Senior Manager, Behavioral Health, Psychology

Kaiser Permanente
Vallejo, CA

Job Summary:

In addition to the responsibilities below, this position is also responsible for overseeing the management of doctoral candidates; monitoring post-graduate relationships across teams (e.g., performing interviews, signing off on clinical notes); aligning expectations for and making decisions regarding performing and recommending psychological tests and batteries, ensuring understanding across teams; implementing standards for processing referrals and assignments of assessment and/or testing cases; providing expertise on clinical documentation required for patient medical leave; overseeing testing systems; creating workflows; and driving effective review and approval of patient time off work requests to ensure accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Essential Responsibilities:
  • Creates and advocates for developmental opportunities for others; builds collaborative, cross-functional relationships. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; works with leaders and employees to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to drive performance improvement. Pursues professional growth; hires, trains, and develops talent for growth opportunities; strategically evaluates talent for succession planning; sets performance management guidelines and expectations across teams / units. Oversees implementation, adapts, and stays up to date with organizational change, challenges, feedback, best practices, processes, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Fosters open dialogue amongst team members, engages, motivates, and promotes collaboration within and across teams; motivates teams to meet business objectives. Delegates tasks and decisions as appropriate; provides appropriate support, guidance and scope; encourages development and consideration of options in decision making; fosters access to stakeholders.
  • Manages designated units or teams by translating business plans into tactical action items; oversees the completion of work assignments and identifies opportunities for improvement; ensures all policies and procedures are followed; partners with key stakeholders and business leaders to ensure products and/or services meet requirements and expectations while aligning with departmental strategies. Aligns team efforts; builds accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results; assumes responsibility for decision making; fosters direct reports to resolve escalated issues as appropriate. Communicates goals and objectives; incorporates resources, costs, and forecasts into team and unit plans; ensures matrixed resources are fulfilling service or performance requirements across reporting lines. Removes obstacles that impact performance; identifies and addresses improvement opportunities; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; influences teams and units to operate in alignment with operational and business objectives.
  • Manages client care by: providing direction to ensure effective member/patient advocacy as well as implementing customer feedback and/or investigating and resolving member/patient complaints to optimize satisfaction and address care issues; aligning teams on high-quality member/patient care experience and service standards, developing and training teams on standards; and aligning teams on the importance of proper referral of members/patients and developing standards for sharing information with providers.
  • Manages compliant services by: overseeing daily operations across team to ensure up-to-date compliance with organizational, state, and federal guidelines as well as regulatory policies, standards, and procedures, leading consultations with Compliance; and developing and updating processes to guide teams on written and electronic documentation, records, and reports according to department, federal, and state regulations.
  • Establishes high quality counseling services by: setting guidelines and expectations for facilitating psychological/behavioral interventions; overseeing communication with patients, members, or families to ensure all team members consistently act with empathy and support when sharing results, discussing treatment plans, providing resources, and answering questions; and developing standards for assessing and treating urgent, high-risk clinical situations (e.g., crisis, suicidal), sharing across teams to guide appropriate interventions and prompt resolutions.
  • Manages evaluations and diagnoses by: sharing guidelines and coaching teams on member/patient assessments and mental health evaluations, sharing best practices for providing diagnoses and evidence-based treatment plans and approaches for identified diagnoses (e.g., individual and group therapy).
  • Drives program development and management by: planning and coordinating adjustments to current therapy programs and future program implementation (e.g., in-/out-patient psychotherapy, chemical dependency) or new programs to enhance quality and effectiveness of services; building new systems and processes for outcome management as well as overseeing the implementation of improvements to clinical treatment programs, designs, or protocols; and analyzing the productivity of large, complex therapy programs for providers and ensuring the optimal utilization of programs.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: (Core)
  • Ambiguity/Uncertainty Management
  • Attention to Detail
  • Business Knowledge
  • Communication
  • Constructive Feedback
  • Critical Thinking
  • Cross-Group Collaboration
  • Decision Making
  • Dependability
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Support
  • Drives Results
  • Facilitation Skills
  • Health Care Industry
  • Influencing Others
  • Integrity
  • Leadership
  • Learning Agility
  • Organizational Savvy
  • Problem Solving
  • Short- and Long-term Learning & Recall
  • Strategic Thinking
  • Team Building
  • Teamwork
  • Topic-Specific Communication

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: (Functional)
  • Psychological Testing
  • Acts with Compassion
  • Applied Data Analysis
  • Behavioral Health Practice Protocols and Guidelines
  • Behavioral Health Treatment
  • Business Documentation
  • Business Process Improvement
  • Clinical Consultation and Supervision
  • Clinical Quality Expertise
  • Community Engagement
  • Compliance Management
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Curriculum Development
  • Delegation
  • Financial Acumen
  • Financial Plan Budgeting
  • Health Care Compliance
  • Human Resources Policies & Regulations
  • Human Resources Practices and Programs
  • Intercultural Skills
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Legal And Regulatory Requirements
  • Medical History
  • Member Service
  • Mentoring and Coaching
  • Patient Safety
  • Presentation Skills
  • Program Development
  • Psychological Assessments and Diagnostics
  • Psychology Knowledge
  • Resource Management
  • Team Effectiveness
  • Time Management

Minimum Qualifications:
  • Minimum three (3) years of experience in a leadership role with or without direct reports.
  • Minimum four (4) years of experience in treatment planning.
  • Minimum two (2) years of facilitation and development experience of clinical groups and programs.
  • Doctorate degree in Psychology, Counseling, or Educational Psychology AND minimum two (2) years of experience in behavioral health or other relevant healthcare field.


  • Psychologist License (California) required at hire
  • National Provider Identifier required at hire

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Three (3) years of experience in psychological testing.
  • Four (4) years of experience working directly or indirectly with individuals with behavioral health conditions.
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