exercise.
- Executive Director coaching. We ask for an example of a local leader who repeatedly missed commitments. What did the RDO inspect, what expectation changed, and what evidence showed whether coaching changed the result? This reveals how they address weak follow-through.
- Reporting to ownership. We ask how they would present uneven results across a region. Useful reporting identifies the metric, likely cause, accountable owner, next action, and review date. A dashboard without a decision or owner leaves leadership without a clear next move.
Where do we find them, and why would they move?
Our source pools include Administrators and Executive Directors seeking broader regional responsibility, along with Regional Directors from other operators. A single-site leader may seek a regional role after rebuilding a leadership team, improving census, or managing difficult survey follow-up. Before presentation, we ask about current scope, travel expectations, reporting line, and reason for change.
Established RDOs may consider a move for clearer decision authority, a different mix of post-acute and senior living sites, relocation, or a reporting relationship that fits their approach.
Which mistakes stall the search?
A common mistake is hiring a corporate adviser who can discuss reports but has not carried building-level results through a difficult operating cycle. Another is accepting claimed occupancy growth without asking how referrals, move-ins, discharges, staffing, and local leader actions were reviewed.
Assuming a successful single-site Administrator can automatically coach several Executive Directors across multiple locations.
How would we run the search for this opening?
We start with your portfolio mix, reporting relationship, travel expectations, P&L scope, census or survey concerns, and decision authority. We review work history, credentials, multi-site scope, and examples of P&L review, census action, survey follow-up, and Executive Director coaching. We present relevant operating context and coordinate interviews around the questions your ownership team needs answered.
Define the regional assignment
This separates candidates who directed comparable work from those with a related title but narrower responsibility.
Screen the operating record
We ask what the candidate personally owned, what local leaders owned, and how results were reviewed.
Present candidates for your decision
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
Where this search connects
Post-Acute, Senior Living & Home-Based Care Leadership
SpecialtySkilled Nursing & Post-Acute Care
SettingSenior Living (Assisted Living, Memory Care, CCRC)
SettingHome Health & Hospice
SettingPE-Backed Healthcare Platforms
SettingNursing Home Administrator (NHA)
Related roleAssistant Director of Nursing (ADON)
Related roleMDS Coordinator
Related roleRegional Nurse Consultant
Related roleNational median annual wage. SOC 11-9111, Medical and Health Services Managers.
BLS reports Medical and Health Services Managers as one occupation. It does not publish a separate estimate for Regional Director of Operations (Post-Acute & Senior Living), its setting or its engagement terms.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, 2025-05, released 2026-05-15. View source. See the full guide.
Open roles
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What happens if our chosen candidate does not work out?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. We review those terms before the search begins, alongside role scope, interview steps, and the background you need from each candidate.
Should we hire an RDO from post-acute or senior living?
Start with the sites this person will direct. Post-acute portfolios may need deeper experience with referral patterns, census, clinical leadership, and survey follow-up.
When is an NHA license needed for this role?
That depends on your operating model and applicable state rules. We screen for an active NHA license when you identify it as needed. Your organization confirms license status and makes its own credentialing decision.
How do you test whether an RDO can improve a weak territory?
We ask for a specific underperforming site or regional example. We want to hear which reports they reviewed first, what they learned from the numbers, who owned each action, and how they checked whether results changed.
Can you help if we need interim coverage before a permanent hire?
We arrange locum tenens, travel and contract coverage on request. Credentialing, licensing and malpractice coverage are confirmed per engagement before anyone starts.
What should you send us about this role?
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.
Tell us where regional follow-through is breaking down: P&L results, census, survey work, or local leadership.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
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.
Which other positions in this family should you consider?
Regional Nurse Consultant · Executive Director, Senior Living
What do you get at each step of the search?
Our process for every search: calibrate the seat with you, map the market, research the real people, reach out to each one personally, qualify them in live conversation, then hand you a short list with a written brief on each person and support through the offer.
Search Calibration
You get an agreed brief: the work, reporting line, credentials, schedule, and offer you can make.
Market Mapping
You get a search aimed at relevant backgrounds, including people working now who have not applied.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We check appropriate ways to reach the people identified for your search. You do not have to chase them yourself.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We explain your actual job and follow up with people who may consider a conversation.
Live Candidate Qualification
You see people we have spoken with about the work, interest, and practical fit, not an unread resume pile.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You get a written brief and support through interviews and offer discussions. You make the hiring decision.
How long will it take to see a short list?
That depends on the job, schedule, available people, and what your employer can offer. We discuss those constraints before outreach and update you as candidates respond. We do not promise a fixed shortlist date. We check the job brief before arranging interviews. Tell us which parts of the role you can change.
What if a candidate receives a counteroffer?
We ask why the person wants to move and discuss competing decisions before an offer. A counteroffer can still change their choice. Keep the duties and offer clear rather than assuming more money settles every concern. Tell us early if parts of your offer cannot change, so the candidate hears it from us first.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. Ask us to walk through those terms before you sign, so you know how a replacement would work for your opening and who would start it.
What do we not do in a standard permanent search?
We do not bill standard contingency search by the hour or simply repost your job. Temporary coverage is a separate arrangement. Any retainer or different engagement must be agreed, not assumed. Tell us early if you need coverage while the permanent search runs.