Director, Retrieval Operations (Inventory Strategy)

The Director, Retrieval Operations – Inventory Strategy is responsible for translating client retrieval demand into actionable inventory plans across retrieval channels, operational teams, and vendor partners. This leader owns inventory forecasting, prioritization, routing, allocation, pacing, and performance governance for Payer Retrieval Operations.

In this role, “inventory” refers to the record requests and charts moving through Datavant’s retrieval ecosystem. The Director ensures inventory progresses through the appropriate retrieval channels while balancing client commitments, operational capacity, retrieval yield, service levels, and cost.

This leader will build a scalable, data-driven inventory-planning discipline that connects project demand with workforce capacity and daily production requirements. They will partner closely with Operations, Workforce Management, Call Center leadership, Client Success, Product, Engineering, Analytics, Finance, and vendor leadership to identify risks, establish priorities, and improve retrieval outcomes.

You Will

• Own the inventory strategy and planning framework for Payer Retrieval, translating client demand, project milestones, and retrieval targets into actionable weekly and daily operating plans.
• Establish forecasting, segmentation, and prioritization strategies based on client commitments, project pacing, inventory age, chart density, retrieval method, anticipated yield, service levels, and cost, while continuously assessing inventory health and opportunities to improve flow.
• Own the strategic framework and business rules for routing inventory across retrieval channels based on provider behavior, inventory characteristics, client requirements, capacity, quality, yield, and cost.
• Evaluate channel and partner performance and adjust inventory distribution to reduce delays, unnecessary touches, and manual intervention while improving retrieval outcomes and cost efficiency.
• Monitor project performance against client commitments, retrieval targets, historical pacing curves, and operating plans, identifying emerging risks and leading recovery planning for inventory that is behind pace, aging, blocked, unmatched, or otherwise not progressing.
• Use scenario planning to evaluate changes in demand, capacity, productivity, channel availability, and client priorities and provide leaders with clear, data-supported recommendations.
• Partner with Workforce Management and operational leaders to connect inventory demand with staffing and capacity plans, translate available capacity into realistic production plans, and adjust prioritization or allocation strategies when constraints arise.
• Support annual planning, budgeting, and forecasting by connecting client demand, inventory availability, operational capacity, productivity expectations, and financial targets.
• Establish KPIs, dashboards, and governance routines that measure inventory health, forecasting accuracy, project pacing, routing effectiveness, productivity, retrieval yield, service-level performance, unit economics, and cost.
• Partner with Business Intelligence and Analytics to deliver accurate, actionable reporting and translate complex operational data into clear insights and executive-level recommendations.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Analytics to continuously refine inventory prioritization and routing logic, define success measures, evaluate operational impact, and establish a roadmap for future iterations.
• Partner with Call Center leadership, which owns the outreach strategy, to determine how inventory should be segmented between human calls and Voice AI based on inventory characteristics, provider needs, client requirements, complexity, anticipated outcomes, and cost.
• Work cross-functionally to identify and prioritize automation opportunities that reduce manual effort, improve inventory flow, and increase operational efficiency, supporting implementation, measurement, and ongoing optimization.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Inventory Strategy team while building strong cross-functional partnerships and serving as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on inventory strategy, project pacing, capacity requirements, operational risks, and retrieval performance.

What You Will Bring to the Table

• Bachelor’s degree in business, operations, supply chain, analytics, finance, healthcare administration, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Eight or more years of progressive experience in operations, inventory planning, demand forecasting, capacity planning, workforce planning, or a related field, including at least three years leading teams.
• Experience translating demand forecasts and business objectives into actionable production, routing, prioritization, and capacity plans in a high-volume, multi-channel service or workflow environment.
• Demonstrated ability to identify performance risks, develop recovery plans, establish operational governance, and influence decisions across organizational boundaries.
• Strong financial and analytical skills, including experience evaluating productivity, capacity, service, yield, cost, and other operational tradeoffs.
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering to develop and iterate operational technology, automation, AI-enabled workflows, prioritization logic, or decision-support capabilities, including defining requirements and measuring business impact.
• Exceptional executive communication skills and the ability to convert complex analysis into clear recommendations and actions.
• Proficiency with spreadsheets, data-visualization, business-intelligence, forecasting, or enterprise-planning tools; experience with SQL or similar analytical tools is a plus.
• Experience in healthcare operations, medical-record retrieval, payer operations, vendor management, or another complex service environment is strongly preferred.