Director, Strategy & Operations

ABOUT SOLACE

Healthcare in the U.S. is fundamentally broken. The system is so complex that 88% of U.S. adults do not have the health literacy necessary to navigate it without help. Solace cuts through the red tape of healthcare by pairing patients with expert advocates and giving them the tools to make better decisions—and get better outcomes.

We're a Series C startup, founded in 2022 and backed by Inspired Capital, Craft Ventures, Torch Capital, Menlo Ventures, Signalfire, and IVP. Our U.S. based team is lean, mission-driven, and growing quickly.

Solace isn't a place to coast. We're here to redefine healthcare—and that demands urgency, precision, and heart. If you're looking to stretch yourself, sharpen your edge, and do the best work of your life alongside a team that cares deeply, you're in the right place. We’re intense, and we like it that way.

Read more in our Bloomberg funding announcement here https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-10/vcs-give-solace-health-1-billion-valuation-for-patient-advocacy-tech?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3MDczMDg4MywiZXhwIjoxNzcxMzM1NjgzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUQThVUzhLR0NURzEwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJBRDYxODI0MTc0ODM0MTk0QTRENUZFNzkwMzNGMDJGNSJ9.TE2pFUAOQAPMUXFlzoQ7zeJvctq7cSibbZqtIwhW-2U&leadSource=uverify+wall.

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is the first hire in Solace's Strategy & Operations function. You will not inherit a playbook. You will write it.

The function exists to make Solace run better as it scales: going deep on the operational problems that matter most across the company, designing what needs to change, and partnering with department leaders to drive that change until it holds. The job is weighted heavily toward execution. We are not looking for someone who delivers a recommendation and hands it off. We are looking for someone who diagnoses a problem with rigor and stays in it until the new way of operating is durable.

The mandate is company-wide from day one. The function is anchored in the Customer Experience organization, but you will work wherever the highest-leverage operational problems are, which will frequently be outside CX. You will start by running a company-wide operational diagnostic to find Solace's biggest scale gaps, then own the highest-leverage ones end to end. You will work with leaders across every department and have direct exposure to the executive team. As the function grows, you will build and lead a team of your own.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Run a cross-functional operational diagnostic to identify the company's biggest scale gaps, and own the highest-leverage ones from problem definition through implementation and measurement.
• Partner with department leaders to diagnose where their operations need to evolve for the next stage of scale, and co-own the work to get them there. This includes working with clinical leadership to design lighter-touch workflows that respect clinical judgment while improving efficiency.
• Build the analytical foundation: frameworks for measuring operational performance across functions, to replace decisions currently made on intuition.
• Lead specific workstreams across the company, such as measuring the impact of AI integration, driving efficiency in a function that has outgrown its current operating model, and removing the upstream causes of operational load before they compound.
• Take ownership of scale initiatives where no single department owns the outcome.
• Shape the S&O function: how it operates, how it engages the rest of the company, and who you hire next.

WHO YOU ARE

We are open on background, but the strongest candidates share a track record. Most have built or scaled an operating function inside a high-growth company. Some come from top-tier consulting and then proved they can operate, not just advise. What matters is evidence you have closed the gap between a good plan and a working operation. Specifically:

• You have built or scaled something real. You owned an operational outcome at a company that was growing fast, and you can point to what worked and what you would do differently.
• Strong analytical foundation. You structure ambiguous problems, build the model or framework that makes them tractable, and pressure-test your own conclusions before anyone else does.
• Operational instincts. You know the gap between a good recommendation and a working operation is enormous, and closing it is the part you want, not the part you delegate.
• Credibility with specialized experts. You can sit with a department head, push on how their function actually works, and have them leave feeling the conversation made their operation better, not threatened.
• A bias to ownership. You measure success by whether the change you drove is still working six months after you moved on.
• Strong written and verbal communication. You can write a one-pager an executive acts on in five minutes, and run a working session that gets a cross-functional team to a decision.
• Experience in healthcare, regulated industries, or services businesses with a human delivery model.
• Experience building an S&O, BizOps, or Chief of Staff function from scratch.

Applicants must be based in the United States.

Up for the Challenge?

We look forward to meeting you.

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