Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. ForwardCare provides infrastructure for a growing network of PHP and IOP mental health programs. The Clinical Director will lead the virtual Texas program by creating its clinical vision and curriculum, managing and training clinicians, overseeing utilization and quality, and shaping the company’s AI-native clinical technology.
Responsibilities
- Author the clinical vision for the program: the philosophy of care, the treatment model, and the standard we hold ourselves to
- Own the clinical curriculum for PHP and IOP levels of care: group content, session sequencing, evidence-based modality mix, and family involvement
- Evaluate and pilot emerging or adjunctive modalities where the evidence and patient population support it, with defined inclusion criteria, consent, and outcome measurement
- Establish and maintain admission, continued-stay, and discharge criteria consistent with ASAM/LOCUS and payer medical necessity standards
- Lead weekly treatment team, chart the course for complex and high-acuity cases, and serve as the clinical escalation point for risk and safety decisions
- Recruit, onboard, supervise, and develop primary therapists, group facilitators, case managers, and intake staff
- Build and run the clinician training program: onboarding curriculum, modality-specific training, and ongoing competency development for the full clinical team
- Provide individual and group clinical supervision; support supervisees pursuing full licensure where applicable
- Identify skill gaps across the team and close them through targeted training, case consultation, and CEU planning
- Run a regular audit and feedback loop on group quality, documentation, and clinical outcomes, and coach to it rather than just report on it
- Partner with intake and business development to maintain healthy census and appropriate admissions
- Own utilization review in partnership with ForwardCare's UR team: authorizations, concurrent reviews, appeals, and peer-to-peers
- Ensure documentation meets payer and accreditation standards, with completion inside required timelines
- Lead QAPI: track outcome measures, incident reporting, grievances, and performance improvement initiatives
- Serve as clinical lead for Joint Commission accreditation readiness and any HHSC survey activity
- Maintain program compliance with Texas HHSC requirements, HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2 (where applicable), and payer contract obligations
- Work alongside ForwardCare's platform team on EHR workflows, quality standards, and operational tooling, while retaining independent clinical judgment over how care is delivered
- Serve as a design partner on ForwardCare's AI-native clinical stack: shape documentation workflows, risk-detection logic, and outcome dashboards, and pressure-test new features against real clinical reality before they ship to the network
Skills
- • Master's degree or doctorate in a clinical mental health discipline
- • Active, unrestricted Texas license: LCSW, LPC, LMFT, Licensed Psychologist, or PMHNP
- • 5+ years post-licensure with meaningful time at the PHP, IOP, or residential level of care, including 2+ years supervising clinical staff
- • Telehealth experience, including running clinical groups over video
- • Fluency across multiple evidence-based modalities (DBT, CBT, ACT, EMDR, MI, IFS, trauma-focused), and the judgment to match modality to patient rather than to habit
- • Breadth across populations, levels of care, and orientations, with a mixed diagnostic caseload
- • Evidence you've designed something, not just delivered it: a curriculum you wrote, a track you launched, a protocol you rebuilt
- • Working knowledge of medical necessity criteria, utilization review, and payer documentation standards
- • You have a point of view about what good care looks like, and you can articulate it well enough that a team can follow it
- • You've been in the field long enough to know which conventions exist for good reason and which ones nobody has questioned in twenty years
- • You hold a high clinical bar and can hold others to it without making them dread the conversation
- • You are as comfortable in a chart audit as you are in a crisis
- • You think in systems. You'd rather fix the intake workflow than personally rescue the same case twice
- • You're curious by default. You read the new research, you notice when a protocol stops working, and your instinct is to try something rather than shrug
- • You hold curiosity and caution at the same time. Innovation in mental health care is only worth doing if it's done safely
- • You want ownership. Early-stage programs are messy, and you find that energizing rather than alarming
- • A diverse clinical background across specialty populations: perinatal and maternal mental health, eating disorders, trauma, co-occurring SUD. Certifications like PMH-C a plus
- • Opening or scaling a new PHP/IOP program from the ground up
- • A track record of piloting something new clinically and measuring whether it worked
- • Texas LPC-S, LCSW-S, or equivalent supervisory designation
- • Joint Commission or CARF accreditation experience
- • Adolescents and families alongside adults
- • Real interest in clinical technology: you've shaped an EHR, built your own outcome tracking, or have opinions about where AI helps clinicians and where it doesn't
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision benefits
- 401(k) with match
- Paid time off
Company Overview