Job Description

Chief Operating Officer

at Zócalo Health

Remote, Seattle Preferred (Full Time)

Compensation: $275,000

About Us

Zócalo 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 and receive support.

Founded in 2021, Zócalo Health is backed by leading healthcare and mission-aligned investors and is scaling rapidly across states and populations. We are building a durable care platform designed to perform in constrained healthcare environments and to lead the shift toward accountable, value-based care.

Zócalo Health is entering a new phase of growth. The company has proven demand for its model and is expanding across markets, populations, and payer relationships. What allowed the organization to move quickly in the early years was strong leaders solving problems locally and responding in real time to emerging needs. That approach worked when the organization was smaller. At scale it becomes fragile.

The next phase of the company requires something different. It requires a durable operating system that allows strong teams to execute consistently across markets without relying on constant escalation or heroics.

The Chief Operating Officer will build that operating system.

This leader will be responsible for how execution happens across the company. The COO will oversee the core care delivery engine of the organization including clinical operations, regional leadership, community health worker teams, patient engagement operations, and CalAIM program delivery.

More importantly, the COO will design the mechanisms that connect these groups so that strategy translates into coordinated action and operational performance is predictable across markets.

The COO will serve as the integrator across the leadership team. This leader will ensure that priorities, resources, and operational execution stay aligned as the organization scales across new markets and payer relationships.

The COO partners closely with the CEO and Chief Strategy Officer to translate company strategy into operational execution. Strategy and Growth define where the organization expands and how it wins in the market. The COO ensures the operating model, organizational structure, and execution systems are in place so those strategic decisions can be implemented consistently across markets.

This role reports directly to the CEO and will play a central role in shaping how Zócalo Health scales its care model into new markets.

In your first 12 months, you will:

Establish the operating cadence that aligns clinical operations, CalAIM program leadership, regional leadership, and patient engagement teams around shared priorities, performance metrics, and execution timelines.

• Design and implement a company wide operating rhythm including performance reviews, operational planning processes, and cross functional coordination mechanisms that ensure leaders remain aligned around execution priorities.
• Partner closely with Regional General Managers to ensure markets operate with clear accountability, strong local leadership, and consistent support from centralized teams.
• Evaluate how work currently flows across clinical teams, community health workers, CalAIM programs, and operational functions. Address the most significant sources of friction affecting care delivery and member engagement.
• Strengthen the operating model that supports community health worker teams across markets, ensuring they have clear workflows, effective supervision, and strong integration with clinical care teams.
• Partner with Product, Data, and Payor Operations leaders to ensure operational workflows align with payer requirements and support consistent program execution across markets.
• Build operational visibility across markets by improving reporting and performance tracking so leadership can clearly understand operational performance and emerging risks.
• Prepare the organization for continued geographic expansion by ensuring operational systems can support additional markets, larger patient panels, and increasingly complex payer relationships.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in operations, general management, or business operations roles within healthcare delivery, healthcare services, or similarly complex regulated environments.
• Demonstrated experience scaling operations in high-growth organizations where processes and systems were still evolving.
• Experience overseeing large frontline workforces including distributed or field-based teams operating across multiple markets or regions.
• Track record of translating company strategy into coordinated operational execution across teams, markets, and functions.
• Demonstrated systems thinking. Ability to diagnose root causes across organizational boundaries and design operating mechanisms that improve execution reliability.
• Experience building management systems that support operational discipline, including operating cadence, performance reviews, metrics, and escalation mechanisms.
• Experience managing complex cross-functional environments where clinical teams, operational staff, and regional leadership must work in close coordination.
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity while building structure that enables teams to execute with clarity.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to align experienced leaders around shared priorities and operational standards.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to evaluate operational data and translate insights into operational improvements.
• Excellent communication skills with experience working closely with executive leadership, boards, and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to lead large operational organizations through periods of rapid growth and increasing complexity.
• Willingness to become deeply fluent in community-based healthcare delivery models and the operational realities of serving Medicaid and dual-eligible populations.
• Experience managing distributed or field-based teams operating across multiple markets or regions, such as community health workers, care coordinators, outreach teams, or other community-based staff.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience operating within Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, dual-eligible, or value-based care environments.
• Experience scaling multi-market healthcare delivery organizations operating across multiple states or regions.
• Experience leading or closely partnering with Regional General Managers or market leaders responsible for local execution.
• Experience scaling community health worker programs, care management teams, or similar community-based healthcare models.
• Experience operating within tech-enabled healthcare services organizations rather than traditional healthcare institutions.
• Familiarity with healthcare regulatory and compliance frameworks including HIPAA and Medicaid program requirements.
• Experience applying structured operational improvement methodologies such as Lean or Six Sigma.
• Experience managing organizations with 100+ operational staff across multiple functions.
• Experience working closely with Product, Data, or Engineering teams to support technology-enabled care delivery and operational systems.
• Experience supporting organizations transitioning from early-stage growth to scaled operational maturity.

What you can expect from Zócalo Health

• Equity compensation package
• Comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision
• 401k
• Flexible PTO policy - take the time you need to recharge
• $1,000 home office stipend
• We provide the equipment needed for this role.
• Opportunity for rapid career progression with plenty of room for personal growth.

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

At Zócalo 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 Zócalo Health are considered without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. 

Those seeking employment at Zócalo Health are considered without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.