Behavioral Health Bridge, Youth & Prevention Administrator- Community & Human Services Administrator

King County•Chinook Building 401 5th Avenue Seattle, WA

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

King County's Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), through its Behavioral Health and Recovery Division (BHRD), is seeking an executive leader to serve as the Behavioral Health Bridge, Youth & Prevention Administrator. The Behavioral Health Bridge is King County's dedicated behavioral health sales tax and one of the County's two major locally funded behavioral health investment portfolios. It funds countywide programs and services intended to address behavioral health needs, improve equitable access to care, strengthen the behavioral health system, and improve outcomes for residents. The Administrator is the senior BHRD executive accountable for the Bridge funding source and portfolio, including its strategic direction, implementation, administration, financial stewardship, performance, and long-term effectiveness. The role establishes strategic priorities, directs implementation of the Bridge Implementation Plan, makes or recommends investment and resource-allocation decisions, and ensures resources are deployed equitably and effectively toward measurable community and system outcomes. The position also provides organizational leadership to the Bridge Core Team, BHRD's Youth, Family & Prevention Section, and assigned strategic initiatives. It is accountable for the strategy, budgets, performance, workforce, and results of these functions, including programs serving children, youth, young adults, and families. The Administrator directly supervises and develops managers and leads the County's partnership with the Behavioral Health Bridge Advisory Committee, which advises the King County Executive and Council. As a member of BHRD's Executive Leadership Team and a peer executive to other BHRD Administrators, the position advises BHRD and DCHS leadership, the Executive's Office, and King County Council on behavioral health investment, policy, implementation, and system issues. It represents King County with community, provider, governmental, and regional partners and advances coordination across behavioral health funding sources and systems. The position is hybrid, with a mix of office and telecommuting work determined by business needs. The primary onsite location is Chinook, 401 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104. Employees must reside in Washington state within a reasonable distance of their King County worksite and maintain a suitable home workspace and reliable internet connection. Typical hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The position is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act and is not eligible for overtime. It is designated Mission Critical; employees may be expected to report to work or request leave during emergencies or inclement weather. The position is not represented by a union.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and five years of significant, progressively responsible senior leadership experience in behavioral health, health care, human services, public administration, or a related field, including executive or senior management responsibility for complex programs, systems, organizational functions, or public funding portfolios.
A minimum of nine years of progressively responsible experience in a related field may substitute for a bachelor's degree, provided the candidate also meets the five-year senior leadership experience requirement.
Experience supervising and holding managers and professional staff accountable for organizational, programmatic, financial, and workforce performance.
Advanced experience setting strategic direction and translating complex policy, funding, or system goals into investment strategies, implementation plans, operational priorities, and measurable outcomes.
Significant experience developing, analyzing, and managing large public-sector, behavioral health, health care, or human-services budgets and making or recommending strategic resource-allocation and investment decisions.
Experience with executive or senior-level accountability for implementation and performance of complex portfolios involving multiple programs, funding streams, contracts, partners, and stakeholders.
Ability to use financial, programmatic, performance, evaluation, and community information to assess effectiveness, manage risk, drive continuous improvement, and make strategic decisions.
Experience working with elected officials, executive leadership, public advisory bodies, boards or commissions, providers, community stakeholders, and other high-level governance and decision-making structures.
Ability to establish and sustain strategic relationships across government, behavioral health, health care, human services, providers, community organizations, and other sectors.
Knowledge of behavioral health, including youth behavioral health or human-services systems and the policy, funding, regulatory, contracting, and operational environments for publicly funded services.
Experience incorporating racial equity and social justice principles into executive leadership, organizational decision-making, program design, policy, resource allocation, and community engagement.
Advanced written and verbal communication, facilitation, negotiation, consensus-building, and presentation skills, including communicating complex information and recommendations to varied audiences.
Ability to lead through ambiguity and organizational change, manage multiple high-profile priorities, exercise sound judgment, and maintain accountability for results.
Any combination of experience, education, and training that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work.
Must reside in Washington state within a reasonable distance of the King County worksite.
Must maintain a home workspace with reliable internet and be available and responsive during scheduled work hours.

Nice To Haves

Senior or executive leadership experience within a youth-serving publicly funded behavioral health or human-services system.
Experience holding responsibility for a significant local, state, or federal funding source or a complex portfolio of publicly funded programs and investments.
Knowledge of King County's behavioral health system and its network of behavioral health, health care, human-service, community, and governmental partners.
Experience working directly with elected officials, legislative bodies, public advisory committees, or similar governance structures.
Experience leading large-scale behavioral health system planning, investment strategy, community engagement, program implementation, or system transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior executive accountable for the Behavioral Health Bridge and its countywide portfolio of behavioral health investments.
Set strategic direction and direct implementation of the Bridge Implementation Plan; establish priorities, performance expectations, and measurable outcomes.
Maintain executive accountability for portfolio performance and direct corrective action or program improvements when warranted.
Integrate Bridge investments across the behavioral health continuum and coordinate with other County, regional, state, and federal programs and initiatives.
Identify and advance investment opportunities that address system gaps, improve equitable access, strengthen service capacity and quality, and support innovation.
Lead future Bridge planning, Implementation Plan updates, legislative actions, and efforts to sustain the funding source.
Steward Bridge resources through portfolio allocation, long-range financial planning, budget development and monitoring, and investment decisions or recommendations.
Partner with BHRD finance leadership on the financial plan, forecasts, expenditures, reserves, and long-term funding strategies.
Provide executive oversight and direction for procurements, contracts, and other funding mechanisms in partnership with relevant County teams.
Ensure Bridge resources comply with legislation, Implementation Plan requirements, County policies, funding restrictions, and contractual requirements.
Partner with BHRD compliance leadership to align funded programs with compliance requirements, procedures, and quality standards and address risks.
Establish a portfolio-level performance and accountability framework, including measures, outcome monitoring, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
Use financial, programmatic, performance, evaluation, and community data to assess effectiveness and inform decisions.
Ensure transparent reporting on Bridge investments, finances, implementation, and outcomes to County leadership, the Advisory Committee, partners, and the public.
Lead King County's partnership with the Behavioral Health Bridge Advisory Committee and support its advisory role to the Executive and Council.
Ensure Advisory Committee recommendations, community perspectives, performance information, and emerging priorities inform Bridge strategy and executive decisions.
Direct high-level reports, briefings, recommendations, presentations, and decision materials about Bridge investments, implementation, finances, performance, and policy.
Advise BHRD and DCHS leadership, the Executive's Office, and King County Council on Bridge-related investment, policy, implementation, and system issues.
Build and maintain strategic relationships with elected officials, providers, community organizations, advocates, people with lived experience, government agencies, and health and human-services partners.
Ensure meaningful engagement with communities most affected by behavioral health inequities informs Bridge priorities and investment strategies.
Represent the Bridge and King County in high-level meetings, Council briefings, committees, public forums, and regional and state discussions.
Navigate politically complex issues, reconcile competing priorities, and build alignment around behavioral health strategies.
Lead the Bridge Core Team, Youth, Family & Prevention Section, and assigned strategic initiatives, with accountability for strategy, budgets, performance, workforce, and results.
Supervise, coach, and develop managers and designated leadership staff; set expectations and hold leaders accountable for organizational, programmatic, financial, and workforce performance.
Provide strategic oversight of youth and family programs in behavioral health promotion, prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery.
Ensure Youth, Family & Prevention programs funded through Bridge and other sources are aligned, effectively administered, and integrated with the broader behavioral health continuum and BHRD priorities.
Provide strategic leadership and oversight for assigned Equitable Access initiatives funded through the Bridge.
Develop and monitor strategic priorities, budgets, work plans, performance expectations, and organizational capacity with managers and program leaders.
Build effective leadership teams and foster accountability, collaboration, innovation, learning, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
Apply King County ACTIVATE values and Equity and Social Justice principles in leadership, workforce decisions, program design, investment strategy, community engagement, and performance accountability.
Contribute to BHRD-wide strategic planning, policy development, budget and resource decisions, organizational priorities, and behavioral health system transformation as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.
Collaborate across BHRD portfolios to align Bridge investments with Medicaid, BH-ASO, the Crisis Care Centers Levy, and other behavioral health strategies.
Lead and sponsor system planning and improvement across programs, funding sources, providers, and organizational boundaries.
Advise BHRD and DCHS leadership on emerging issues, community needs, policy and funding changes, investment opportunities, and system risks and priorities.
Develop relationships with providers, health care organizations, human-service systems, schools, community organizations, and local, regional, and state government partners.
Monitor behavioral health policy, funding, service-delivery trends, and promising practices and translate developments into strategic recommendations.
Represent BHRD and King County in regional and statewide behavioral health planning, policy, and investment discussions as assigned.
Champion racial equity and social justice in executive decisions, investment strategies, program design, contracting, engagement, measurement, and organizational leadership.
Work with BHRD's Chief of Administration & Staffing on workforce planning, staffing strategies, and alignment with County and DCHS processes.