Head of Access Operations The OpportunityThe Head of Access Operations owns how families move from referral to active and sustained care. This leader will run intake, scheduling, matching, care coordination, and the day-to-day operations of Community Health Workers, with accountability for both the family experience and the operating performance behind it.
This is a hands-on builder role. You will make New Mexico work better now and build the model FronteraCare will use as we enter new states. We need someone who has already led operations across multiple markets, knows what should be standardized, and can recognize where local payer, regulatory, or workforce realities require a different approach.
Because Frontera builds its own technology, this role will also be a senior thought partner to Product and Engineering. You will help define what we build, pressure-test solutions against real workflows, and ensure our tools make access teams faster and more effective. Success means families reach care sooner, capacity is used well, leaders can see constraints early, and every new market begins with a stronger operating system than the one before it.
What You Will DoLead the Referral to Care Journey- Own the day-to-day performance of intake, scheduling, matching, care coordination, and CHW operations supporting ABA and diagnostic services.
- Set priorities and operating expectations for responsiveness, throughput, accuracy, service quality, documentation, and escalations.
- Create clear ownership and dependable handoffs across the referral-to-care journey, including handoffs with Payer Operations, so families do not get lost between teams or workflows.
- Identify bottlenecks and failure points, then implement practical improvements that increase speed, reliability, and continuity of care.
Build the Access Operations Model for New Markets- Turn New Mexico's access operations into the foundation for future markets, with clear workflows, service expectations, systems, and playbooks.
- Use direct multi-state operating experience to launch new markets quickly without rebuilding the function each time.
- Define which elements should remain consistent across markets and where payer, regulatory, or local operating requirements call for flexibility.
- Build the access readiness plan for each new state, including team capacity, systems setup, payer-operation dependencies, and ramp milestones.
- Measure new-market performance against a common standard and adapt the model based on operating results.
Build and Lead the Team- Lead, coach, and develop team members and front-line leaders across access operations.
- Set clear expectations for quality, responsiveness, productivity, accuracy, judgment, and ownership.
- Create the management rhythm the team needs to perform consistently, including clear roles, training, coaching, quality review, and performance management.
- Evolve the organization as the company grows, including adding specialized functional leadership when scale requires it.
- Own onboarding, performance, development, and retention for the access organization after team members are hired.
Partner with Payer Operations- Build clear handoffs between access workflows and Payer Operations so authorization requirements do not create preventable delays in activation or continuity of care.
- Maintain shared visibility into authorization and reauthorization status, aging, and escalation needs while Payer Operations retains direct ownership of execution.
- Partner with Payer Operations, Clinical leadership, and Quality and Performance Systems to resolve cross-functional issues and improve the end-to-end family experience.
Lead Community Health Worker Operations- Own the daily workflows and process accountability for Community Health Workers embedded in intake and related care coordination work.
- Set operational expectations for prioritization, productivity, process adherence, documentation, and training.
- Maintain clear decision rights with the designated clinical leader, who provides clinical oversight through a dotted-line partnership.
Use Data to See Around Corners- Own the systems, workflow infrastructure, and reporting that support intake, scheduling, matching, and care coordination, including the interfaces with payer workflows.
- Give leaders a reliable view of referral pipeline health, activation, scheduling performance, matching constraints, authorization turnaround, and capacity by market.
- Own monthly forecasts for client demand and provider capacity across geography, schedules, matching needs, and coverage constraints.
- Spot risks early, including seasonality, cancellations, provider attrition, payer delays, and local capacity constraints, and turn them into clear operating and hiring decisions.
Shape the Technology Behind Access- Act as a senior operating advisor and thought partner to Product and Engineering on the access roadmap, bringing a clear point of view on the problems worth solving.
- Separate process, policy, training, and product problems so the team builds technology where it can create real leverage.
- Translate complex front-line workflows into clear product requirements and decision criteria without oversimplifying the realities of care delivery.
- Partner from discovery through rollout by testing solutions with users, driving adoption, and measuring whether the product improved speed, quality, or capacity.
- Help design systems that can support multiple states while preserving the flexibility required by local markets and payer workflows.
Partner Across FronteraCare- Serve as the primary access operations partner to Clinical Directors and other clinical leaders on market execution.
- Give the centralized People and Talent team the demand forecasts, role requirements, and interview partnership needed to recruit against operating needs. The People team retains ownership of recruiting.
- Work closely with Payer Operations, Credentialing and Enrollment, and Quality and Performance Systems. Those teams retain functional ownership of payer operations, credentialing, provider enrollment, compliance readiness, and enterprise quality systems.
- Partner with Finance on revenue-cycle handoffs and with Clinical leadership on diagnostics, ABA delivery, and clinical decisions, while those teams retain operating ownership of their functions.
Scope of the RoleThis role directly owns the following functions and outcomes
- Intake, scheduling, and matching
- Care coordination workflows and CHW operational accountability
- SOPs, training, quality review, escalations, and performance management within access operations
- Access systems, workflow infrastructure, and operational reporting
- Client demand and provider capacity forecasting tied to matching and hiring needs
- The multi-state access operations playbook and common performance standards
What We Are Looking For- 10 or more years of progressive experience in access operations, intake, scheduling, care coordination, or adjacent healthcare services operations within ABA, behavioral health, or another complex healthcare services environment.
- Direct responsibility for operations across multiple states, including experience opening, integrating, or scaling new markets.
- A track record of building a repeatable operating model while adapting appropriately to differences in payer environments, regulation, labor markets, and local demand.
- Working knowledge of authorization and reauthorization dependencies and the ability to build strong operating partnerships with payer operations teams.
- Experience serving as a senior operating partner to Product and Engineering teams, with the ability to shape a roadmap, translate messy workflows into clear requirements, and drive adoption after launch.
- Strong people leadership across front-line teams and managers, with the ability to create clarity, accountability, and consistent execution.
- Experience building SOPs, quality controls, operating cadences, reporting, and scalable workflow discipline.
- Strong judgment across capacity planning, matching, activation, schedule utilization, and care-delivery constraints.
- Strong command of operating data and the judgment to look past the dashboard, find the underlying problem, and act.
- A hands-on leadership style and the ability to move easily between strategy, team leadership, and the details of how the work gets done.
What Success Looks Like- New Mexico's access operations are predictable and responsive, with clear ownership at every handoff.
- Families move from referral to active care faster and experience fewer avoidable delays.
- Leaders have trusted visibility into the referral pipeline, authorization turnaround, scheduling performance, matching constraints, and market capacity.
- Forecasts give the People team and market leaders enough lead time to respond to demand, seasonality, cancellations, attrition, and payer disruption.
- A repeatable access playbook is ready for new states, including team design, systems, workflows, quality standards, payer requirements, and ramp milestones.
- New markets reach access and scheduling standards faster because they begin with a proven operating model.
We have determined a salary range for this position that takes into account several factors including experience, knowledge, education, skills, and abilities. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline and the exact salary will be determined based on the individual's qualifications and experience, with consideration given to the factors listed above. All full-time employee benefits include health benefits, 401(k) plan, and PTO per year.
Compensation
$170,000-$200,000 USD
