Vice President, Divisional Operations - Rhode Island Blood Center

Founded in 1979, Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC) has served Rhode Island and the New England area for more than 45 years, delivering more than 90,000 lifesaving blood products annually to 50+ hospitals, EMS, and healthcare partners. RIBC is part of New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe), which spans 17+ states and delivers one million blood products to 400+ U.S. hospitals annually. NYBCe additionally delivers cellular therapies, specialty pharmacy, and medical services to 200+ research, academic, and biopharmaceutical organizations. NYBCe's Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute is a leader in hematology and transfusion medicine research, dedicated to the study, prevention, treatment, and cure of bloodborne and blood-related diseases. RIBC serves as a vital community lifeline dedicated to helping patients and advancing global public health.

The Divisional Vice President has a key leadership role, overseeing the blood collection operations in Rhode Island while ensuring alignment with New York Blood Center Enterprise (NYBCe) strategy. This leader will optimize performance through local teams, leveraging enterprise resources to meet collection targets, enhance donor recruitment, cultivate corporate and community relationships, and maintain regulatory compliance. A strong community connection and deep knowledge of divisional dynamics are critical to success in this role. The Divisional Vice President will ensure seamless communication within the division and collaboration across the enterprise.

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Essential Funtions:

Strategic Vision & Execution: Develop and communicate a tactical roadmap, aligned with the enterprise strategy, to drive collection growth.
• Community & Corporate Relationships: Cultivate relationships to increase awareness and support blood collection efforts, driving growth in the division.
• Objective Setting & Performance Management: Define divisional objectives, KPIs, and stretch goals. Mentor staff and maintain a motivating environment that drives results.
• Operational Excellence: Ensure the achievement of divisional performance metrics, recruitment targets, and collection goals in a cost-effective, donor-focused manner. Collaborate with labortory, quality, and optimization teams to align strategies.
• Budget Oversight: Lead divisional budget control, preparation, and execution, maintaining financial effectiveness and a low cost per unit collected (CPUC).
• Target Communication & Incentive Programs: Communicate collection targets to teams and oversee incentive programs to achieve enterprise growth goals.
• Optimization of Staffing and Resource Allocation: Guide account managers in developing local territory strategies, ensuring optimal donor outreach and staffing ratios between mobile and fixed sites.
• Capacity Planning & Projections: Support budget cycles, optimize efficiencies, and lead capacity planning efforts to meet divisional needs.
• Sponsor and Donor Relationship Management: Foster a culture of community and donor engagement, ensuring local employees build lasting, individualized connections.

Matrix Partnership & Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Alignment with Enterprise Functions: Collaborate closely with the Enterprise Donor Engagement (EDE) team to align on marketing, media, donor experience, engagement, and communications strategies.
• Cross-Functional Partnerships: Work alongside enterprise functions such as logistics, supply chain, IT, HR, finance, laboratory, and quality to implement divisional strategies and improve operations.
• Operational Excellence & Regulatory Compliance: Partner with matrixed teams to ensure collections operations meet excellence standards and regulatory requirements.
• Interdepartmental Coordination: Foster strong coordination between departments and ensure practical divisional cooperation across the enterprise.

Talent Development and Public Relations:

• Support the recruitment and training of personnel and top talent to ensure retention is maximized, relieving staffing shortages and limiting the loss of critical talent and institutional knowledge from our organization.
• Assists in public relations activities while overseeing the division's day-to-day operations, drives employee engagement, and partners with human resources on employee issues while maintaining confidentiality.
• Inspires employees to achieve and maintain excellent customer service with our donors to build a larger repeat donor base while creating a positive environment for our employees and donors.
• Acts as the public-facing executive in the community while inspiring, leading, training, and developing staff to do the same.

Crisis Management in an Event of Force Majeure:

• Effectively Manage and Leverage Enterprise Resources During Crisis: In the face of a force majeure or unforeseen catastrophe, the VP/ED takes immediate, proactive steps to assess the situation and mobilize resources from the full scope of the enterprise. They leverage the support and capabilities available across the organization while ensuring their team remains focused and responsive to local needs. The VP/ED evaluates the impact and allocates resources efficiently, drawing on the collective strength of the enterprise to address the situation effectively.
• Identify and Mitigate Business Risks: The VP/ED is responsible for identifying potential business risks, running appropriate scenarios, and conducting feasibility analyses to understand the full scope of possible impacts. They communicate clearly and effectively to mitigate any harm to personnel, company assets, and operations. The VP/ED minimizes disruption by ensuring all necessary actions are taken promptly and coordinated.
• Continuous Communication and Documentation with Senior Leadership: The VP/ED informs senior leadership with appropriate escalation levels throughout the crisis management process, providing updates on the evolving situation. They maintain comprehensive documentation of the various mitigation strategies and actions taken during the remediation process. This ensures that decision-making is transparent, and a clear record exists for future reference.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in business administration or health administration. MBA preferred.

Experience:

• Minimum 15 years of progressive leadership experience in healthcare, life sciences, or a highly regulated operations environment
• 8-10 years in senior leadership roles with direct oversight of multi-functional teams, budget ownership, and cross-departmental collaboration
• Experience in a business operations role, including catalyzing teams to achieve goals with a sense of urgency.
• Experience designing, implementing, and optimizing operating models and organizational structures.
• Experience working as a thought partner to senior stakeholders with demonstrated ability to translate a plan into action.

Travel:

• Ability to travel 20% domestically

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of computerized software applications such as MS Office.
• Working knowledge of GMP regulations and FDA approval processes.
• Strong command over MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Project; familiarity with Tableau, Spotfire, and other analytical software packages is a plus.
  
• Supply chain and operations expertise, financial acumen, and working knowledge of marketing concepts.

Skills & Abilities:

• Proven track record in successfully managing complex transformations, integrations, and change management.
• Uncompromising ethics and high standards of personal integrity.
• Possess excellent negotiation skills and, if divisionally applicable, have a proven track record of successfully collaborating with labor unions. This includes building productive relationships, resolving disputes, and reaching mutually beneficial agreements while ensuring compliance with labor laws and regulations.
• Strong business acumen and attention to detail in all work processes.
• Proven ability to influence senior management & drive/facilitate senior-level meetings via highly developed organizational and negotiation skills.
• Demonstrated capability to deliver strategic analysis and optionality with an impact on the effectiveness to drive complex projects and meet deadlines
• Demonstrated strength in problem-solving and developing streamlined solutions to complex issues with minimal supervision.
• Proven ability to prioritize multiple and competing tasks effectively, execute and follow up promptly, anticipate challenges and roadblocks, and work independently.
• Strong analytical capabilities and ability to synthesize complex information into simplified, user-friendly, persuasive formats and presentations.
• Ability to adapt to rapidly changing business requirements and operate at both the strategic and tactical levels.
• High emotional intelligence, demonstrated ability to engage stakeholders effectively, facilitate discussions, and successfully negotiate through challenging situations and difficult conversations.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal skills for executive-level communication and collaboration.
• Maturity, confidence, and high emotional intelligence with demonstrated empathy and ability to influence others. Able to remain humble while implementing organizational changes and interfacing with colleagues.
• Team player, focusing on shared goals, being flexible, and applying skills; respect and listen to others' views and value others' contributions.
• Confidence to provide dissenting views, when appropriate.
• High level of interpersonal skills to handle various complex issues and situations. Position requires demonstrated poise, tact, and diplomacy in dealing with different staff up to and including executive leadership.
• Ability to be responsive and available to management to address issues and concerns as they arise.
• Ability to use logic and reasoning to identify and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems within established policies and procedures.
• Ability to identify complex problems promptly, decipher information to develop and evaluate options, and implement solutions.

The hiring salary range for this role is $260,000 to $285,000