Reports To: President & CEODepartment: Executive TeamLocation: 1400 W. Greenleaf Ave, Chicago, IL 60626Salary Range: $170,000 - $190,000Job SummaryAs a key member of Trilogy's executive leadership team, the Chief Clinical Operations Officer (CCOO) provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and programmatic oversight for Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) operations across Trilogy's multiple sites. Working in close partnership with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Program Officer (CPO), the CCOO serves as part of Trilogy's executive clinical leadership structure, collectively responsible for advancing the organization's clinical vision, care delivery model, quality outcomes, and service innovation.
This role is responsible for aligning day-to-day operations with federal, state, and clinical practice criteria while serving as the primary architect of service delivery design that best meets the behavioral health needs of clients and the unmet behavioral health needs of the community. The CCOO will be responsible for transforming both legacy and emerging processes into flexible, agile systems capable of adapting to the shifting policy landscape, regulatory compliance mandates, emerging care delivery models and evidence-based practices, modern client/consumer preferences, and workforce dynamics.
The CCOO will lead the vision to improve behavioral health access and quality outcomes and to further integrate Trilogy's care delivery model by continually improving connections to primary care and substance use services through evidence-based, person-centered approaches. Guided by Trilogy's Philosophy of Care, which emphasizes recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and whole-person care, the CCOO will ensure that operational systems, clinical practices, and service delivery models consistently reflect these principles while promoting measurable improvements in client outcomes and community impact.
The CCOO will provide executive leadership for the implementation, standardization, and continuous improvement of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices throughout Trilogy's CMHC and CCBHC programs, including Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), Community Support Team (CST) services, care coordination and case management, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), Motivational Interviewing, trauma-informed interventions, and other best and emerging practices consistent with behavioral healthcare and CCBHC standards.
As a member of the executive leadership team, the CCOO will serve as an ambassador for Trilogy's mission and clinical impact through active engagement with the Board of Directors, board committees, donors, funding partners, healthcare systems, community stakeholders, and public sector partners to strengthen relationships, communicate organizational outcomes, and advance strategic growth initiatives.
Equally important, the CCOO will lead the people transformation required to sustain these responsibilities by developing, coaching, and equipping senior leaders to effectively lead through complex organizational change, build high-performing teams, and create a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement. While select hybrid work flexibility may be available, this position requires regular in-person leadership, relationship building, change management, and operational oversight to successfully drive enterprise-wide transformation and sustain organizational performance.
Core Competencies- Change Leadership: Proven capability to guide large, multi-disciplinary teams through operational ambiguity, funding updates, and complex health system integrations.
- Systems Re-Engineering: Strong background in clinical process mapping, workflow optimization, experience leading projects across multiple teams and departments, and continuous quality improvement (CQI) frameworks.
- Operational Vision: Ability to design and implement population-appropriate, evidence-based, streamlined, repeatable, and scalable clinical workflows that reduce unexplained variation, improve client outcomes, and support operational excellence.
- Operational Resilience: Ability to pivot clinical strategies rapidly in response to workforce shortages, community crises, or federal policy updates without sacrificing care quality.
- Thought Leadership: Deep knowledge of regulatory frameworks, CMHC and CCBHC standards, evidence-based practices, best and emerging care models, and the latest clinical research.
- Close Collaboration: Ability to partner with members of the senior leadership team, particularly the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Program Officer, to unify clinical excellence, operational effectiveness, human capital management, financial sustainability, and strategic growth.
- Board and Community Engagement: Ability to effectively present clinical and operational strategy, organizational performance, community impact, and growth opportunities to boards, donors, funders, healthcare partners, and external stakeholders.
Essential Programmatic Responsibilities- Optimize Access Workflows: Redesign Trilogy's "front door" through the introduction of open-access, same-day, and walk-in clinical systems and care delivery approaches that eliminate scheduling bottlenecks and bring more clients into care in the right place at the right time.
- Build High-Reliability Clinical Workflows: Design and implement standardized, evidence-based, population-appropriate workflows that are repeatable, measurable, and scalable across programs while reducing unnecessary operational variation and supporting consistent client outcomes.
- Modernize and Standardize Delivery Modalities: Build a fluid, repeatable hybrid-care infrastructure, ensuring seamless, rapid transitions between in-person, telehealth, and community-based settings and appropriate levels of care.
- Champion Trilogy's Philosophy of Care: Ensure operational systems and clinical practices consistently reflect Trilogy's commitment to person-centered, trauma-informed, recovery-oriented, culturally responsive, and whole-person care.
- Champion Evidence-Based Clinical Practices: In partnership with the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Program Officer, oversee the implementation, fidelity, measurement, and continuous improvement of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices including ACT, CST, CBT, DBT, SBIRT, care coordination, case management, trauma-informed services, and other emerging best practices.
- Champion Care Model Integration: Build on continued progress toward integrating chronic disease management and substance use treatment approaches with behavioral health offerings through more standardized availability of assessments, interventions, and treatment approaches including those aligned with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).
- De-Silo Interdisciplinary Teams: Dissolve rigid programmatic silos to foster cross-trained, highly collaborative care teams capable of flexing across mental health, substance use disorder, and physical health presentations.
- Streamline Clinical Workflows and Documentation: Re-engineer current internal workflows and Electronic Health Record (EHR) configurations to minimize administrative burden, maximize direct client-facing time, and improve both clinical and operational efficiency.
- Clinical Decision Making: Assist in designing tools with the ability to translate complex clinical requirements and medical necessity standards into technical logic for automated clinical decision support systems (CDSS), referral pathways, and population health management approaches.
Essential Leadership and Change Management Responsibilities- Work in close partnership with the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Program Officer to provide aligned executive clinical leadership and ensure integration of clinical, medical, operational, and programmatic priorities.
- Oversee clinical workforce planning, organizational design, and leadership effectiveness initiatives to align talent, staffing models, and management practices with evolving operational needs.
- Maintain a consistent and meaningful onsite presence across Trilogy's clinical and administrative locations to assess operations firsthand, engage employees and leaders, remove barriers to implementation, and lead the development, standardization, and continuous improvement of Trilogy's evolving care delivery model
- Drive leadership accountability for employee engagement, retention, productivity, performance management, and the successful adoption of evidence-based care delivery models.
- Drive cultural transformation by leading large-scale clinical shifts from traditional, reactive treatment models toward agile, proactive, and measurement-based care systems.
- Mitigate change fatigue by implementing formal change management frameworks (e.g., ADKAR, Kotter) to prepare, support, and help staff adopt new operational and technology workflows.
- Cultivate innovation feedback loops through creating structured, continuous feedback loops across all clinical staffing tiers to rapidly test, iterate, and scale improvements identified across the organization.
- Work with the Chief Program Officer and grants management team to braid funding streams and provide optimal support for vulnerable populations. Collaborate to ensure the most effective reimbursement models are selected.
- Align incentives for change by designing and implementing performance-driven metrics and performance management systems that reward adaptability, cross-functional collaboration, and the adoption of new evidence-based practices.
- Present clinical and operational performance, strategic initiatives, quality outcomes, and emerging service opportunities to executive leadership, the Board of Directors, board committees, donors, and key external stakeholders.
Qualifications- Master's degree (M.A.) in social work, counseling, nursing, healthcare administration, public health, or a related field. Minimum seven years related experience with progressive supervisory and administrative experience.
- Ability to read, analyze, and interpret complex documents. Ability to respond effectively to sensitive inquiries. Ability to make effective and persuasive speeches and presentations on controversial or complex topics to top management, public groups, boards of directors, funders, donors, and community stakeholders.
- Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems. Ability to deal with a variety of abstract and concrete variables.
- Extensive knowledge of mental illnesses and their diagnosis and treatment, including experience with dually diagnosed populations. Experience and ability in managing crises. Extensive knowledge of trauma-informed services, integrated care models, substance use treatment approaches, CMHC and CCBHC standards, and evidence-based practices including ACT, CST, CBT, DBT, SBIRT, care coordination, and case management. Excellent clinical supervisory and administrative management skills.
- Extensive knowledge of HUD and other public housing funding structures, healthcare reimbursement systems, population health approaches, and community behavioral healthcare operations
Working Conditions- General office setting, extensive desk work at computer terminal.
- May be required to lift, carry, bend, reach, and stand with parcels up to 25 lbs.
- Work location and scheduling arrangements, including potential hybrid work opportunities, are determined based on the requirements of the position and organizational needs. For Clinical Positions: Working conditions may include transporting clients in personal vehicles; and driving/visiting clients in their homes or other community locations necessary to assist with client needs.
