Director, Operational Programs

Job description

Clinicians don't train for a decade to spend their days on paperwork and prior auths. They do it to treat patients. But across our field, documentation, authorizations, and administrative sprawl pile up until clinicians spend more time on the work around care than on care itself. It is the fastest route to burnout and the main reason great clinicians leave, which ultimately reduces patient’s access to high quality care As Director, Operational Programs, you own the mandate to change that at Talkiatry. Your job is to give clinicians their time back: find the administrative work weighing them down, take it off their plate, and rebuild it as something faster, standardized, and increasingly automated. This is a hands-on, deeply cross-functional role. You'll combine clinician feedback, operational data, and a real understanding of clinical workflows to design, pilot, and scale the programs that make Talkiatry the best place in the country to practice psychiatry. You own two vendor-run support programs today, and you'll build the automation and AI roadmap that decides how this work runs tomorrow. The right person loves the nuts and bolts of a business and is relentless about making them better. You standardize what's manual, automate what's repeatable, and productize what scales. You lead through influence as much as authority. And you measure success by one thing: how much of a clinician's day goes back to patients. You'll report to the VP, Operational Programs. ABOUT TALKIATRY: Talkiatry is transforming mental health care by making high-quality psychiatry more accessible, human, and sustainable for both patients and clinicians. Co-founded by a patient and a triple-board-certified psychiatrist, we were built to solve one of healthcare’s most urgent challenges: millions of people struggle to access mental health care, while clinicians face growing administrative burden and burnout. Through our technology-powered, in-network platform, we’re changing that, creating a better experience for patients and empowering clinicians to focus on delivering exceptional care. Today, Talkiatry is the largest dedicated psychiatry practice in the U.S., with 750+ psychiatrists, 250+ therapists, and more than two million patient visits delivered nationwide. At our scale, every innovation has real impact. Every workflow we improve, every technology solution we build, and every patient experience we redesign helps thousands of clinicians provide better care to hundreds of thousands of patients. We’re not just growing quickly — we’re redefining how behavioral healthcare is delivered in America. Joining Talkiatry means joining a mission-driven team that is solving complex problems at scale, driving meaningful change in healthcare, and building the future of mental health care with compassion, innovation, and purpose. YOU WILL: - Give clinicians their time back. Use clinician feedback and operational data to find the workflows that create the greatest administrative burden. Design, pilot, and scale solutions that shift the right nonclinical work away from clinicians and back to where it belongs. - Automate and productize the work. Partner with Product and Engineering to redesign, automate, and productize complex operational workflows. Own the automation and AI roadmap for the processes behind care delivery, and push each one from manual to standardized to automated. - Own the clinician support programs end to end. Run the strategy, performance, and continuous improvement of two vendor-managed support programs. Set clear service levels, quality standards, escalation paths, and performance expectations for your internal team and your vendors alike. - Drive adoption across the network. Lead the change management that makes programs stick: the communications, training, documentation, and feedback loops that get clinicians actually using what you ship. - Set the standard across service lines. Define what good clinician support looks like across every service line, close the gaps, and find the opportunities to scale. YOU HAVE: - Operator, not just a strategist. 5-10 years in healthcare operations, clinician enablement, or process transformation. You like running the nuts and bolts of a business, and you're as comfortable deep in a workflow as you are zoomed out on the system. - Data-driven problem solver. Strong analytical and process-improvement instincts, and you let the data set the priorities. SQL and Excel proficiency required. - Vendor and program management. You've owned outsourced or vendor-run operational programs and held them to real service levels and quality bars, not just activity reports. - Automation and AI fluency. You've taken manual, messy processes and made them standardized, automated, and productized. You know the difference between a one-off fix and a scaled solution, and you've shipped the latter. You also know where AI genuinely helps and where it's a distraction. - Cross-functional leadership through influence. You get work done through teams that don't report to you, across Product, Engineering, Clinical, and the frontline. You earn it through preparation and follow-through, not title. - Motivated by the mission. You care about mental health, clinician wellbeing, and building a practice where clinicians can do their best work. WHY TALKIATRY: - Top-notch team: we're a diverse, experienced group motivated to make a difference in mental health care - Collaborative environment: be part of building something from the ground up at a fast-paced startup - Excellent benefits: medical, dental, vision, effective day 1 of employment, 401K with match, generous PTO plus paid holidays, paid parental leave, and more! - Grow your career with us: hone your skills and build new ones with our Learning team as Talkiatry expands - It all comes back to care: we’re a mental health company, and we put our team’s well-being first Talkiatry participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. only after a job offer is accepted and Form I-9 is completed. 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At Talkiatry, we are an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace and candidate experience. We strive to create an environment where everyone has a sense of belonging and purpose, and where we learn from the unique experiences of those around us. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or family status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or caregiver status, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.