National Council for Mental Wellbeing Senior Director, Practice Improvement

Position Summary

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing is seeking a Senior Director, Practice Improvement to lead the administrative and people operations of the Practice Improvement (PI) department. This is a newly designed position that will shape how the department operates, grows, and supports its people.

As our Senior Director, you will set department-wide frameworks, structures, and standards that enable consistent supervision, effective staffing, and efficient operations across a growing, grant-funded portfolio. You will directly supervise people managers, drive organizational health and workforce stability, oversee budget and resource decisions for funded projects, and mitigate operational risk. This role operates with significant autonomy and requires expert-level judgment in management, organizational design, and matrix supervision.

You are the right fit for this role if you bring deep expertise in building and optimizing operational systems within complex, matrixed environments. You thrive in roles where you can design new ways of working rather than maintain the status quo. You have a track record of leading people managers, standardizing practices, and aligning teams to strategic priorities. You bring both the strategic mindset and the hands-on leadership to build something new.

This is a people manager role with direct reports at the Director (M4) level. While this position can be done remotely from anywhere in the U.S., you must primarily work our Washington, D.C. business hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.

Key Responsibilities

Supervisory Leadership & People Management

• Lead PIC people management by directly supervising all People Managers and setting clear accountability and supervisory expectations across the department.

• Conduct regular, structured one-on-one supervision with People Managers; establish and uphold expectations for supervision quality cascading through all management levels.

• Partner with peer senior leaders to optimize efficiency and effectiveness in a matrixed environment.

• Make autonomous decisions related to staffing, personnel matters, performance management, and departmental structure, escalating to the Vice President only where required by policy or strategic significance.

• Build a culture of psychological safety, accountability, and high performance; model inclusive leadership and empower staff at all levels.

Workforce Planning, Staffing & Talent Lifecycle

• Maintain oversight of department staffing, including headcount, roles, capacity, and coverage, to ensure operational stability across projects and initiatives.

• Partner with People Managers and Project Directors to forecast staffing needs, manage budgets, assign staff to projects, and maintain workload equity and role clarity.

• Anticipate capacity and skill gaps and implement solutions before they affect project delivery or staff wellbeing.

• Oversee hiring for the department, including role scoping, job description approval, interview participation, and final hiring recommendations.

• Standardize onboarding to ensure new hires understand expectations, workflows, and department norms and are set up for early success.

• Oversee offboarding processes that support knowledge transfer and protect project continuity.

Organizational Design & Structural Leadership

• Apply organizational design expertise to assess, refine, and evolve the departmental structure in alignment with strategic priorities, workload demands, and evolving program needs.

• Define clear spans of control, supervisory layers, and role accountabilities across People Managers and staff levels.

• Lead or co-lead organizational change initiatives within the department, including restructuring, role realignment, and team reorganization as needed.

• Develop and maintain an up-to-date departmental org chart reflecting accurate reporting relationships and role classifications.

Standardization of Departmental Practices & Procedures

• Develop and improve standard operating procedures for supervision, onboarding, performance management, communication norms, and staff development.

• Establish and maintain a Supervision Framework for the department, defining expectations for frequency, documentation,