The posting
The Problem
Severe mental illness affects over 15 million adults in the United States. Schizophrenia. Schizoaffective disorder. Bipolar I. Treatment-resistant depression. These are the conditions the rest of healthcare has systematically failed to build for.
What makes this problem different from most of healthcare is that the tools to solve it do not exist. The clinical protocols, the measurement science, the precision medicine, the technology to deliver coordinated longitudinal outpatient care for this population. None of it has been built. This is a frontier problem, and it requires frontier science and care delivery to solve.
We are developing all of it. The care, the science, the technology.
The Problem
Severe mental illness affects over 15 million adults in the United States. Schizophrenia. Schizoaffective disorder. Bipolar I. Treatment-resistant depression. These are the conditions the rest of healthcare has systematically failed to build for.
What makes this problem different from most of healthcare is that the tools to solve it do not exist. The clinical protocols, the measurement science, the precision medicine, the technology to deliver coordinated longitudinal outpatient care for this population. None of it has been built. This is a frontier problem, and it requires frontier science and care delivery to solve.
We are developing all of it. The care, the science, the technology.
Who We Are
Amae Health is a Series B, venture-backed Public Benefit Corporation that delivers specialty outpatient care for people living with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar I disorder, and treatment-resistant depression. We design and operate high-acuity, in-person clinics across the United States.
Our model integrates psychiatry, therapy, primary care, dietitians, and community health workers under one roof to deliver coordinated, longitudinal care for a population that has historically been fragmented across systems.
Leading health systems collaborate with Amae to bring this model to their communities, including NewYork-Presbyterian, Cedars-Sinai, Mass General Brigham, Novant Health, and CommonSpirit Health.
Why We Are Different
- Integrated care, not a referral network. Psychiatrists, therapists, primary care providers, dietitians, and community health workers work side-by-side and share responsibility for the same patients.
- Practice at the top of your license. Manageable caseloads, meaningful clinical depth, and purpose-built tools designed for this population.
- Continuous learning. Through our collaboration with Mass General Brigham, clinicians receive ongoing training, supervision, and mentorship in evidence-based SMI care.
- Advancing the field. Our clinicians contribute to new outcomes frameworks and research shaping the future of severe mental illness care.
- A model built for sustainability. Team-based care, thoughtful caseloads, and strong infrastructure make this work meaningful—and sustainable over time.
About the role
The Virtual Clinical Director is the clinical leader of Amae's virtual IOP program. You own the quality, safety, and consistency of care delivered across weekly cohorts, and you lead the therapists, psychiatric NPs, intake clinicians, care coordinators, and health coaches who deliver it. You partner with the General Manager on daily operations, curriculum setting, launch, growth, and provider readiness, and you set the clinical standard that gets replicated as the program expands to additional states.
What you'll do
Clinical leadership and quality
- Lead day-to-day clinical operations of the virtual IOP, including cohort scheduling, curriculum delivery, and support level-of-care decisions.
- Own clinical protocols for intake, risk and safety assessment, crisis response, step-up/step-down, and discharge planning.
- Develop new group curriculum to expand Amae’s modalities and quality of care
- Review treatment plans and documentation; run regular chart audits and report on quality metrics (attendance, retention, completion, symptom change such as PHQ-9 and GAD-7, safety events).
- Lead case consultation and multidisciplinary huddles with therapists, psychiatric prescribers, dietitian, health coaches, and care coordinators.
- Maintain a clinical caseload or group coverage as needed
People leadership
- Hire, onboard, supervise, and develop clinical staff
- Provide clinical supervision for pre-licensed associates in California where eligible.
- Delegate caseloads to meet clinical and business utilization targets
- Set expectations for group facilitation quality; observe sessions and give feedback.
- Build a culture of clinical rigor, psychological safety, and caseload management for a fully virtual team.
Compliance and regulatory readiness
- Ensure services meet California licensure, telehealth, and informed-consent requirements and applicable payer standards.
- Lead readiness for facility accreditation (Joint Commission) and member verification of benefits in partnership with Operations and Revenue Cycle teams.
- Maintain policies and procedures for crisis management, mandated reporting, member rights, and privacy
Program growth and expansion
- Partner with the General Manager on state-expansion planning, including state-specific clinical and licensure requirements.
- Support referral partner relationships (health systems, community providers, payers) from a clinical credibility standpoint.
- Contribute to outcomes measurement and reporting
Availability
- Participate in clinical escalation and on-call rotation for safety concerns during program hours
What you'll bring
- Unrestricted California license as a Psychologist, LCSW, LMFT, or LPCC. Eligibility to supervise associates in California strongly preferred.
- 5+ years of clinical experience, including 2+ years in a leadership or supervisory role in an IOP, PHP, outpatient, or inpatient behavioral health setting.
- Strong clinical command of depression and anxiety disorders and evidence-based group treatment (CBT, DBT skills, behavioral activation, ACT).
- Experience with telehealth delivery, virtual risk management, and group-based programming.
- Working knowledge of quality, compliance, and accreditation standards (CARF/Joint Commission) and payer documentation requirements.
- Comfort with data: you use outcomes and operational metrics to drive decisions.
- Strong communication, coaching, and negotiation skills; a collaborative, mission-driven style.
- Familiarity with California's mental health and social service systems and member rights (preferred).
- Experience launching or scaling a program or clinic (preferred).
Compensation & benefits
Amae Health is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The salary band for this role is $130,000-150,000. Pay will be adjusted to market, licensure, and experience.
Benefit packages (comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, parental leave, programs built around well-being) will be available for employees working 24+ hours/week. We'll share specifics during the interview process.
If you want to practice at the top of your license, learn from the best in academic medicine, contribute to research that is defining a new field, and do it all inside a team that was actually built for this work, we'd like to talk.
What We Value
- We center care in all we do. Empathy is not a brand value. It’s how we make clinical decisions, build products, and treat each other.
- We challenge convention. The existing system is the problem. We question it, we test alternatives, and we move with urgency when something works.
- We take the work seriously, not ourselves. High standards and humanity are not in tension. We hold a hard bar for quality while leaving room for humor and levity.
- Your job isn’t done until the job is done. We close gaps, we follow through, and we don’t hide behind titles or org charts.
- We win together and fail together. We own outcomes as a team. We learn fast. We don’t do blame.
- We hustle with humility. Speed matters. So does integrity. We assume best intent and stay grounded in the mission.
