Senior Nurse Director, Hospital - Regional Oncology Services & Strategic Initiatives

Job Summary

The Senior Director, Nursing Specialty Services is the senior nursing leader responsible for the strategic direction, operational oversight, and clinical integration of Kaiser Permanente Northern California's Oncology Cellular and Gene Therapy Service Line. This position provides regional leadership for the development, expansion, standardization, and sustainability of advanced oncology nursing practice.

Serving as the nursing executive accountable for specialty oncology services, the Sr. Director partners with The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG), Regional Patient Care Services (PCS), Pharmacy, Laboratory Services, Clinical Education, Quality, Clinical Informatics, and operational leaders to successfully implement and scale advanced oncology therapies including CAR-T, Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) Therapy, Gene Therapy, Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT), chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and home infusion oncology services .

This role is foundational to NCAL's strategy to internalize high-cost specialty oncology care, reduce external referral dependency, improve member access to advanced therapies, and position Kaiser Permanente Northern California as a national leader and Center of Excellence in Cellular and Gene Therapy.

This role will initially focus on the internalization and expansion of oncology and immunology services. The Senior Director will serve as the nursing dyad partner to the Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives, providing integrated clinical and operational leadership to advance specialty service line growth across the region.

Primary Responsibilities

Develop and execute the regional nursing strategy supporting Oncology Specialty Services by:

• Leading nursing strategy for Cellular Therapy, Gene Therapy, Bone Marrow Transplant, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and home infusion oncology.
• Aligning nursing operations with Regional Oncology strategic priorities.
• Establishing long-term workforce and infrastructure strategies supporting oncology growth.
• Serving as the executive nursing sponsor for oncology service expansion initiatives.
• Partnering with physician dyad leaders to establish a unified regional oncology strategy.

Service Line Growth & Program Development

Provide executive oversight for expansion of advanced oncology services by:

• Expanding chemotherapy administration capabilities across NCAL.
• Supporting regional growth of CAR-T therapy beyond existing Centers of Excellence.
• Leading operational readiness for TIL implementation.
• Supporting Gene Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplant expansion.
• Developing nursing infrastructure for future oncology innovations.
• Increasing member access to advanced therapies closer to home.
• Positioning NCAL as the enterprise destination for specialty oncology care.

Workforce Strategy & Professional Development

Lead development of a sustainable specialty oncology nursing workforce through:

• Regional onboarding programs.
• Oncology fellowship development.
• Specialty career pathways.
• Competency management.
• Annual competency validation.
• Succession planning.
• Oncology certification support.
• Professional development programs.
• Communities of practice.

Quality, Safety & Regulatory Leadership

Provide executive oversight for

• FACT accreditation readiness.
• FDA compliance.
• Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) standards.
• Regional Quality Improvement initiatives.
• Cellular therapy safety.
• Chemotherapy safety.
• Medication safety.
• Clinical competency validation.
• Evidence-based practice implementation.
• Regulatory compliance with FACT, FDA, QHIC, CAC, and CIC requirements.

In addition to the responsibilities below, this position is also responsible for proactively establishing best practice models; performing strategic planning and designing long-term patient care delivery systems and practice standards in several locations; leading the investigation of patient/family/member concerns regarding patient care and services; forming strategic partnerships with physicians, outside healthcare providers, and other health care team members to achieve optimal and safe patient care across the continuum; forecasting resource needs in clinical areas to ensure appropriate assignment and utilization; evaluating the use and maintenance of equipment, supplies and medications; assuming accountability for patient and employee safety; maintaining clinical expertise, providing clinical supervision, competency and licensing necessary to fulfill job responsibilities and to direct the provision of care in the unit; delegating tasks and duties that are aligned to scope of practice; and performing clinical duties as required. Collaborates with Nursing Clinical Practice to ensure assistants and staff provide the highest quality of care and are in compliance with the Nursing Practice Act, The Joint Commission, federal, state, and local requirements.

Essential Responsibilities

• Builds organizational capacity and prepares high potentials for growth opportunities and advancement; builds collaborative networks inside and outside the organization for self and others. Provides framework for soliciting and acting on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Models and drives continuous learning and oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; stays current with industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Acts as a thought leader on industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; shares best practices within and across teams to drive improvement. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning cross-functional resource plans with business objectives. Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact across teams.
• Oversees the operation of multiple units and/or departments by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment allocation and completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and/or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Engages strategic, cross-functional business units to champion and drive support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and ensures resolution of escalated issues. Sets and communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; obtains and distributes resources. Anticipates and removes obstacles that impact performance; addresses performance gaps and implements contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives; serves as a subject-matter expert and trusted source to executive leadership; provides influence and consultation in the development of the larger organizational or business strategy.
• Directs hospital administrative functions to support patient care by: anticipating business issues and barriers and providing recommendations while overseeing the development of strategies with stakeholders to identify factors contributing to business value; aligning workflow and performance targets across departments and across KP, and assuming accountability for department performance targets; optimizing and prioritizing operational initiatives and strategies related to departmental or program goals, objectives, and/or outcomes; partnering with internal and external stakeholders to identify areas of improvement and alleviate potential barriers to the implementation of cross-functional programs including workplace and patient safety, human resources (e.g., recruitment, selection, promoting active recruitment, performance evaluation and management), labor relations, training and development, and risk management issues; forecasting and establishing long-term survey readiness activities including mock rounds and mitigating issues to maintain compliance and regulatory standards, and defining standards for audit documentation, information, and reports; and ensuring short and long-range financial goals are met by establishing and controlling the department budget, and ensuring overall financial performance meets expectations.
• Manages care delivery operations and programs within a twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operational environment by: leveraging enterprise interdependencies across multiple programs and/or program work streams to align key care delivery initiatives across KP; assuming accountability for short- and long-term results and performance while ensuring guideline and regulation alignment; building relationships with key leaders internal and external to KP to develop and implement patient management solutions; forecasting and aligning resources in hospital areas to ensure appropriate assignment and utilization; overseeing multidisciplinary hospital leaders and service lines; planning the long-term strategic goals of emergency preparedness programs; ensuring the enterprises emergency preparedness and recovery plans are up to standards, ensuring managers and staff are trained and understand expectations for during and after an emergency; providing strategic direction to project teams leading initiatives and overseeing implementation, equitable distribution of resources, and delivery on objectives; assuming accountability for teams responsible for the delivery of nursing services and patient care within a twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operational environment in alignment with cost, quality, and clinical and utilization standards; and defining and maintaining oversight and communication at the enterprise level.
• Oversees improvements to operations and technology processes by: forecasting and determining the direction of future strategic projects, providing oversight for multiple internal and external strategic projects designed to remediate issues and improve quality, service, affordability, and/or operating efficiency; using broad trends from analysis across operations processes to identify new practices to optimize the performance of operations system processes and address quality and safety issues; overseeing the development and implementation of strategic plans with the goal of achieving integrated services across the continuum of care in alignment with long-term enterprise-wide goals; and consulting with executive management for the effective integration of performance metrics to monitor the success of strategic improvement projects across the organization.
• Ensures safe, quality, and standardized care delivery within a twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operational environment by: overseeing the development and implementation of strategies to ensure the continuous improvement of the quality and safety of clinical practices, services, and operations for patients and staff; holding departments accountable cross-functionally for maintaining compliance with legal and regulatory requirements (e.g., Nursing Practice Act, The Joint Commission [TJC], federal, state, and local requirements) updated by governmental and regulatory agencies; and creating a long-term vision for systems, processes, and methods to evaluate and improve patient care within assigned department and across the continuum of care.