Lead Board Certified Behavior Analyst (Lead BCBA) Pediatric ABA Lincolnwood, IL

Lead Board Certified Behavior Analyst (Lead BCBA) Pediatric ABA Lincolnwood, IL

Lincolnwood, Illinois, United States

You already know what a BCBA job looks like. What's harder to learn from a posting is what happens when you're ready to have a bigger impact on your clients, your team, and the center around you.

The Lead BCBA role is for someone who wants to stay deeply connected to clinical work while taking on more leadership, mentorship, and ownership. You'll continue managing your own clients and making clinical decisions, while also helping develop BCBAs and RBTs, supporting families, contributing to center growth, and using data to help your center perform at its best.

Who sets the clinical bar.

Our VP of Clinical Quality and Training, Liza Bodner, led the team that built the Gracent Care Calculator: a peer-reviewed clinical tool that recommends treatment intensity based on the child, not a default. We presented it at CASP 2026 in Las Vegas, then made it free to the entire field (gracentcares.com/care-calculator). What that means for you: you don't have to advocate for good practice here. You just practice and help the clinicians around you do the same. As a Lead BCBA, you'll be a clinical resource for your team. You'll help newer BCBAs think through challenging cases, mentor RBTs and BCBA students, support onboarding and training, and partner with your Area Director to maintain a high clinical standard across the center.

How you'll keep growing.

This isn't a role where you trade your caseload for meetings.

You'll maintain direct clinical accountability while taking on additional responsibility for the people and the center around you. You'll conduct assessments, develop treatment plans, provide parent training, supervise RBTs/BTs, and continue doing the clinical work you enjoy.

At the same time, you'll help with hiring, mentor and onboard clinicians, support family tours and community outreach, and use data to identify opportunities to improve center performance.

For strong performers, this role can be a path toward Clinical Director. It can also open opportunities to support new center development, growing centers, high-capacity Clinical Directors, or provide leadership coverage when another center needs additional support.

At a glance

• Caseload: 68 clients 1620% supervision built into your week ~28 billable hours
• Pay: $86K$110K incl. bonuses. Plus $50/billable hour over 30, paid biweekly
• Schedule: Full-time. A midday appointment doesn't cost you PTO
• Time off & benefits: 25+ days off year one 75% company-paid medical/dental/vision 401(k) match $500 PD stipend free in-house CEUs (BACB ACE Provider)
• Setting: In-person, Lincolnwood, IL

How it actually works, the full picture

Progress you can prove.

We don't just say a child is improving; we measure it and make it visible. Our STEP Score, family Report Cards, and other outcome tools give teams a shared view of progress so clinical decisions are backed by data and families can see meaningful movement.

You'll also use Power BI data to identify opportunities within your center from makeups and unconverted hours to follow-ups and overall schedule performance.

One child, one plan, many minds. BCBAs, SLPs, OTs, PTs, and mental health providers work the same cases, often co-treating, so a child's plan reflects the whole picture, not parallel services that never speak. As a Lead BCBA, you'll help model what strong interdisciplinary collaboration looks like and encourage the clinicians around you to use the full expertise of the team.

A real bridge to the classroom. Our half-day Prep School supports children working toward a traditional classroom who still need 1:1 support. Your clinical work connects to a concrete next step in a child's life, inside a model most providers simply don't have.

Support the center beyond your caseload. Being a Lead BCBA means thinking about more than the clients on your schedule. You'll help identify opportunities to improve center operations, support makeups and unconverted hours, participate in family tours, and represent Gracent in marketing and community outreach efforts. You'll work alongside your Area Director to make sure families have a great experience from their first interaction with the center through their child's ongoing care.

How your schedule actually works. Full-time, part-time, or reduced schedule, built around your life. A midday appointment doesn't cost you PTO; you work around it.

What you'll do

• Maintain direct clinical accountability by conducting assessments, developing treatment plans, providing parent training, and supervising RBTs/BTs.
• Provide clinical mentorship and support to BCBAs and RBTs.
• Mentor and onboard newer BCBAs and support their continued clinical development.
• Assist with hiring and help build a strong clinical team.
• Partner with the Area Director on clinical quality, team development, and center priorities.
• Use Power BI data to identify opportunities around makeups, unconverted hours, follow-ups, and center performance.
• Support marketing, community outreach, and family tours.
• Partner with families and help ensure a positive experience throughout their child's care.
• Collaborate with SLPs, OTs, PTs, and mental health providers to provide truly interdisciplinary care.
• Support new center development, high-capacity centers, or other centers when additional clinical leadership is needed.

What you'll work with

• Standardized assessments: ABLLS-R, VB-MAPP, AFLS, PEAK, Vineland
• FBAs and BIPs built around the child
• Skill-acquisition programming across communication, social, adaptive, and academic domains
• The Care Calculator and our outcome-measurement tools (STEP Score, Report Cards)
• Parent and caregiver training as a core part of every plan
• A clinical leadership team invested in your development

What you bring

• BCBA certification, licensed in IL and in good standing
• Strong clinical judgment and clear, proactive communication
• A genuine interest in mentoring and developing other clinicians
• Minimum 2 years of applied experience as a BCBA
• Ability to perform essential functions such as sitting, standing, bending, and occasionally lifting up to 45 lbs. Reasonable accommodations may be made.

What it pays. What it includes.

• Competitive base, plus a $50/hour bonus for billable hours above 29/week, paid biweekly
• Medical, dental, and vision for you and your family (75% company-paid)
• 25+ days off in your first year, including PTO and 7 paid holidays
• 401(k) with company match
• $500 annual Professional Development stipend and free in-house CEUs as a BACB ACE Provider

Pressure test us.

Clinical autonomy, built-in supervision time, true interdisciplinary collaboration, real mentorship. That's what you'll actually decide on. If anything here sounds too good, or doesn't match what you're hearing elsewhere, ask us in the interview. We're genuinely open to talking it through.