Principal, Clinical Program Development

About the Role

Headway is looking for a Principal, Clinical Program Development to build and run the clinical programs that expand how and where we deliver care. As Headway opens new referral channels, service lines, and specialty care offerings, each program needs a sound clinical design and the operational backbone to run safely at scale. That backbone includes protocols, triage and acuity criteria, escalation and crisis pathways, policies, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).

You'll be a senior individual contributor who owns clinical programs end to end. You'll design programs, put in place the policies and SOPs they need to operate, and drive them from launch to steady state with rigorous program management. That means plans, milestones, dependencies, resourcing, risks, and outcome reporting. Clinical leadership keeps final clinical decision rights. You'll work across Clinical Operations, Clinical Quality, Compliance, Legal, Product, Data, and more to turn a program design into something that works day to day.

If you're a clinician who has built, launched, and run clinical programs at scale, ideally in a tech-enabled environment, this is a rare chance to shape how care is delivered as Headway grows.

You Will

• Design new clinical programs. Lead programs from needs assessment and evidence review through program design. Design covers target population and eligibility, care model, triage and acuity criteria, contact and documentation standards, escalation and crisis pathways, and success and safety measures.

• Build the policies and SOPs each program needs to run. Identify the policy and procedure gaps a program creates. Write or revise policies, protocols, and SOPs with subject-matter experts, and move them through review and approval. Keep them current with version control, effective dates, and scheduled re-review. Make sure they reflect regulatory, payer, and accreditation requirements.

• Run programs with strong program management. Own program plans, milestones, dependencies, owners, and resourcing across several concurrent programs. Track risks and issues, escalate early with a recommended path, and give clinical leadership and stakeholders clear status reporting.

• Launch and operationalize. Work with Clinical Operations, Product, Design, and more to build program standards into workflows and tools, provider-facing materials, and training. Lead pilots and readiness checks before scaling.

• Measure and improve. Partner with Data to set baselines and targets, track outcomes and safety signals, and recommend whether to iterate, scale, or sunset a program based on evidence.

• Align programs with governance infrastructure. Present program designs, policies, and material changes to the relevant clinical governance bodies for decision. Route program-related clinical risks through existing risk processes. Advise on possible changes to governance structures that would benefit from updating that improves regulatory compliance and scalability.

You’d Be a Great Fit If You Have

• An active clinical license as a master's-level therapist (LCSW, LPC, LMFT), a doctoral-level clinical psychologist (PhD/PsyD), or another psychiatric clinician (PMHNP-BC, MD/DO), with 7+ years of experience in mental health settings

• A track record of building and launching clinical programs. You've taken a program from concept to steady operation and can speak to the care model, pathways, and outcomes.

• Excellent program management. You've run several concurrent initiatives with clear plans, milestones, and reporting. You keep senior clinicians and cross-functional partners to their commitments without formal authority and without damaging the working relationship.

• Experience writing the policies and SOPs that make programs run. You've authored or substantially revised clinical policies, protocols, or procedures and moved them through review and approval in a healthcare setting. Familiarity with regulatory, payer, or accreditation requirements is a plus.

• Fluency with evidence-based practice. You can judge the strength of the evidence and turn it into practical standards that clinicians will follow.

• A data-informed approach. You define outcome and safety measures, partner with data teams, and report progress in numbers.

• Competence in leading projects that require cross functional collaboration and navigation of competing priorities.

• A builder's instinct and comfort with ambiguity. You build durable programs from scratch and manage complexity without dropping details.

• Motivation from the problem. You want to work on one of our generation's defining challenges: access to affordable, high-quality mental healthcare.

Compensation:

The expected base pay range for this position is $144,000 - $280,000, based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location.