Performance & Partnership Directors - building capacity across services and systems to improve outcomes for people accessing behavioral health and related services.

Maximizing outcomes for individuals through co-creation of performance management tools and new outcomes contracts, organization design, coaching and facilitation. It’s about systems, structures and ways of working, but ultimately about the culture of the service.

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 in multiple, diverse settings

of managing and improving the performance of services targeting vulnerable populations. This might be mental health or related services. Our work in California is often focused on mental health and homelessness and you will need to have strong credibility with leaders in this sector.

You will almost certainly have managed and challenged the performance of services with case management at their core. You will be able to demonstrate your ability to think outside systems but also how you have built partnerships within systems to facilitate change.

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.

We approach our work collaboratively and with humility, respecting the wellbeing and contributions of everyone we work with. We believe that diversity across our team strengthens our impact and performance. We are an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Many of our team members and Board bring lived experience of mental health challenges, which shapes and deepens our understanding of the systems we aim to improve. 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 May 11th at 23.59PST. We expect positions to be filled from June 2025 and thereon. 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:

1. A strong operational and delivery background, with experience of leading and managing the performance of behavioral health and/or related services working with vulnerable populations using a case management model. This will have been gained in multiple settings with different organizations. You will be able to demonstrate your knowledge of the nuts and bolts drivers of performance in such services.
2. An unwavering respect for and belief in the positive potential of every one of these service users. An ‘asset-based’ approach is fundamental to our work.
3. Clear experience of driving and improving performance (at individual, team and operational levels), with the ability to develop performance reports and facilitate regular operational performance reviews, supporting teams to understand their drivers and to deliver more of the desired outcomes for more people.
4. 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.
5. Creativity and flexibility, not bureaucratic or limited to following processes.
6. Exceptional interpersonal and diplomatic skills, able to build the necessary relationships with providers and government, supporting and challenging as required.
7. Possible experience in organizational design and service delivery mapping, developing and implementing new ways of working that align with organizational goals.
8. Experience engaging and learning from a wide variety of stakeholders including service users and their families, peers, advocates and community partners.
9. 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 for individuals’.

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:

1. Who are you? (Have fun with this! Give us a non-resume answer)
2. Why do you want this role with HBGI?
3. How does your past experience set you up for success in this role?
4. Give us an example of when you led a turn-around in service performance. What were the performance drivers, what action did you take, and what was the result?
5. What are the outcomes that people accessing behavioral health services want and how can such services maximize those outcomes? What role should HBGI play in this?

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 multiple 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 & Partnership Directors (California) in the subject line.

Applications close on 11th May at 23.59 PST

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

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