Director, Behavioral Health Field Readiness

Position Overview

Our client is a multi-site behavioral health services organization dedicated to delivering high-quality, child-centered care across community-based settings. The organization is investing meaningfully in strengthening its frontline clinician preparation and is seeking a Director, Field Readiness – Behavioral Health to lead and elevate its new hire readiness model.

This is not a traditional corporate L&D role. This leader will own the full clinician onboarding and field readiness journey — from offer acceptance through independent field clearance — ensuring every frontline team member enters the field confident, capable, and prepared to deliver exceptional care.

Reporting to senior People Experience leadership, this role translates operational priorities, clinical standards, and frontline performance data into structured onboarding experiences that accelerate readiness, improve early-tenure performance, and strengthen first-year retention.

Key Responsibilities

Own and Elevate the New Hire Readiness Model

Lead and evolve a branded onboarding experience for frontline clinical roles, including:

• Practical clinical instruction
• Structured in-center learning experiences
• Mentorship and shadowing pathways
• Hands-on role play and mock assessments
• Clear readiness standards and clearance criteria

The objective is to create a readiness experience that is immersive, measurable, and directly aligned to real-world field demands.

Design a Training Model That Mirrors the Field

Frontline clinical environments are dynamic and relationship-driven. The readiness experience must reflect that reality.

You will:

• Strengthen in-person, hands-on components of onboarding
• Build structured shadowing and mentorship frameworks
• Ensure clinicians demonstrate competence before independent assignment
• Align readiness criteria with real-world clinical and caregiver engagement expectations

Make Readiness Measurable and Continuously Improving

Move beyond completion metrics and focus on meaningful performance indicators, including:

• Confidence-to-clear benchmarks
• Time-to-field readiness
• Mock assessment performance
• Early-tenure field outcomes
• 90-day and first-year retention

Using both quantitative data and frontline feedback, you will continuously refine the readiness model — strengthening what works, removing friction, and evolving the program as the organization scales.

You will also translate insights into clear, actionable narratives for Clinical and Operations leadership.

Lead and Scale the Field Readiness Function

Serve as a player-coach to a small Field Readiness team, providing:

• Clear direction and accountability
• Consistency across regions
• Elevated standards and quality control

While Managers oversee day-to-day facilitation and coaching assignments, you will ensure calibration and cohesion across the broader readiness ecosystem.

Cross-Functional Partnership

This role requires close collaboration with:

• Clinical leadership
• Operations
• Talent Acquisition
• HR / People teams

You will anticipate hiring needs, align readiness standards to operational expectations, and ensure training evolves alongside service delivery demands.

Where appropriate, you will evaluate and manage external learning tools or partners — ensuring they enhance, rather than complicate, the readiness model.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Organizational Development, Psychology, or related field
• 6–8+ years of experience in Learning & Development, Organizational Development, or related roles, including people leadership
• Demonstrated success building and scaling onboarding or readiness programs for on-site, frontline, or clinical teams
• Experience translating performance data and feedback into clear learning strategy and execution
• Proven track record improving L&D systems, operations, or processes
• Strong understanding of adult learning principles and blended learning environments
• Highly collaborative and adaptable in fast-changing environments

Strongly Preferred

• BCBA certification
• Experience in healthcare, behavioral health, or human services
• Direct exposure to high-volume, in-person service delivery models
• Familiarity with ABA roles or clinical training environments

Core Competencies

• Storytelling with Data: Translates metrics and frontline insights into clear action.
• Responsive with Judgment: Moves quickly while maintaining standards and sound decision-making.
• Operational Pragmatism: Designs systems that work in real-world field conditions.
• Frontline Credibility: Understands the realities of clinical, on-site environments.
• People Leadership: Builds trust, accountability, and clarity within teams.