Performance & Partnerships Director

Performance & Partnership Directors - Performance-based programs (California).

We are looking for outstanding leaders with past hands-on delivery experience to support us in facilitating change with California Behavioral Health Services.

Through co-creation of management tools, organization and system design, coaching and facilitation, our work will support our partners to maximize outcomes for people accessing mental health and related services

Multiple posts, USA, initially West Coast or with ability to travel there regularly

$175,000 p.a., plus benefits

The Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) (www.hbgi.org) transforms and builds high-performing mental health services and systems that maximize outcomes for individuals and their communities. We are currently working with the State of California, and a number of California counties, to strengthen accountability and user outcomes across their behavioral and community health systems.

We are looking for people with significant hands-on experience of managing and improving the performance and outcomes of mental health or related community services targeting vulnerable populations. You will have the ability to collaborate with others to develop tools to do the same and then support/coach them to implement these tools. You may also have experience of organization design.

This is not about improving compliance or focusing on current metrics, including billing. It is not about rigid fidelity to a particular model. This is about understanding the real drivers of operational performance, and deploying very concrete tools in order to strengthen delivery of those outcomes that really matter for service users.

Our approach entails reviewing existing performance management and contracting practices (both for the service providers and the government), and co-creating with all the stakeholders new tools to drive a step change in performance (i.e. more and better outcomes for individuals accessing services or at risk). We then support the mobilization of these new ways of working, building long-term capacity across the system. It is a collaborative change management process, with an unwavering focus on performance.

Our Performance & Partnership Directors will support the growing demand for this work in the USA, starting in California. Successful candidates will have exciting experience of leading and changing the performance of such services, delivering real and meaningful outcomes for the people using them. This experience may have been gained in the USA or elsewhere. It will almost certainly include experience across multiple, diverse contexts, possibly internationally.

We approach our work collaboratively and with humility, respecting everyone around us and their wellbeing. We actively seek out diversity across our team because it makes us – and our own performance – stronger. Many of our current team and Board have lived experience of mental health conditions and our Lived Experience Council is an integral part of HBGI.

You will be supported in your work by our Director of Technical Assistance, our CEO and our Chief Medical Offer.

For full details of the role and how to reply, please see below.

Applications close on 27th January 2025 at 23.59 PST. We expect positions to be filled from March 2025 and thereon during the year. All employment contracts are contingent upon HBGI having contracts in place, with State, Counties or other clients.

Full Job Specification

Candidate profile

To support the counties of California with the leadership and expertise required for this role, HBGI is looking for the following background, experience, skills and personal culture:

• A strong operational and delivery background, with experience of leading and managing the performance of behavioral health and/or related community services. You really understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ of service delivery and how they work for users.
• An unwavering belief in the positive potential of every one of these service users.
• Clear experience of driving and improving performance (at individual, team and operational levels), with the ability to facilitate regular operational performance reviews, supporting teams to understand their drivers and to deliver desired outcomes.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to tell the story, bringing stakeholders on board a change management journey, and with the gravitas to hold a room.
• Creativity and flexibility, not bureaucratic or limited to following processes.
• Exceptional interpersonal and diplomatic skills, able to build the necessary relationships with providers and government, supporting and challenging as required.
• Possible experience in organizational design and service delivery mapping, developing and implementing new ways of working that align with organizational goals.
• Experience engaging and learning from a wide variety of stakeholders including service users and their families, peers, advocates and community partners.
• Intellectual curiosity and humility, not convinced that you have all the answers, wanting to learn more about performance management and outcomes-based contracting.

We don’t expect you to be the finished article; we will support your development journey, guiding your learning and growth. But we do want you to have high levels of energy and be self-driven and proactive. You will be a restless champion for the needs of service users.

We are looking to change millions of life chances, and in the process, show the world that there is a better way to manage programs like this. We love what we do and we have lots of fun doing it, but everything we do is about maximizing performance and we set the bar high. You must have the breadth and depth of experience described above and really ‘get’ what we mean by ‘outcomes that matter’.

Terms of Employment

Reporting to: Director of Technical Assistance

Location: Home-based within North America, ideally California or within easy access of the State. You must have the right to live and work in the USA.

Salary, pension & health insurance: $175,000 per annum FTE. HBGI will contribute up to 10% to a pension, matched against your contribution. We also pay for health insurance.

Work life: To make sure you can participate actively in our largely virtual business, you will need to organize your own technology, including a laptop, internet connection and telephone.

Our normal full-time working week is 40 hours. You can plan these hours to suit you within the working week (Monday-Friday) but must take business needs into account, i.e. be available for meetings when needed. You must inform your team and line manager of your plans.

At HBGI, we care about your wellbeing and want you to take time for yourself. It's important to switch off at the end of the day and over the weekend to recharge your batteries. We keep Fridays free of internal meetings, so you can end your week with your to-do list clear.

The full-time paid, annual holiday allowance is 33 days. This total is inclusive of all federal and state holidays – they will not be in addition to the 33 days leave. After the first year, this then increases by a day a year until it reaches 38 (including national holidays).

We are committed to recruiting the best, most diverse HBGI team. We do not tolerate any form of negative discrimination, abuse, office politics or bullying.

How to apply

Please send: a) an up-to-date resume (no more than three pages), explaining any gaps, and; b) a covering letter (no more than two pages) which addresses the following:

• Who are you? (Have fun with this! Give us a non-resume answer)
• Why do you want this role?
• How does your past experience set you up for success in this role? (Please include experience of organization design if you have this.)
• Give us an example of when you led an increase in service performance. What were the performance drivers, what action did you take, what was the result?
• Describe the outcomes that one of your services delivered that you are proudest of?
• What do you think might be some of the areas for improvement for community health services in California?

Given the very high volume of applications, we greatly regret that we cannot provide individual feedback and will only follow-up with short-listed candidates. We are looking for exciting, interesting applications from people who clearly ‘get’ performance/outcomes and have delivered it in challenging contexts, possibly against some resistance. You have to be able to communicate this to us, clearly and compellingly.

Please email your application to opportunities@hbgi.org with Performance & Performance Directors (California) in the subject line.

Applications close on 27th January 2025 at 23.59 PST.

Please ensure you have provided all the detail requested for us to consider your application.