Sr. Director, Social Connection & Behavioral Health Innovation

Note:If you are a current employee please apply through the internal career page.

IOA is on the forefront of revolutionary healthcare models reshaping the way people can age in place. Our innovative models transform lives enhance communities and save healthcare systems millions of dollars. Rather than focusing on archaic outdated design we strive to consistently question the status-quo and create new and more innovative ways to help aging adults and adults with disabilities maintain their quality of life.

With over 23 programs we offer multiple ways to aid seniors maintain their health well-being independence and participation in the community fulfilling our mission.

Institute on Aging (IOA) is seeking an entrepreneurial mission-driven behavioral health leader to build the next generation of social connection and behavioral health services for older adults.

This is not a traditional clinical or program leadership role. Friendship Line one of the nations longest-standing crisis and emotional support lines for older adults will serve as an important foundation and front door to a broader continuum of services. This leader will take the work well beyond the traditional Friendship Line modeldeveloping testing implementing and scaling evidence-based and evidence-informed services that may include group interventions peer and paraprofessional supports behavioral health services navigation community-based programs and technology-enabled approaches.

Working closely with IOA executive leadership and strategic partners including a major health care organization the Sr. Director Social Connection & Behavioral Health Innovation will translate an ambitious vision into a scalable and financially sustainable operating model. This includes building new programs and teams developing health plan and payer partnerships establishing reimbursable services and pursuing Medi-Cal/Medicaid Medicare value-based care private-pay philanthropic and other sustainable funding pathways.

The successful candidate will combine deep behavioral health expertise with the mindset of a builder. They will be entrepreneurial curious creative evidence-driven and comfortable testing new approaches. They will also be an exceptional communicator and servant leader who can inspire teams build strong partnerships and become a compelling external voice for IOAs work addressing loneliness social isolation and behavioral health among older adults.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy Innovation & Growth

• Develop and execute the strategic vision for IOAs behavioral health and social connection division.
• Build a broader continuum of services with Friendship Line serving as a front door to additional supports.
• Identify design test evaluate and scale new evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and service models.
• Create a culture of curiosity thoughtful experimentation continuous learning and innovation.
• Develop a multi-year roadmap for growth impact and financial sustainability.
• Stay current on emerging interventions technologies reimbursement models and innovations in behavioral health social connection and healthy aging.

Behavioral Health Quality & Outcomes

• Provide senior behavioral health leadership and subject matter expertise across the division.
• Guide the selection adaptation implementation and evaluation of behavioral health interventions for older adults.
• Ensure services are clinically sound person-centered culturally responsive trauma-informed and grounded in evidence.
• Establish appropriate clinical oversight supervision escalation and risk-management structures across services and workforce models.
• Develop meaningful measures of behavioral health outcomes loneliness and social connection participant experience quality access equity and financial performance.
• Use data and evidence to continuously improve programs and determine what should be scaled modified or discontinued.

Business Development & Financial Sustainability

• Build and scale a financially sustainable portfolio of behavioral health and social connection services.
• Develop business plans financial models and growth strategies for new and existing service lines.
• Lead and grow programs or service lines with multi-million-dollar annual operating budgets or revenue.
• Develop reimbursement and contracting strategies across Medi-Cal/Medicaid Medicare and Medicare Advantage managed care health systems value-based arrangements private pay philanthropy and other funding sources.
• Partner with internal teams to build the billing contracting technology data and operational infrastructure needed to support growth.

Strategic Partnerships & External Leadership

• Serve as a senior IOA leader for a significant strategic partnership with a major health care organization and other key external relationships.
• Build trusted partnerships with health plans health systems government community organizations academic institutions and funders.
• Translate partnership commitments into operational plans milestones and measurable outcomes.
• Serve as a compelling storyteller and ambassador for IOAs work addressing loneliness social isolation behavioral health and healthy aging.
• Represent IOA with healthcare leaders funders policymakers community partners and other external audiences.

Friendship Line & Operational Leadership

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for Friendship Line ensuring the continued quality safety and integrity of its core services.
• Position Friendship Line as a trusted front door to a broader continuum of social connection and behavioral health supports.
• Strengthen referral pathways follow-up navigation and connections to additional services.
• Preserve the human connection at the heart of Friendship Line while thoughtfully exploring new service modalities and technologies.
• Build the workflows staffing models systems policies and performance standards necessary to support the divisions growth.

People Leadership & Culture

• Recruit develop and inspire a high-performing multidisciplinary team of clinical professionals peers paraprofessionals program leaders volunteers and operational staff.
• Lead as a servant leader who develops others invites different perspectives and creates accountability.
• Foster a culture of mission innovation collaboration and continuous learning.
• Effectively lead teams through growth change ambiguity and organizational transformation.

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree in behavioral health or mental health such as PsyD PhD in psychology MSW MFT or another closely related discipline.
• Significant behavioral health or mental health experience with strong knowledge of clinical practice interventions risk quality and evidence-based care.
• 8 plus years of progressively responsible leadership experience with responsibility for people programs operations and financial performance.
• Demonstrated success building growing scaling or transforming a program service line or business with a multi-million-dollar annual operating budget or revenue.
• Demonstrated entrepreneurial experience launching new services programs partnerships or business models.
• Strong business and financial acumen including budgeting business planning growth strategy and performance management.
• Exceptional communication storytelling relationship-building and partnership-management skills.
• Demonstrated success building and developing high-performing teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active California behavioral health/mental health licensure strongly preferred (e.g. Psychologist LCSW LMFT or other applicable clinical license).
• Experience with older adults and/or knowledge of aging loneliness social isolation and related behavioral health needs.
• Experience with health plans managed care population health or value-based care.
• Knowledge of Medi-Cal/Medicaid Medicare healthcare contracting billing and reimbursement.
• Experience developing or scaling reimbursable behavioral health or community-based services.
• Experience with evidence-based interventions peer to peer support community health workers or paraprofessional workforce models.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate is:

• A builder and entrepreneur. Energized by creating something new and able to turn ideas into scalable sustainable programs.
• Deeply grounded in behavioral health. Brings the clinical credibility and judgment necessary to innovate responsibly.
• Business-minded. Understands that lasting impact requires sustainable revenue strong operations disciplined growth and measurable performance.
• Evidence-driven and curious. Values evidence-based practice measurement experimentation and continuous learning.
• An exceptional storyteller and ambassador. Can inspire team members partners funders healthcare leaders and communities around a compelling vision.
• A servant leader. Leads with humility and accountability develops others and builds strong teams.

The Opportunity

Loneliness and social isolation are increasingly recognized as significant health and behavioral health challenges for older adults. IOA has a unique opportunity to build on decades of experience through Friendship Line while creating something much broader: an integrated scalable continuum of behavioral health and social connection services.

For the right leader this is an opportunity not simply to manage an existing program but to build the next generation of behavioral health and social connection services for older adults.

COMPENSATION:

Range: $ 195000 to $210000/annual

This amount is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific employee which is always dependent on actual experience education and other factors.

This range does not include any additional equity benefits or other non-monetary compensation which may be included.