Director, Access Strategy and Operations- Patient Access Organization

Description UCLA Health runs and operates over 280 outpatient clinics located in Southern California with over 3,000,000 outpatient encounters annually. The Patient Access Organization (PAO) serves as the centralized access team for UCLA Health’s ambulatory enterprise, ensuring timely, convenient, and equitable access to care for patients and the communities we serve. Our teams oversee high-volume centralized scheduling and call center operations, new patient referral intake and navigation, enterprise template and capacity management, workforce training and quality oversight, and scheduling pathways and technology optimization, including decision tree development and digital innovations.

We operate at the intersection of operations, technology, and clinical partnership to align supply and demand, streamline workflows, and continuously improve how patients enter and engage with UCLA Health. The Director, Access Strategy and Operations, serves as a strategic and operational partner to the Senior Director of Patient Access, providing enterprise-level support to advance performance, accountability, and transformation across the Patient Access Organization.

This role strengthens initiative governance, execution tracking, and leadership alignment across centralized scheduling, referral intake, capacity management, and access optimization functions. The Director, Access Strategy and Operations, is responsible for driving execution of complex initiatives, ensuring alignment across access functions, auditing quality and outcomes, and enabling leaders to deliver consistent, high-quality results at scale.

This role establishes structured operating cadence, audits work products for quality and readiness, coordinates cross-functional initiatives, and ensures timely delivery of strategic priorities across a complex, matrixed health system environment. Operating with significant autonomy and influence, this individual acts as an integrator, connecting strategy to execution, surfacing risks and gaps, and ensuring priorities move forward on time and with rigor.

The role partners closely with the Patient Access Organization Directors, Administrators, Supervisors, and Access Performance Coaches, as well as cross-disciplinary stakeholders across the health system, to improve the end-to-end patient access journey. Annual salary: $88,900-$190,300 Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in Healthcare Administration, Business, Organizational Development, Education, or related field or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience required.

Master's degree preferred or a minimum of 8-12+ years of progressive leadership experience in healthcare operations, access, ambulatory services, or large-scale service organizations. 8+ years (required) - Progressive healthcare operations leadership experience. Demonstrated advancement in responsibility within ambulatory operations, patient access, service line operations, or large-scale service organizations. 5+ years (required) - Experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives.

Direct experience managing enterprise-level projects involving clinical stakeholders, IT, finance, patient experience, or revenue cycle teams. 5+ years (required) - Experience operating in a matrixed health system environment. Proven ability to influence without direct authority across departments and leadership levels. 3+ years (required) - Experience supporting or advising senior executive leadership. Experience preparing executive-level materials, driving strategic initiatives, and managing high-visibility priorities. 3+ years (preferred) - Experience with patient access operations (centralized scheduling, referral intake, capacity management, call center operations, or workflow optimization) 3+ years (preferred) - Experience in performance management, quality auditing, or operational governance.

Demonstrated ability to establish accountability structures, review work products for rigor, and standardize operational processes.