Chief Nursing Officer - Lakewood

Registered NurseNo weekendsFull-Time

Compensation

Pay not listed

The week · per this posting · Monday – Friday

Ask the employer about the pay range, the work setting, call expectations and time off.

Posted 1mo ago

Job Description

Who We Are

UCI Health is one of California’s largest academic health systems and the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Established on July 1, 1976, UCI Health has grown into a 1,461-bed health system that includes UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Irvine, four Community Network hospitals and a growing network of ambulatory care centers across Orange and Los Angeles counties.

As Orange County’s only academic health systems, UCI Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in the county, the region’s only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, American College of Emergency Physicians Gold Level 1 Geriatric Emergency Department and a nationally recognized regional burn center verified by the American Burn Association. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people across Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County through excellence in patient care, research and medical education.

Your Role on the Team

Position Summary

The Chief Nursing Officer – Lakewood provides strategic, operating, and financial plans for all nursing and other designated patient care functions and services to accomplish UCI Health – Lakewood’ mission.

The incumbent provides nursing leadership to all nursing services associated with patient care at UCI Health – Lakewood. Has responsibility for assessing, planning, coordinating, implementing, and evaluating nursing practice, care management and clinical operations for UCI Health – Lakewood.

Works closely with facility senior leadership and senior leadership throughout the UCI Health system to ensure that UCI Health – Lakewood functions in a manner that is financially successful and delivers high quality patient care.

What It Takes to be Successful

Required Qualifications

  • Understanding of Joint Commission and other applicable regulatory requirements
  • Strong planning, financial and analytical skills to provide effective leadership for assigned areas
  • Must possess the skill, knowledge and ability essential to the successful performance of assigned duties
  • Must demonstrate customer service skills appropriate to the job
  • Minimum 5 years’ experience in an executive leadership role (Director or higher) in a nursing role
  • Minimum 10 years’ experience of progressive management responsibility
  • Master’s degree in Nursing OR BSN with Masters in Business Administration, Masters in Healthcare Management, or Masters in related field
  • Marketing knowledge and skills to successfully promote assigned programs and services
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
  • Excellent negotiation skills and proven ability to influence others internal and external to the organization
  • Evidence of sound critical thinking skills and the ability to think creatively and strategically
  • Demonstrated ability to work across multidisciplinary teams
  • Ability to successfully represent the UC Irvine Enterprise to the external community
  • Ability to successfully cross departmental lines of management to organize, guide and direct the development, delivery and marketing of assigned programs and services
  • Ability to maintain a work pace appropriate to the workload
  • Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships across the Health System
  • Ability to develop and implement programs and improve organizational performance

Ability to comply with all nurse practice and medical center policies and procedures for infection control, safety, administrative and clinical practice. Ability to comply with activities mandated by The Joint Commission/Title 22, CLIA, etc.

Experience working in a unionized environment

Preferred Qualifications

  • Leadership experience in an academic medical center environment
  • Knowledge of University and Medical Center organizations, policies, procedures and forms
  • Experience in Project Management and Lean Six Sigma as improvement tools
  • Doctorate degree in Nursing

Licenses and Certifications

Registered Nurse in the State of California

Total Rewards

We offer a wealth of benefits to make working at UCI even more rewarding. These benefits may include medical insurance, sick and vacation time, retirement savings plans, and access to a number of discounts and perks. Please utilize the links listed here to learn more about our compensation practices and benefits.

Conditions of Employment

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) seeks to provide a safe and healthy environment for the entire UCI community. As part of this commitment, all applicants who accept an offer of employment must comply with the following conditions of employment:

  • Background Check and Live Scan
  • Employment Misconduct*
  • Legal Right to Work in the United States
  • Vaccination Policies
  • Smoking and Tobacco Policy

Drug Free Environment

Exercise the utmost discretion in managing sensitive information learned in the course of performing their duties.

Sensitive information includes but is not limited to employee and student records, health and patient records, financial data, strategic plans, proprietary information, and any other sensitive or non-public information learned during the course and scope of employment.

Understands that sensitive information should be shared on a limited basis and actively takes steps to limit access to sensitive information to individuals who have legitimate business need to know. Ensure that sensitive information is properly safeguarded.

Follow all organizational policies and laws on data protection and privacy. This includes secure handling of physical and digital records and proper usage of IT systems to prevent data leaks.

The unauthorized or improper disclosure of confidential work-related information obtained from any source on any work-related matter is a violation of these expectations.

*Misconduct Disclosure Requirement: As a condition of employment, the final candidate who accepts a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose if they have been subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct; received notice of any allegations or are currently the subject of any administrative or disciplinary proceedings involving misconduct; have left a position after receiving notice of allegations or while under investigation in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding involving misconduct; or have filed an appeal of a finding of misconduct with a previous employer.

The following additional conditions may apply, some of which are dependent upon business unit or job specific requirements.

  • California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act
  • E-Verify

Pre-Placement Health Evaluation

Details of each policy may be reviewed by visiting the following page: hr.uci.edu

Closing Statement

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC Anti-Discrimination Policy.

We are committed to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce along with honoring unique experiences, perspectives, and identities. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable, and welcoming.

UCI provides reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities upon request. For more information, please contact UCI's Employee Experience Center (EEC) at eec@uci.edu or at (949) 824-0500, Monday - Friday from 8:30 a. m. - 5:00 p. m.

Consideration for Work Authorization Sponsorship

Must be able to provide proof of work authorization

Key Responsibilities

The Chief Nursing Officer provides strategic, financial, and operational leadership for all nursing and patient care functions at UCI Health — Lakewood. They are responsible for coordinating nursing practice, clinical operations, and ensuring the facility delivers high-quality patient care while maintaining financial success.

Requirements

Candidates must have a minimum of 10 years of progressive management experience and at least 5 years in an executive nursing leadership role. A Master's degree in Nursing or a related field (with a BSN) and a valid California Registered Nurse license are required.

Qualifications

Education
Master's degree (postgraduate degree)
Experience
10+ years of experience

Key Skills

Strategic planningFinancial managementRegulatory complianceMultidisciplinary team collaborationProgram development

Nursing Administration — Registered Nurse Career Context

Of the 50 active Nursing Leadership listings this role was benchmarked against, 26% are remote, 56% have no call, 74% require no weekends.

The cost-of-living index for California is 110.7 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)). 63.6% of California clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).

Top Registered Nurse Jobs

50 matches · ranked by pay

Salary Distribution50 jobs · 40 employers

12
<$105k
15
$105k-125k
8
$125k-145k
10
$145k-165k
5
$165k+

Annual compensation range

Benefits & Perks37 jobs

401k / retirement match
97% this job
Sign-on bonus
19%
CME allowance
19%
Loan repayment
5%
Relocation assistance
3%

Share of similar jobs offering each benefit

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+ 48 more · ranked by pay

Work-life snapshot

median 1.5this job 3.9
Better work-life than 70% of Nursing Leadership listings

Listing-based score, 0–10, across 1,187 comparable listings. Shaded area = the share scoring below this one.

  • No weekends

Living in Lakewood

Typical 3-bedroom home value
$869k
Typical market rent
$3,602/mo
Residents’ average commute
28 min
Metro price indexU.S. average = 100
113.6
State income tax
Up to 13.3%
Sources & methodology

Sources: Zillow home values (Aug 2026), Zillow market rents (Aug 2026), U.S. Census ACS 2024 five-year.

BEA 2024 · Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro prices. Housing figures are city-level.

City-level figures. Not a cost-of-living guarantee.

University of California, Irvine logo

About University of California, Irvine

Hospitals and Health Care
Orange, California
5,001-10,000 employees

Benefits & Perks

Medical insurance
Sick and vacation time
Retirement savings plans
Access to discounts and perks