Senior Director of Behavioral Health

Northern Children’S Services

Join Our Team as a Senior Director of Behavioral Health and help make a difference in the lives of children, youth, and families!

Job Summary

Are you passionate about supporting the healthy development of children, youth, and families for a brighter future?

Look no further! At Northern Children’s Services (Northern), every role in the organization contributes to helping us achieve our mission and vision.

We believe that every child and youth has the potential to transform themselves – no matter their background or life situation.

We work to “walk the talk” when it comes to our organizational values:

Excellence, Respect, Resilience, Cultural Humility & Justice, Healing, and Wellness.

Why Choose Us? As a Senior Director of Behavioral Health, you’ll embark on a fulfilling journey.

• Leadership Opportunity
• Supportive Environment
• Empowerment and Progress
• Effective Communication
• Empowerment Through Planning
• Continuous Monitoring and Progress
• Documentation Excellence
• Networking and Collaboration

Benefits

• We offer comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance for full-time employees.
• Life Insurance/AD&D and LTD: We provide full-time employees with a $20,000 life insurance policy through Mutual of Omaha Company at no cost.

Additionally, Mutual of Omaha LTD coverage and AD&D insurance offer financial security to our employees and their families.

• A partner insurance company offers a range of self-funded insurance plans, including accident insurance, cancer insurance, life insurance, critical illness coverage, and short-term disability insurance, providing additional financial protection to our employees.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan: We offer a 401(k)-savings plan with a generous matching contribution after one year of employment.
• NCS Educational Expense Reimbursement program
• Paid Leave: Employees have access to generous paid time off or sick leave, allowing them to prioritize their health and well-being.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Our EAP offers confidential referral and counseling services to help employees and their families manage life's challenges, including stress management, legal and financial concerns, depression, and substance abuse.
• Legal Services: Self-funded legal services provide valuable support and resources for various legal matters.

Senior Director of Behavioral Health

• Reports To: President/CEO
• FLSA Status: Exempt
• Leadership Level: Senior Leadership Team

Position Summary

Northern Children’s Services (Northern) is seeking an experienced, forward-thinking Senior Director of Behavioral Health (Senior Director) to lead a dynamic and evolving department serving children, youth, and families across Philadelphia.

This leadership role requires a leader who is strategic and mission-driven with strong capacity to integrate clinical expertise and excellence with strong administrative discipline, embraces data and measurable outcomes, and is committed to building a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and solid, achievable outcomes. The Senior Director will play a pivotal role in ensuring that our behavioral health services not only meet regulatory standards — but demonstrably improve lives.

The Senior Director provides oversight and ensures high-quality clinical care across all Northern’s Behavioral Health Programs and services: Intensive Behavioral Health Services (IBHS), Outpatient, Early Intervention, Wellness & Resiliency, and psychiatric (medication management),

This role requires advanced clinical licensure, extensive leadership and management experience, and strategic vision for growth, innovation, and sustainability.

The Senior Director Is Responsible for Ensuring

• High-quality, evidence-based clinical care

• Strong census and financial sustainability

• Measurable client outcomes

• Clear performance accountability (including existing benchmarks, client surveys, quality assurance, and city and state audits

• Effective supervision structures

• Cross-department collaboration

• A culture of professionalism, transparency, and continuous improvement

Key Responsibilities

This is not solely a clinical oversight role. It is an executive leadership position requiring strategic thinking, operational discipline, data and financial fluency, and the ability to positively influence and shape culture within the department.

1. Clinical Excellence & Systems Oversight

Clinical excellence must be paired with structured systems that sustain quality.

• Ensures all Behavioral Health programs operate in alignment with regulatory, licensing, and ethical standards.

• Provides clinical and program oversight for all city and state BH program audits, including the effective monitoring and implementation of any related Plans of Correction (POC), and the avoidance of them through proactive compliance with regulations and expectations for best practices

• Ensure strong clinical supervision structures at all levels.

• Promote evidence-based and trauma-informed practices.

• Supports staff in securing clinician licensure and certification in approved evidence-based models.

2. Executive & Strategic Leadership

• Serves as an active member of Northern’s Senior Leadership Team.

• Collaborates across all Northern programs and departments (Child Welfare, Compliance, Development, Executive Suite, Finance, Human Resources, Operations, Residential, Youth Safety & Prevention).

• Represents Northern internally with Northern staff, clients, and Board of Trustees members, as well as externally with funders, caregivers, families, regulatory bodies, and community partners such as the Department of Behavioral Health & Disability Services (DBHIDS), Community Behavioral Health (CBH), the PA Office of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS), and the School District of Philadelphia.

• Contributes to organization-wide strategy and organizational decision-making.

3. Administrative Leadership & Operational Discipline

• Ensures that the BH Department is fully and effectively using appropriate and available program tools (i. e., Credible/Qualifacts, Mission Driven Data (Janet), Office 365 (Outlook, Excel for benchmarks, Power BI, etc.), UKG); leverage this information as program management tools that support real-time, mid-course corrections, best practice learning within BH and across Northern, lessons that improve programs and services, and fully maximize billing.

• Aligning staffing models with census and revenue goals.

• Ensuring workflows support productivity, documentation quality, and timely billing.

• Overseeing productivity, access, discharge planning, and authorization processes.

• Ensuring clean documentation systems and accurate reporting.

• Translating strategy into measurable execution.

4. Data, Benchmarks & Outcomes Ownership

Northern is a data-informed organization. The Senior Director must embrace and promote that value. The Senior Director must actively bring Behavioral Health leaders along in understanding, using, and valuing data as part of professional practice.

• Regularly review program dashboards (census, revenue, productivity, access, outcomes).

• Ensure standardized outcome tools are implemented and used consistently.

• Analyze trends and implement mid-course corrections when performance declines.

• Ensure data integrity (closed cases, documentation accuracy, consistent scoring).

• Ask consistently: “Are we making a measurable difference?”

• Possess a meaningful understanding of the importance of utilizing benchmarks as tools for improvement — not threats.

5. Financial & Census Accountability

The Senior Director is accountable for the financial health and sustainability of Northern’s BH programs.

• Maintains strong census across programs.

• Proactively addresses declines in utilization or referrals.

• Partners with Finance to monitor margins and revenue performance.

• Responds strategically to funding, regulatory, and authorization changes.

• Identifies sustainable growth opportunities aligned with Northern’s mission.

• Effectively and responsibly allocates resources.

6. Performance Accountability & Leadership Integrity

The Senior Director must model strong, fair, and consistent accountability.

• Holds all staff to clearly defined performance standards.

• Addresses performance concerns directly and promptly.

• Responds to identified issues without defensiveness, avoidance, or minimization.

• Uses coaching, retraining, documentation, and corrective action when appropriate.

• Ensures standards and expectations are applied equitably and consistently across staff members.

• Makes difficult but necessary decisions in the best interest of program stability, compliance, and overall organizational health.

7. Clarity of Expectations & Supervisory Discipline

• Ensures expectations are clear, documented, and consistently reinforced.

• Ensures that clinical leaders fully understand operational, financial, compliance, and outcome expectations.

• Equips staff to translate executive expectations into actionable team-level behavior.

• Eliminates ambiguity about productivity, documentation, access, and outcome benchmarks.

8. Openness to Innovation & Continuous Improvement

The Senior Director must demonstrate openness to new ideas, regardless of where they originate from - including front-line staff and cross-department colleagues.

• Actively encourages innovative, creative problem-solving, and constructive feedback.

• Evaluates ideas based on impact and data — not hierarchy.

• Models intellectual curiosity and adaptability.

• Fosters psychological safety by creating an environment where team