Chief of Staff

Chief of Staff

Company: Malama Health Location: Redwood City, CA Work Model: Onsite Contract: Permanent Seniority: Senior Industry: Healthcare

At Malama Health, our mission is to provide care that meets mothers where they are, especially those who are historically underserved. We believe in treating every mother as a capable, whole person whose instincts matter. Our Care Navigators and doulas act as co-conspirators, delivering presence, confidence, and calm. We are driven by outcomes, generating evidence from every interaction and measuring success by our ability to transform lives.

We are seeking a Chief of Staff to join our leadership team at a pivotal moment in Malama's growth. This role is crucial for both the operational backbone of our organization and for activating market entry. You will oversee finance and HR functions, ensuring compliance and smooth operations, and lead payer operations to drive scalability. If you excel at managing vendor relationships, developing health plan strategies, and are passionate about equitable maternal health, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee Finance and Accounting Functions: Serve as the management layer above our fractional finance team (controller, AP/AR, grants specialist), ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and alignment with organizational priorities. Manage the relationship with our fractional CFO and hold the function accountable for deliverables.
• Oversee HR Services: Manage the relationship with our HR services provider, ensuring payroll, benefits administration, compliance, and employee relations run smoothly. Act as the internal escalation point for people operations matters.
• Own Team Operations: Be the point of contact for expense policies, offsite logistics, budget inquiries, and day-to-day operational matters, ensuring the team has clear answers.
• Support Executive Bandwidth: Shield the CEO's time from operational and administrative workstreams, preparing briefings and follow-up documentation for high-priority external meetings.
• Own State Credentialing and Provider Enrollment: Oversee our credentialing team, ensuring timely completion of credentialing, licensure, and provider enrollment processes in new state markets. Maintain a tracker for licensing status, renewal timelines, and market readiness.
• Lead Market Activation: Own the end-to-end operational path from contract execution to the first patient encounter in each new market. Coordinate across clinical, legal, and business development teams to remove blockers and keep go-live timelines on track.
• Drive Payer Readiness: Produce the necessary briefings, readiness assessments, and market entry playbooks to support CEO-led health plan conversations.
• Build for Replication: Ensure each market entry produces a playbook that enhances efficiency for subsequent expansions, making state expansion more streamlined over time.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in operations, Chief of Staff, strategy, or healthcare administration, with a proven track record of building and overseeing functions.
• Demonstrated experience in payer operations, Medicaid managed care, provider enrollment, or value-based contracting.
• Experience managing or overseeing finance functions, including holding teams accountable for deliverables.
• Experience overseeing HR services or people operations, including vendor management, compliance, and employee relations.
• Experience navigating multi-state regulatory or licensing environments in healthcare.
• Exceptional judgment and the ability to manage up and manage vendors effectively without creating unnecessary noise for leadership.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, capable of producing both payer-facing briefs and internal operational memos.
• Comfortable with the pace and ambiguity of a small, high-growth organization.
• Preference for owning processes end-to-end, identifying risks, testing solutions, and iterating based on feedback.
• Excellent, client-ready communication skills.
• Experience with a dual-entity structure (e.g., MSO/PC) is a strong plus.
• Prior Chief of Staff experience at a startup, health tech, or mission-driven organization is a strong plus.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• Health benefits.
• Remote-first work model with flexibility.
• Home office and professional development support.
• Equity stake in a mission-driven company at an early stage.
• Clear path to VP/COO as the organization scales.
• Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; strong candidates will be invited for a paid one-week pilot.

Malama Health is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from Black, Indigenous, Latina/x, and other women of color, people with lived experience of pregnancy, and community members. We believe diverse teams build better care and are committed to creating a workplace where every person can do the best work of their career.