Director, Community Health Operations

Remote (Full time)

Compensation: $165,000/year

About Zocalo Health

Zocalo Health is a tech-enabled, community-oriented primary care organization serving people who have historically been underserved by the one-size-fits-all healthcare system. We partner with health plans, providers, and community organizations to deliver culturally competent primary care, behavioral health, and social care.

Our model is built for populations with high medical and social complexity, where fragmented care drives poor outcomes and unnecessary cost. We combine local, community-based teams with virtual care and modern technology to deliver coordinated, whole-person care where members live.

The Role

Community-based care is the part of our model that members actually experience, and it is the part that is hardest to scale without losing what makes it work. This role owns the operational backbone of it: the community health worker workforce and Community Supports.

You will lead two teams through two leaders, across twelve counties and eight health plan contracts, as the organization converts to a new RN-led care model plan by plan. The work is making sure the right people are in the right counties against forecast demand, that community teams and clinical teams operate as one care team rather than two functions with a handoff between them, and that what we tell health plans about how we work is what actually happens in the field.

This is an operating role rather than a program role. You will own deployment decisions, audit accountability and performance reporting into health plan forums, and you will be the peer counterpart to Payer Operations for anything touching community-based delivery.

What you will own

• Operational performance of the community health worker workforce and of Community Supports, through the CHW Operations Manager and the Community Supports Senior Team Lead.
• Geographic footprint and hiring plan. Which roles are needed in which counties, and when, against the care model conversion schedule and the enrollment forecast.
• Integration between community teams and clinical care teams, so that community health workers, RNs and care coordinators operate as a single care team.
• Audit accountability for community-based operations, including health plan fidelity requirements and DHCS readiness.
• Operational performance reporting into health plan forums.
• Unit economics for Community Supports and the CHW Benefit, working with Finance, including the recommendation on whether the CHW Benefit continues.
• Career pathways, training frameworks and management structures for a frontline workforce that will grow across markets.

In your first twelve months

• A community health worker deployment plan by county, tied to the care model conversion schedule and to the enrollment forecast rather than to historical placement.
• Community health worker workflows integrated into the new care model in every converted county, with the role in Enhanced Care Management delivery defined against health plan requirements.
• A management structure that holds without you in the room: capable leaders at the level below, developed team leads, and documented decision rights.
• Community Supports operating at a known contribution by plan, with a decided position on the CHW Benefit rather than an inherited one.
• Performance measures connecting community health worker engagement to outcomes that health plans and Finance both recognize.

Qualifications

• Eight or more years leading community health, care management or population health programs, including managing through other leaders.
• Experience running distributed frontline teams across multiple counties or markets.
• Medicaid experience. CalAIM is strongly preferred, and direct experience of Enhanced Care Management or Community Supports is a significant advantage.
• A track record of integrating community-based teams into clinical care delivery rather than operating them alongside it.
• Comfort using operational data as the basis for decisions, and defending those decisions to a health plan.
• Experience of audit and regulatory readiness in a Medicaid setting.
• Ability to design operational workflows and management structures for a growing frontline workforce.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a tech-enabled delivery organization, particularly through a period of operational change.
• Experience designing career pathways and training frameworks for frontline staff.
• Experience with housing navigation or other social services programs delivered under a Medicaid benefit.
• Bilingual Spanish, or experience leading teams serving predominantly Spanish-speaking members.
• Advanced degree in public health, social work, healthcare administration or a related field.

What You Can Expect from Zocalo Health

• Equity compensation package
• Comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision
• 401k
• Flexible PTO policy
• $1,000 home office stipend
• Equipment provided for the role

You must be authorized to work in the United States. Remote work can be done from anywhere in the U.S.

At Zocalo Health Inc., we see diversity and inclusion as a source of strength in transforming healthcare. We believe building trust and innovation are best achieved through diverse perspectives. To us, acceptance and respect are rooted in an understanding that people do not experience things in the same way, including our healthcare system. Individuals seeking employment at Zocalo Health are considered without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.