Head of Specialty Therapeutics

LifeStance Health•New York City, NY

About The Position

The Head of Specialty Therapeutics serves as a clinical authority on neuromodulation and emerging pharmacotherapies, including esketamine, ketamine, and psychedelic-assisted therapies. The role advances specialty and interventional psychiatric therapeutics by developing protocols, training, quality standards, and outcome measures, with the goal of establishing LifeStance as a national leader in interventional psychiatry. Success means building safe, evidence-based, responsibly scaled programs that improve patient outcomes and align with enterprise clinical and operational priorities. The position independently leads specialty therapeutic strategy, clinical standards, program design, and outcome-measurement recommendations under strategic direction from the Senior Leader, Psychiatric Excellence & Emerging Therapeutics. It makes day-to-day decisions concerning protocol development, provider education, quality monitoring, evidence review, and program improvement. Escalation or input is required for higher-risk interventions, regulatory or patient-safety concerns, significant investments, operational expansion, vendor selection, and enterprise-wide policy decisions. The role may supervise direct reports or contractors as programs scale and provides functional leadership to clinical workgroups, specialty program teams, and cross-functional implementation partners. It collaborates across clinical, operational, quality, research, finance, legal, and compliance functions. LifeStance is a national outpatient mental healthcare provider offering in-person clinic services and digital health telemedicine. The position requires sitting, standing, bending, talking, hearing, walking, and lifting or moving objects up to 25 pounds. Compensation is $252,000–$315,000 annually, in addition to a competitive bonus plan and potential equity.

Requirements

MD or DO with board certification in Psychiatry.
Active, unrestricted medical license and ability to maintain appropriate licensure requirements.
10 or more years of psychiatric clinical experience, including experience with specialty, interventional, or advanced psychiatric treatment modalities.
Demonstrated ability to develop clinical protocols, care pathways, safety standards, training models, or program governance structures.
Strong understanding of clinical evidence review, patient safety, risk management, regulatory considerations, and standards of care for specialty therapeutics.
Ability to influence clinical and operational leaders across a complex, matrixed organization.
Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and executive communication skills.
Legally authorized to be employed in the United States.
Awareness, inclusivity, sensitivity, humility, and experience working with people from diverse ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, sexual orientations, gender identities, and other aspects of culture.
Ability to perform the stated physical functions, including lifting or moving objects up to 25 pounds; reasonable accommodation may be available.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing, leading, or scaling specialty psychiatric treatment programs such as TMS, ketamine/esketamine, or other advanced therapeutic modalities.
Clinical research, evidence-generation, or outcomes-evaluation experience.
Experience in large multi-site, multi-state, or enterprise healthcare organizations.
Experience partnering with academic, research, vendor, or specialty treatment organizations.

Responsibilities

Design and implement an enterprise interventional psychiatry strategy encompassing TMS, including rapid protocols, emerging pharmacotherapies, and neuromodulation modalities.
Lead clinical program development for psychedelic-assisted therapies, including psilocybin, MDMA, and other emerging agents, in alignment with current and future FDA guidance and DEA requirements.
Evaluate emerging specialty treatments based on evidence, regulatory requirements, safety, operational feasibility, and patient need.
Monitor and synthesize emerging interventional psychiatry literature to inform strategy and competitive positioning.
Develop clinical protocols, eligibility criteria, care pathways, quality standards, and safety-monitoring expectations for specialty therapeutic programs.
Oversee implementation, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement of specialty therapeutic services across applicable markets and care settings.
Oversee training and credentialing standards for clinicians delivering interventional therapies, including structured psychotherapy integration as required by emerging FDA guidance.
Partner with Medical Leadership, Clinical Operations, Quality, Research, and Finance to ensure programs are clinically sound, operationally feasible, and responsibly governed.
Partner with legal, compliance, and operations to address DEA Schedule I licensing if necessary, REMS requirements, and state regulatory variation.
Collaborate with the Director of Emerging and Digital Therapeutics on data collection and outcomes-measurement frameworks.
Monitor outcomes, adverse events, utilization trends, patient experience, and effectiveness measures to guide program improvement and scaling decisions.
Build relationships with academic institutions, research organizations, specialty therapy centers, and external experts to inform clinical strategy and evidence generation.
Provide functional leadership to clinical workgroups, specialty program teams, and cross-functional implementation partners; potentially supervise direct reports or contractors as programs scale.
Support LifeStance’s mission and values, including participating in projects and performing related functions that may not be specifically outlined in the job description.