Chief Operating Officer (COO)

The CARES Engine (Clinical Operations): The bedrock of our platform is a scalable, 50-state virtualized clinical network. We deliver high-touch, specialized neurology care directly to consumers (DTC) and through strategic B2B integrations with major health systems and payers. By managing the complex medical, behavioral, and logistical needs of both patients and their family caregivers, we improve clinical outcomes, reduce the burden on families, and lower total cost of care.

The CURES Engine (Research & Innovation): Leveraging our deeply engaged, well-characterized national patient cohort, the CURES side partners with life science, pharma/biotech, and medical device companies to accelerate the commercialization of neurodegenerative breakthroughs. This division consists of three highly valuable, synergistic capabilities:

• Discovery-Stage Lab Services: Driven by our proprietary, cutting-edge R&D lab utilizing organoid brain-cell models for specific neurodegenerative conditions to support high-throughput drug candidate screening.
• Clinical Trial Services: Operating as a full virtual trial and study site for observational, interventional, and Expanded Access Program (EAP) studies, alongside strategic operational partnerships with traditional brick-and-mortar pharma and device/diagnostic sites.
• Real-World Evidence (RWE) Data & Analytics: Harnessing longitudinal patient journey datasets (including for pharma DTP partners) to provide deep analytical insights to research institutions and commercial developers.

We are seeking an experienced  Chief Operating Officer (COO) to complete the leadership triangle of the CEO, CFO and COO. You are the ultimate executor. While the CEO focuses on the external vision, fundraising, and overarching strategy, you will own the execution of that vision.For Cares delivery, you will be a dyad partner to the VP Clinical Operations; for Cures delivery, you will partner closely with commercial, clinical operations, and R&D leaders. You will directly oversee the Engagement, Marketing, Outreach, Care Coordination, Data and Medical Assistant teams.

Your mandate is to maximize our growth marketing strategy by building world class operational workflows, ensuring operational metrics are met or exceeded at every stage in the patient funnel, and working closely with our tech and data leadership to ensure a high caliber patient, provider and partner experience. This role is also responsible for scaling our payer coverage, optimizing unit economics and helping the company scale in its growth stage. 

What You Will Own (Key Responsibilities)

Operations Performance: Focus on optimizing clinical and administrative performance, enhancing efficiency, and standardizing protocols to ensure high-quality patient care. Integration of care operations, staffing models, and financial performance to create a cohesive Cares and Cures innovations and delivery systems. Translate high-level strategy into granular operational sprints. You will build the dashboards required, define/meet the OKRs, and hold every department accountable to metrics such as Gross Margin, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Time-to-First-Visit, and Patient and Caregiver NPS.

Create Vision: Articulate a coherent operational vision that both anchors teams and shows them the way forward, even as external pressures mount. Balance short-term demands with long-range thinking, helping teams see beyond the day-to-day noise and reinforcing focus and purpose even when the path forward is uncertain. 

Leveraging Technology and AI: An ability to use technology and AI to enhance operations and the patient experience. Brings digital fluency and champion technology-enabled innovation — applying predictive analytics to improve throughput, using AI to optimize workforce deployment, and leading digital front-door initiatives that streamline patient access and engagement. Act as the ruthless prioritizer between Operations, Data and Product/Engineering. 

Growth Accelerator: This aspect of the role entails expanding market reach, broadening patient coverage, enhancing service offerings, and driving growth in local and national markets. Identify growth opportunities and foster innovation and expansion alongside the Cares and Cures Growth Leadership teams— leading to revenue growth and a larger operational scale. Scale our national payer network contracts. Grow our team's capability to contract with multiple payers in Commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Dual patients..

Leadership Collaboration: Collaborate closely with the executive leadership team to align operational workflows with overarching clinical objectives, product development, and company strategy. Your leadership extends beyond traditional management hierarchies, relying on influence, collaboration, and shared accountability with physicians and clinical leaders. Champion our high-performance, strong-work-ethic culture. You will hire, mentor, and manage personnel to ensure we have an elite, aligned team that thrives under pressure. Foster a unified culture, drives change management, and facilitates cross-functional partnerships. 

Who You Are (The Profile)

You are a Builder, not just a Manager: You have 12-15+ years of operational leadership, with at least 3-5 years specifically scaling a digital health or telehealth startup through its Series B/C growth phase. You know how to build the playbook, not just read from an existing one. 

You have driven results in Technology Oversight: You have experience closely partnering with technical departments (product, data, engineering), driving performance improvements and AI interventions to improve workflows.

You possess extreme ownership: You don't make excuses when targets are missed; you diagnose the root cause, fix the system, and drive the team forward.

You are fluent in healthcare complexity: You understand the friction points of modern healthcare—payer credentialing, asynchronous vs. synchronous care models, and clinical licensure—and you know how to build operations that bypass them.

You have deep financial acumen: You understand how operational decisions impact the P&L. You are highly analytical and make decisions based on data, not gut feelings.

You have an elite work ethic: You lead from the front. You are comfortable zooming out to the boardroom strategy level and zooming in to fix a broken Jira routing rule in the same afternoon.

Why This Matters

You will be joining a team that refuses to settle for the broken status quo of the US healthcare system. You will be given the autonomy, resources, and authority to build an operational powerhouse that will directly impact the lives of millions of patients.

Our values

We’re founded by a patient and caregiver, and we’re a remote-first company. This means our values are at the heart of everything we do, and while we’re located all across the country, these principles are what tie us together around a common identity:

Relentless focus on patients and caregivers. We are determined to provide an exceptional experience for every patient we have the privilege to serve, and we put our patients first in everything we do.

Embody the spirit and humanity of those living with neurodegenerative disease. Inspired by our founders, families, and personal experiences, we recognize the seriousness of our patients’ circumstances and meet that challenge every day with empathy, compassion, kindness, joy, and most importantly – with hope.

Seek to understand, and stay curious. We start by listening to one another, our partners, our patients, and their caregivers. We communicate with authenticity and humility, prioritizing honesty and directness while recognizing we always have something to learn.

Embrace the opportunity. We are energized by the importance of our mission and bias toward action.

Travel Expectations

This is a remote position, though physical proximity to Chicago is strongly preferred to facilitate leadership collaboration.

Salary & Benefits

Synapticure offers a competitive salary along with a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan, paid time off (PTO), and professional development opportunities to support your career growth.