Clinic Operations Director (Turnaround)

Partnership with the Hub Medical Director and Clinical Leadership

• Work as the operational partner to the Hub Medical Director, jointly leading the clinic dyad and contributing to the wider Hub Leadership Team.
• Ensure operational decisions support clinical quality, patient outcomes, workforce capability, and regulatory compliance.
• Partner with the Hub Medical Director, Nurse Manager, and Laboratory Manager to align priorities, resolve cross-functional issues, and improve whole clinic performance.
• Support effective clinical workforce planning and ensure that operational systems enable clinicians to maximise patient-facing time.
• Maintain clear boundaries of accountability while promoting collective ownership of clinic performance and patient care.

People, Leadership, and Culture

• Lead, coach, and hold to account the clinic’s operational and non-clinical management team, including any Deputy Hub Manager, Administration Manager, Patient Coordination, Reception, Customer Service, and other relevant roles.
• Work collaboratively with professional leads in the management of Nursing and Laboratory teams where operational responsibilities are shared.
• Review the local leadership structure, role clarity, and capability, making recommendations and implementing changes where required.
• Build a culture of ownership, pace, teamwork, openness, and professional accountability, addressing behaviours that undermine performance or patient care.
• Ensure effective workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, performance management, succession planning, and development in partnership with HR and professional leads.
• Improve staff engagement, communication, and retention, with clear action plans based on workforce data and employee feedback.
• Lead difficult decisions fairly and decisively, following company policy and seeking appropriate HR advice.

Performance Management and Data

• Establish a concise and reliable clinic performance dashboard covering financial, operational, workforce, patient experience, quality, and clinical interface measures.
• Ensure data is understood and used by local leaders to make decisions, prioritise action, and manage accountability.
• Chair or lead regular clinic performance reviews, ensuring actions are documented, owned, and completed.
• Intervene early where performance is below expectation and implement structured recovery plans.
• Provide clear, honest, and timely reporting to the UK Operations Director and relevant senior leadership forums.

Quality, Governance, and Risk

• Work with the Hub Medical Director, Quality Team, and HFEA Person Responsible to ensure all operational and regulatory requirements are met.
• Ensure robust local governance for incidents, complaints, risks, legal matters, business continuity, and audit actions.
• Act as the senior operational lead for serious operational incidents and ensure learning is translated into sustained improvements.
• Serve as the clinic Health and Safety lead, ensuring statutory obligations are met and risks are escalated where they cannot be resolved locally.
• Ensure all estates, facilities, and non-clinical equipment are fit for purpose, safe, appropriately maintained, and consistent with the standards expected of a flagship clinic.

Growth, Brand, and Flagship Standards

• Position St Paul’s as the operational benchmark for CREATE Fertility, demonstrating excellent patient care, strong commercial performance, and high professional standards.
• Work with Marketing, Sales, and clinical colleagues to support growth, referral development, conversion, and the launch or expansion of priority services.
• Ensure operational readiness for new initiatives, technology, service developments, and changes to the patient proposition.
• Identify practices that can be standardised and shared across the wider UK network once proven at St Paul’s.
• Represent St Paul’s confidently with senior internal stakeholders, external partners, and regulators where required.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Degree level education or equivalent senior operational experience.
• Significant senior operational leadership experience in a complex, regulated, and customer or patient-facing environment.
• Demonstrable track record of leading a successful business, service, or clinic turnaround, with measurable improvements in financial, operational, and people performance.
• Strong commercial and financial capability, including ownership of budgets, forecasts, cost improvement, and revenue growth.
• Experience of using data and performance routines to create operational grip and improve results.
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, strengthen management capability, and address underperformance.
• Experience of leading complex change at pace while maintaining engagement, service continuity, and quality.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and the credibility to work in close partnership with senior clinical and professional leaders.
• Excellent judgement, resilience, and the ability to remain calm and decisive in a high-pressure environment.

Desirable

• Senior operational leadership experience in fertility, private healthcare, or another HFEA, CQC, or similarly regulated setting.
• Formal qualification in business, healthcare management, programme management, or continuous improvement.
• Experience of improving patient pathways, conversion, capacity utilisation, and workforce productivity.
• Experience of opening, redesigning, or materially scaling a healthcare service.

Leadership Behaviours

• Visible, hands-on, and action-oriented.
• Commercially astute while consistently putting patient safety and experience first.
• Clear, honest, and direct, with the ability to bring people with them through change.
• Comfortable challenging established ways of working and making difficult decisions.
• Collaborative, respectful, and able to build an effective partnership with the Hub Medical Director and wider leadership team.
• Leads by example and consistently reflects the organisation’s values.