System Service Area President-East Greater Chicago, IL Area

Where You’ll Work

Inspired by faith. Driven by innovation. Powered by humankindness. CommonSpirit Health is building a healthier future for all through its integrated health services. As one of the nation’s largest nonprofit Catholic healthcare organizations, CommonSpirit Health delivers more than 20 million patient encounters annually through more than 2,300 clinics, care sites and 137 hospital-based locations, in addition to its home-based services and virtual care offerings. CommonSpirit has more than 157,000 employees, 45,000 nurses and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice providers across 24 states and contributes more than $4.2 billion annually in charity care, community benefits and unreimbursed government programs. Together with our patients, physicians, partners, and communities, we are creating a more just, equitable, and innovative healthcare delivery system.

Job Summary and Responsibilities

The System Service Area President-East is one of CommonSpirit Health’s most senior operational executives, accountable for translating enterprise strategy into sustained performance across a large, complex, multi-market healthcare portfolio. As a member of the System Office Executive Leadership Team, the President provides executive leadership across the designated Service Area, ensuring that markets operate with discipline, consistency, and accountability while advancing CommonSpirit’s mission, strategic priorities, and long-term vision.

Operating at the intersection of enterprise strategy and market execution, the President is accountable for driving performance across operational excellence, financial stewardship, clinical quality and safety, patient experience, physician alignment, workforce engagement, strategic growth, and market competitiveness. The President works in close partnership with system executives, market leaders, physicians, and functional leaders to translate enterprise priorities into action, accelerate adoption of proven operating models, reduce unnecessary variation, and deliver measurable results across the Service Area.

This executive will lead through significant transformation and complexity, creating alignment across diverse markets while ensuring CommonSpirit operates increasingly as one integrated health system. The President will bring an enterprise mindset, strong business and operational acumen, exceptional executive presence, and a demonstrated ability to lead large-scale organizations through change while delivering sustainable performance.

The successful candidate will be a proven enterprise healthcare executive with demonstrated experience leading significant scale, complexity, and transformation. This individual will have a track record of improving performance across large, geographically dispersed healthcare operations while building strong executive teams and successfully navigating highly matrixed organizations.

Equally important, the President must be an enterprise leader rather than a collection of market interests—someone who understands how to preserve the strengths of local markets while creating the consistency, discipline, integration, and shared accountability required to operate successfully as one health system.

The ideal executive will combine strategic vision with operational intensity, possessing the ability to see around corners, translate strategy into execution, mobilize leaders around common priorities, and deliver measurable results. This leader will bring exceptional executive presence, financial and operational acumen, clinical credibility, intellectual agility, and the ability to build trust across physicians, executives, boards, employees, and communities.

Above all, the System Service Area President will be expected to lead transformation, elevate performance, and help shape the next chapter of CommonSpirit Health—leveraging the strength and scale of the enterprise to deliver exceptional care, sustainable growth, and greater impact for the communities it serves.

Essential Key Job Responsibilities:

Enterprise Leadership

Serve as a key member of the System Office Executive Leadership Team, actively shaping enterprise priorities, operating strategy, and executive decision-making.

Translate CommonSpirit’s enterprise strategy into clear priorities, operating plans, performance expectations, and measurable outcomes across the Service Area.

Champion and accelerate execution of system-wide strategic, operational, clinical, financial, workforce, and transformation initiatives.

Lead with an enterprise-first mindset, balancing the needs of individual markets with the broader priorities and long-term interests of CommonSpirit Health.

Build strong partnerships across system, Service Area, market, clinical, and functional leadership to improve organizational effectiveness, eliminate barriers, and accelerate execution.

Represent Service Area perspectives and market intelligence in enterprise planning while ensuring disciplined execution of system strategy across all markets.

Drive greater integration, standardization, and shared accountability across the organization, helping CommonSpirit leverage its scale as a competitive and operational advantage.

Strategic Leadership and Transformation

Lead the execution of enterprise strategy throughout the Service Area, converting long-term priorities into actionable plans that produce measurable operational, financial, clinical, and growth outcomes.

Identify and advance opportunities to expand access, strengthen market position, optimize the portfolio, grow strategic services, and develop new models of care.

Lead complex, large-scale transformation initiatives designed to improve quality, affordability, access, patient outcomes, workforce effectiveness, and operational performance.

Challenge legacy approaches and organizational barriers that inhibit performance, collaboration, standardization, or innovation.

Leverage deep understanding of healthcare market dynamics, consumer expectations, competitive forces, regulatory developments, and emerging industry trends to anticipate opportunities and risks.

Serve as a strategic thought partner to senior enterprise leadership, bringing market insight and operational perspective to decisions affecting CommonSpirit’s future.

Create an environment in which innovation can be rapidly evaluated, proven practices can be scaled, and successful operating models can be deployed consistently across markets.

Service Area and Market Leadership

Provide executive oversight and leadership across the hospitals, ambulatory operations, care sites, service lines, and other operations within the designated Service Area.

Establish clear performance expectations and accountability across market leadership teams while creating alignment around enterprise priorities.

Partner closely with Market Presidents and other senior leaders to strengthen local performance while advancing CommonSpirit-wide objectives.

Create connectivity across markets, breaking down organizational silos and enabling leaders to share capabilities, expertise, resources, and best practices.

Ensure consistent execution of enterprise standards, policies, operating models, and performance expectations while allowing appropriate flexibility to address unique community and market needs.

Develop a high-performing leadership operating model characterized by transparency, disciplined execution, rapid decision-making, and shared accountability.

Operational Excellence and Performance

Own Service Area operational performance and drive sustained improvement across quality, safety, access, productivity, efficiency, patient experience, workforce, and other critical performance measures.

Establish a rigorous operating cadence that provides transparency into performance, identifies emerging risks, and accelerates corrective action.

Set ambitious but achievable performance expectations and hold leaders accountable for delivering measurable results.

Identify and remove structural, operational, and organizational barriers that impede performance or collaboration across markets.

Accelerate adoption of enterprise best practices, standardized workflows, technology, analytics, and operating disciplines.

Use data and performance insights to identify opportunities, prioritize interventions, allocate resources, and drive continuous improvement.

Build a culture in which performance challenges are surfaced early, addressed decisively, and converted into opportunities for organizational learning and improvement.

Financial Stewardship and Sustainable Growth

Maintain comprehensive accountability for the financial performance of the Service Area, including operating performance, capital deployment, productivity, growth, and resource stewardship.

Lead development and execution of annual operating and capital plans consistent with enterprise financial objectives and strategic priorities.

Drive sustainable revenue growth, margin improvement, productivity, cost discipline, and operational efficiency while protecting quality, access, and mission.

Ensure disciplined capital allocation and resource deployment, prioritizing investments that strengthen strategic positioning and generate meaningful clinical, operational, or financial returns.

Identify opportunities to leverage CommonSpirit’s scale, reduce unnecessary variation, and improve the overall cost structure.

Balance near-term performance requirements with investments necessary to strengthen the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the organization.

Clinical Quality, Safety and Patient Experience

Champion an uncompromising culture of clinical excellence, high reliability, patient safety, and continuous improvement.

Partner with physician, nursing, quality, and clinical leaders to improve outcomes, reduce unwarranted clinical variation, and advance evidence-based care.

Maintain executive accountability for performance against quality, safety, accreditation, regulatory, and patient experience standards.

Advance enterprise priorities related to population health, value-based care, health equity, care transformation, and clinical integration.

Ensure operational and financial decisions reinforce CommonSpirit’s commitment to safe, high-quality, patient-centered care.

Physician and Clinical Partnership

Build trusted, productive relationships with physicians, advanced practice providers, medical groups, and clinical leaders across the Service Area.

Partner with physician leadership to strengthen clinical integration, access, quality, service line performance, physician engagement, and strategic growth.

Align physician and clinical strategies with enterprise priorities and evolving market needs.

Create an environment in which clinical and operational leaders jointly own performance and collaborate effectively to improve care delivery.

Strengthen physician alignment as a critical driver of growth, clinical excellence, consumer access, and organizational performance.

Talent, Leadership and Culture

Build, develop, and lead a high-performing executive leadership team capable of delivering transformational results across a complex, matrixed organization.

Establish a culture of accountability, transparency, collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and servant leadership.

Attract, develop, retain, and deploy exceptional leadership talent across the Service Area.

Strengthen executive succession pipelines and ensure leadership continuity for mission-critical roles.

Create an environment in which leaders are empowered to act while remaining accountable for enterprise standards and results.

Model CommonSpirit’s mission and values while establishing clear expectations for leadership behavior, performance, and organizational stewardship.

Build trust across organizational boundaries and create the relationships necessary to lead effectively through influence as well as direct authority.

Community and External Relations

Serve as a highly visible senior representative of CommonSpirit Health across the Service Area, strengthening the organization’s reputation, relationships, and strategic influence.

Build productive relationships with community leaders, employers, academic institutions, government officials, payers, business partners, and other key stakeholders.

Represent CommonSpirit effectively in matters affecting healthcare delivery, growth, community health, and regional strategy.

Advance strategic partnerships that expand access, strengthen market position, and support the long-term health of the communities CommonSpirit serves.

Ensure market strategies remain grounded in community needs while supporting the broader mission and strategic direction of the health system.

Governance and Executive Collaboration

Partner closely with enterprise executives, governing boards, physician leadership, Market Presidents, and shared service leaders to achieve CommonSpirit’s strategic and operational objectives.

Establish clear, transparent communication between enterprise leadership and Service Area markets, ensuring priorities, expectations, risks, and opportunities are understood across the organization.

Provide concise, actionable reporting to senior leadership and governing bodies regarding performance, strategic initiatives, emerging risks, competitive developments, and growth opportunities.

Ensure market intelligence and frontline insights inform enterprise decision-making and future strategic priorities.

Develop and deliver compelling executive and Board-level presentations that clearly articulate strategy, performance, risks, opportunities, and required actions.

Demonstrate exceptional judgment and decisiveness in navigating complex, multidimensional issues involving competing operational, financial, clinical, workforce, strategic, and stakeholder considerations.

Lead effectively through ambiguity and change, creating clarity and alignment while maintaining momentum and organizational confidence.

Job Requirements

Required Education and Experience:

Bachelor’s degree required.

Minimum of 15 years of progressive executive leadership experience in an integrated healthcare system or similarly complex organization.

Demonstrated success leading multiple hospitals, regions, or major service areas with significant operational and financial responsibility.

Proven experience implementing enterprise strategies across diverse markets while achieving measurable improvements in quality, growth, financial performance, and patient outcomes.

Experience partnering with physicians, governing boards, and multidisciplinary executive teams.

Minimum of ten (10) years direct management experience in related fields.

Experience in strategic planning, with the ability to contribute to short-term and long-term business plans.

Preferred Education and Experience:

Master's degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Public Health, Nursing, or a related field Doctoral or advanced clinical degree preferred.

Required Minimum Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Training:

Proven track record of setting and achieving ambitious goals.

In-depth understanding of the healthcare industry, including trends, regulatory landscape, and market dynamics.

Strong communication and presentation skills, with experience engaging with and ability to influence C-suite executives and board members.

Ability to foster collaboration and build strong cross-functional partnerships.

Exceptional decision-making abilities and judgment in complex situations.

Strategic thinking capabilities with a focus on driving innovation and continuous improvements

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