Senior Director, Clinical Practice & Therapeutic Standards

ROLE OVERVIEW

The Senior Director, Clinical Practice & Therapeutic Standards is responsible for advancing enterprise clinical practice standards, therapeutic competency frameworks, and evidence-based care strategies that support consistent, high-quality care across LifeStance service lines. This role develops scalable standards, training frameworks, and clinical practice resources by partnering with Clinical Operations, Learning & Development, Measurement-Based Care, Research, and clinical leadership. Success looks like enterprise-wide adoption of evidence-based practice expectations, reduced unwarranted variation in care delivery, strengthened clinician capability, and measurable improvement in quality, fidelity, and outcomes.

Consistent with LifeStance’s values, every member of the LifeStance team is expected to support each other and the mission, which may mean participating in projects and initiatives and performing functions and responsibilities not specifically outlined in this job description. Leaders at LifeStance are expected to foster a commitment to the organization’s values.

Consistent with LifeStance’s values, every member of the LifeStance team is expected to support each other and the mission, which may mean participating in projects and initiatives and performing functions and responsibilities not specifically outlined in this job description.

KEY RESPONSIBILITES 

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of the major duties and responsibilities performed by employees in this job. Employees may be requested to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.

Clinical Practice Standards & Practice Performance Improvement

• Define and continuously improve enterprise therapy frameworks and clinical practice standards aligned with evidence-based care, patient populations, service lines, and organizational priorities.

• Develop and maintain clinician competency frameworks across therapeutic modalities, specialties, and care models.

• Drive consistent adoption of evidence-based practices through standardized resources, training, implementation support, and alignment with clinical leadership.

• Leverage research, outcomes data, measurement-based care insights, and performance metrics to identify care improvement opportunities, reduce variation, and enhance the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of care delivery.

Education, Training & Professional Development

• Support the development of training, education, implementation, and certification resources related to evidence-based practice, specialty care, outcomes-informed treatment, and therapeutic competency development.

• Partner with Learning & Development to design scalable onboarding, continuing education, and advanced learning pathways aligned to clinical competency expectations and evolving clinical needs.

• Foster professional growth through advanced learning opportunities, consultation, and mentorship for clinical leaders.

• Support leadership development initiatives that strengthen clinical supervision, clinical excellence, and organizational performance.

Research, Innovation & Thought Leadership

• Partner with Research teams to support outcomes studies, publications, presentations, and scholarly activities that advance understanding of treatment effectiveness.

• Collaborate with Information Technology and external partners to evaluate emerging therapeutic models and innovative tools that enhance clinical capability, therapeutic fidelity, and clinical insight.

• Serve as a clinical thought leader through participation in professional conferences, speaking engagements, industry collaborations, and external partnerships.

Scope, Decision-Making & Impact

• Establishes enterprise-level standards and frameworks that influence clinical practice expectations across multiple service lines, specialties, and care models.

• Makes recommendations related to clinical practice standards, therapeutic competency expectations, training priorities, and implementation approaches.

• Partners cross-functionally to ensure clinical standards are practical, scalable, evidence-informed, and aligned with operational workflows and organizational priorities.

• Supports patient care quality and clinician effectiveness by translating evidence, outcomes, and emerging best practices into clear standards and development pathways.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This role may lead or mentor project teams, clinical workgroups, consultants, or matrixed collaborators depending on assigned initiatives. Direct supervisory responsibilities, if any, will be determined based on final organizational design.

REQUIREMENTS

• Advanced clinical degree, such as Clinical Psychology PhD, PsyD, or equivalent clinical training and experience.

• 8–10+ years of experience in clinical leadership, clinical training, supervision, psychotherapy practice standards, program development, or related behavioral health leadership roles.

• Demonstrated expertise in evidence-based psychotherapy modalities, such as CBT, DBT, trauma-informed care, exposure-based treatments, or other evidence-based therapeutic approaches.

• Experience designing, implementing, or scaling clinical training, competency, certification, or professional development programs.

• Strong ability to translate clinical evidence, outcomes data, and best practices into scalable practice standards, clinical resources, and training frameworks.

• Experience working with clinical operations or cross-functional teams to support implementation of care models, clinical standards, or practice improvement initiatives.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly with clinical, operational, executive, and external audiences.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across matrixed teams and influence stakeholders without direct authority.

• Qualified candidates must be legally authorized to be employed in the United States

• LifeStance is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

• Demonstrates awareness, inclusivity, sensitivity, humility, and experience in working with individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, sexual orientations, gender identities, and other various aspects of culture.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

• Experience working in a large, multi-site, multi-state behavioral health, outpatient mental health, or healthcare delivery organization.

• Experience working with measurement-based care, outcomes data, fidelity monitoring, or quality improvement initiatives.

• Familiarity with implementation science, behavior change frameworks, or clinical adoption strategies.

• Experience supporting scholarly activities, publications, conference presentations, or external thought leadership.

• Experience developing or mentoring clinical leaders, supervisors, or advanced practice communities.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, bend, talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to walk. The employee must be able to lift and/or move objects up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

• This role is primarily performed in a remote office or similar indoor environment, requiring reliable internet access and a quiet, distraction-free, dedicated workspace appropriate for confidential work. Work involves extended periods of sitting, frequent computer use, audio/video calls, meetings, writing, content review, and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.

• Travel may be required periodically for enterprise meetings, clinical leadership discussions, conferences, implementation activities, or operational engagement.