[Hiring] Associate Director, Care Advocacy Behavioral Health Solutions @UnitedHealth Group

Role Description

The Associate Director, Care Advocacy provides strategic and operational leadership for behavioral health care advocacy, navigation, and member support programs, with direct leadership responsibility for Elite and Premier. This leader is accountable for the performance, quality, service delivery, workforce management, and operational outcomes of Care Advocacy teams serving commercial, government, and specialty behavioral health populations.

The role collaborates closely with clinical, operations, product, network, technology, compliance, quality, client management, and finance partners to advance operational excellence, regulatory compliance, member engagement, and behavioral health outcomes. The Associate Director leads managers and professional staff and translates organizational strategy into disciplined execution that supports growth, transformation, affordability, quality, and an exceptional member experience.

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely from anywhere within the U.S. but will require minimal travel.

Primary Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership
  • Provide strategic and operational leadership for Care Advocacy, Navigation, EAP, and/or Behavioral Health teams.
  • Drive performance against service level, accessibility, productivity, quality, and member satisfaction objectives.
  • Ensure operational readiness for new clients, products, programs, and implementations.
  • Maintain accountability for day-to-day operations, escalations, and timely issue resolution.
  • Champion continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen efficiency, effectiveness, and member outcomes.
• People Leadership
  • Lead and develop managers, supervisors, and senior professional staff.
  • Build leadership capability and maintain robust succession plans.
  • Advance employee engagement, retention, and professional development.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and inclusion.
  • Guide workforce planning and staffing strategies to align capacity with business demand.
• Behavioral Health Strategy
  • Translate enterprise and business-segment priorities into actionable operational plans.
  • Partner with senior leadership to advance behavioral health transformation initiatives.
  • Support strategic growth opportunities and the implementation of new service models.
  • Identify and evaluate opportunities to improve member access, engagement, and clinical outcomes.
  • Strengthen integration across clinical and non-clinical member support services.
• Client and Stakeholder Engagement
  • Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to deliver on client commitments and business objectives.
  • Represent operations in client meetings, operational reviews, audits, and performance discussions.
  • Deliver executive-level reporting, insights, and recommendations.
  • Cultivate strong cross-functional partnerships to accelerate decision-making and results.
• Performance and Analytics
  • Leverage operational dashboards, analytics, and reporting to identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
  • Monitor and improve key performance indicators, including:
    • Service Level
    • Speed to Answer
    • Abandonment Rate
    • Occupancy
    • Productivity
    • Quality Scores
    • Clinical Outcomes
    • Member Satisfaction
    • Net Promoter Scores
    • Utilization and Engagement Metrics
  • Apply data-driven insights to inform decisions and advance operational performance.
• Quality, Compliance, and Regulatory Oversight
  • Ensure adherence to behavioral health policies, accreditation standards, and applicable regulatory requirements.
  • Maintain operational readiness for audits, accreditation activities, and compliance reviews.
  • Partner with Legal, Compliance, Quality, and Clinical teams to develop and execute corrective action plans.
  • Ensure compliance with applicable state and federal requirements and behavioral health program standards.
• Transformation and Innovation
  • Lead the implementation of new processes, technology solutions, and operating models.
  • Advance digital transformation and AI-enabled solutions that enhance member experience and operational efficiency.
  • Promote adoption of innovative approaches to behavioral health navigation and care advocacy.
  • Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives across Behavioral Health Solutions.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Nursing, Social Work, Psychology, or a related field.
• Clinical licensure (LCSW, LPC, LMFT, RN, Psychologist, or equivalent).
• 3+ years of leadership experience managing leaders, supervisors, or professional staff.
• Behavioral health industry experience.
• Experience leading healthcare, care advocacy, case management, behavioral health, navigation, EAP, customer service, or clinical operations teams.
• Demonstrated experience managing operational performance metrics and workforce planning.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale operational initiatives and organizational change.
• Solid analytical, communication, presentation, and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Ability to travel as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting large employer, commercial, government, or specialty behavioral health programs.
• Experience with contact center operations, navigation models, care management, and clinical operations.
• Experience leading transformation, automation, AI, or digital health initiatives.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package.
• Incentive and recognition programs.
• Equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements).

Application Deadline

This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.