Vice President, Behavioral Health Strategy & Operations

Job Description

Job Description

Vice President, Behavioral Health – Program Development & Operations

Location: Orange County, CA
Salary: $175,000–$225,000 + Performance Bonus
Employment Type: Full-Time

About Salus Homecare

Salus Homecare has served Southern California families for more than 20 years. We are now expanding into behavioral health and are seeking an experienced executive to  build, launch, and grow a new behavioral health division in Orange County.

This is a  builder role—not an administrator role.

We are looking for someone who has personally taken a behavioral health program from  concept to launch to growth and knows what it takes to build the team, infrastructure, referral network, and financial model.

The Role

The Vice President will own the development and launch of Salus's behavioral health platform, including:

• Develop the business plan, service model, and financial model.
• Lead licensing, regulatory, payer, and compliance requirements.
• Build the clinical and operational leadership team.
• Establish policies, workflows, systems, and infrastructure.
• Develop referral relationships with hospitals, physicians, health systems, and community partners.
• Develop payer and managed care relationships.
• Launch the initial program and build census and revenue.
• Manage the division's P&L and operating performance.
• Scale the business once the initial model is proven.

The Ideal Candidate

You have  personally built and launched a behavioral health program or service line —not simply managed one that was already established.

You should be able to describe:

• What you built and your specific role.
• How you took it from concept to first patient.
• How you recruited the initial team.
• How you developed referral sources.
• What licensing, regulatory, or payer requirements you navigated.
• The census, revenue, and growth you achieved.
• The challenges you encountered and how you solved them.

Required

• 8+ years of progressive behavioral health leadership experience.
• Proven experience  building and launching a behavioral health program.
• Experience with behavioral health operations, staffing, referral development, and reimbursement.
• P&L or significant budget management experience.
• Strong knowledge of California behavioral health regulations and compliance.
• Strong business development and relationship-building skills.

Preferred

• Experience launching programs in California.
• Orange County/Southern California behavioral health relationships.
• Experience with outpatient mental health, IOP, PHP, community-based behavioral health, crisis services, or integrated behavioral health.
• Master's degree in a relevant field.

Why Salus?

• Build a new behavioral health division within an established healthcare company.
• Leverage Salus's 20+ years of community presence and existing infrastructure.
• Direct partnership with executive leadership.
• Significant opportunity to shape the strategy, team, culture, and growth of the division.
• $175,000–$225,000 base salary + performance bonus.
• Comprehensive benefits package.

Important

If you have primarily managed established behavioral health programs, this is probably not the right role.

If you have  built one from the ground up and know how to do it again , we want to meet you.

Application Question

Describe the behavioral health program you personally built and launched. Include the program type, your specific role, time from concept to first patient, initial staffing, and the census/revenue achieved within the first 12–24 months.