THE ROLE
This is not a supervisory role in the traditional sense. The National Director of Mental Health Clinical Excellence Clinical Excellence is a senior leadership position responsible for defining, building, and driving Thrive's national standard of practice across school psychology and educational diagnostics. You are not managing a single region. You are setting the clinical bar that every Thrive school psychologist is measured against, in every school, in every state, across every market we operate or will operate.
Reporting to the Chief Clinical Officer, you will lead and develop the layer of Clinical Supervisors who deliver high-touch supervision to pre-licensed LCSWs, clinical social work residents, and tiered providers across our regional markets. They are the coaches on the ground. You are the one who decides what they are coaching toward. You build the playbook. You establish the benchmarks. You define what excellent clinical mental health practice looks like at Thrive nationally, and you make sure it holds consistently across a footprint that spans the country and is growing by the month.
Because we own our clinical platform, you will also serve as a primary clinical voice in the evolution of Thrive Clinical, partnering closely with product and engineering to shape how the platform measures, supports, and accelerates excellent mental health care. This is not a courtesy seat at the table. You will own clinical requirements for defined areas of the product roadmap.
This role requires approximately 50% travel across Thrive's national markets, concentrated around summer intensives, site launches, supervisor onboarding, and targeted in-person work with partner districts. The work happens in schools, in districts, and alongside the teams delivering care across the country.
WHO YOU ARE
A fully licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with deep credibility in clinical diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, and school-based or pediatric mental health, and the humility to lead a national clinical team across diverse populations and settings
A clinical leader who has already managed clinicians across multiple sites or multiple states, and who is ready to take a national footprint as the next logical scope
A standard-setter who thinks in systems: you see a gap in diagnostic practice and your first instinct is to build the protocol, the supervision framework, or the dashboard that closes it permanently — and you can show us the artifacts of work you have already done at this scope
Fluent across evidence-based treatment modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), trauma-informed care frameworks (TF-CBT, EMDR-informed practice), motivational interviewing, and strength-based and culturally responsive approaches — and you know how to teach clinicians to implement them with fidelity in school environments
Data-fluent and outcomes-oriented: you measure success in accurate identifications, appropriate placements, compliance rates, supervisor performance, district NPS, and clinician retention — not in evaluation hours logged or referrals processed
A leader of leaders, comfortable managing a layer of Clinical Supervisors rather than carrying a caseload yourself, and confident holding that layer accountable to a national clinical bar
Data-fluent and outcomes-oriented: you measure success in symptom reduction, functional gains, goal achievement, compliance rates, supervisor performance, district NPS, and clinician retention — not in session hours logged or contact notes submitted
Fluent in insurance billing across commercial payers, Medicaid, and school-based behavioral health funding streams, with working knowledge of CPT coding for mental health services, prior authorization workflows, and the payer variation that comes with operating across multiple states
Knowledgeable about the state-by-state legal landscape governing minor consent, confidentiality, and the limits of parental access to mental health records — including HIPAA, FERPA, and state-specific minor consent statutes — and skilled at translating that legal variation into clear, actionable policy that clinicians can actually follow on the ground
Comfortable holding clinical excellence and operational accountability in the same hand, across multiple states and service lines, without dropping either
Deeply invested in the evolution of Thrive Clinical as a purpose-built tool for kids in schools: you are not just a user of the platform, you are a driver of what it becomes, bringing the clinical insight that makes it more powerful and more useful for mental health providers over time
WHAT YOU’LL OWN
Set and Own the National Clinical Standard for Mental Health
Define Thrive's national framework for psychoeducational assessment and eligibility determination, setting the standard for how school psychologists across every market select instruments, conduct evaluations, and document findings
Build and maintain the clinical frameworks, treatment protocols, supervision standards, and modality-specific practice guidelines that Clinical Supervisors implement with their supervisee populations across all regions
Ensure that what excellent mental health care looks like at Thrive is documented, measurable, and consistently applied regardless of geography, district, or state
Establish Thrive’s approach to clinical diagnosis and treatment planning, ensuring that providers are conducting thorough biopsychosocial assessments, applying DSM-5-TR criteria accurately, and building individualized, evidence-based treatment plans for every student on their caseload
Ensure that Thrive's diagnostic standards account for the full range of student backgrounds, including English language learners, students with complex or co-occurring profiles, and students from diverse cultural and linguistic communities
Lead and Develop Clinical Supervisors Nationally
Serve as the direct clinical authority above Clinical Supervisors, who deliver high-touch supervision to pre-licensed LCSWs, clinical social work residents, and performance-flagged providers across assigned national markets
Build the supervision model that scales from one Clinical Supervisor today to a national team across dozens of markets in two years — including hiring criteria, supervisor onboarding, the supervisor playbook, and the cadence that holds them accountable
Set the coaching agenda nationally: your Clinical Supervisors implement your standards, and you ensure they have the frameworks, tools, and direction to do that consistently whether they are in Tennessee, Washington, Florida, or any market we expand into
Coach the coaches: build your Clinical Supervisor layer as your most important product, owning their development, succession planning, and bench
Make readiness and advancement decisions in collaboration with Clinical Supervisors and regional leads using Thrive Clinical data and the structured performance criteria you define
Drive Thrive Clinical Adoption, Fidelity, and Evolution
Own Thrive Clinical as the operational expression of the national diagnostic model: set the standards for how it is used, what it measures, and how its data informs clinical decisions at every level of the organization
Establish the platform benchmarks Clinical Supervisors and providers are held to, and use system-wide data to identify where the standard is holding and where it is not across all markets
Partner directly with product and engineering as the named clinical owner for defined areas of the roadmap, bringing the frontline clinical insight that shapes how the platform evolves to support diagnosis, treatment planning, progress monitoring, and crisis documentation in school settings
Champion Thrive Clinical not as a documentation tool but as a strategic asset for innovation, using its data to surface clinical patterns, raise the bar, and identify what is possible in school-based mental health care
Protect Clinical Quality at National Scale
Monitor clinical compliance, treatment plan fidelity, session quality, risk documentation standards, and IEP-related mental health service delivery across all mental health markets nationally
Build the early-warning systems that surface quality risk — including elevated caseload acuity, lapses in crisis protocol, or declining symptom trajectories — before they become quality failures, and escalate proactively
Own the clinical risk and safety framework for Thrive’s mental health discipline, ensuring that crisis response protocols, mandated reporting procedures, and safety planning standards are consistent, documented, and practiced across every site
Own the multi-state regulatory landscape for mental health clinical operations, partnering with operations and billing on insurance credentialing, Medicaid enrollment and compliance, commercial payer requirements, and state behavioral health licensing variation
Lead National Professional Development
Design and drive the PD infrastructure for school psychologists nationally, ensuring content is grounded in Thrive's diagnostic framework and evidence-based practice, not generic continuing education
Build PD that cascades from national standards down through Clinical Supervisors to individual providers, so every clinician at every site is growing in the same clinical direction
Lead summer intensives, site visits, and targeted in-person engagement with partners, supervisors, and providers across all Thrive markets
Serve as Thrive's Senior School Psychology Voice Nationally
Represent Thrive's school psychology model and diagnostic standards in key district and school partner relationships across the country, communicating the depth and rigor of our approach to evaluation and eligibility
Support onboarding of new national partnerships by establishing clinical expectations early and building the infrastructure to sustain them as Thrive continues to expand
Serve as a thought leader in school-based mental health practice, bringing emerging research, evolving best practices, and a relentless focus on getting care right for every child in every community we serve
HOW WE’LL MEASURE SUCCESS
This role is accountable for outcomes, not activities. In your first 12 to 24 months, you will be measured against:
Symptom reduction rates, functional gain scores, and goal achievement across the mental health caseload, captured through Thrive Clinical
IEP and treatment plan compliance rates across all national markets
Clinical Supervisor performance and retention
Clinician quality scores and retention within the mental health discipline
District NPS and clinical satisfaction scores in partner relationships
Adoption and fidelity metrics for Thrive Clinical across the mental health discipline
Quality of the supervision framework, treatment modality standards, professional development infrastructure, and clinical documentation you build
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Must Have
Full, unrestricted LCSW licensure; LMSW, LSW, or pre-licensed candidates will not be considered
Active licensure in Tennessee or a relevant state of practice; multi-state licensure costs supported upon hire
Minimum 10 years of clinical experience in school-based, pediatric, or community mental health settings with significant involvement in diagnosis, treatment planning, and direct clinical care
Minimum 5 years of progressive clinical leadership experience, with at least 3 years in a multi-site or multi-state clinical leadership role
Demonstrated experience building diagnostic standards, evaluation frameworks, or quality systems at scale — not just running them. You will be asked to share artifacts (handbooks, frameworks, protocols, playbooks) you have authored
Demonstrated experience building clinical programs, supervision frameworks, or quality systems at scale — not just running them. You will be asked to share artifacts (handbooks, frameworks, dashboards, playbooks) you have authored
Demonstrated experience formally supervising clinical leaders or supervisors, not just direct clinicians
Working fluency in insurance billing for mental health services, including Medicaid, commercial payers, and school-based funding streams; familiarity with CPT coding, prior authorization, claims adjudication, and payer credentialing requirements across multiple states
Working knowledge of HIPAA, FERPA, and state-specific minor consent and confidentiality statutes, with demonstrated ability to research state law variation and translate it into clinical policy and provider-facing protocols
Demonstrated data fluency: comfort reading clinical and operational dashboards and using data to drive decisions
Ability and willingness to travel approximately 50% of the month across assigned national markets
Nice to Have
Additional licensure or certification in a specialized modality (certified TF-CBT therapist, DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, EMDR certification, or similar)
Experience scaling mental health operations across multiple districts, states, or organizational contexts
Prior experience as a clinical leader or clinical champion at a healthtech or edtech company with a proprietary clinical platform
Experience working in or alongside venture-backed or high-growth healthcare or education services organizations
Fluency in a global language (Spanish, Somali, Arabic, or others)
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
This is a W2 salaried role with a full benefits package. We invest in the people who lead our national clinical programs.
You are not inheriting someone else's diagnostic framework. You are building the national standard that does not exist yet, for every community we serve.
You will have real authority, not just a title. The treatment standards you set are the standards that hold, in every session, in every market, across the country.
Thrive Clinical is not an afterthought. It is a purpose-built EHR designed specifically for children in schools, and you will have a direct hand in shaping what it becomes for the mental health discipline.
You will partner directly with a Chief Clinical Officer who owns clinical strategy at the executive level, alongside peer National Directors leading School Psychology and RSP, and a growing national team.
We invest in our national leaders with training, AI tools, data dashboards, and the infrastructure to lead and innovate at scale across a multi-state footprint.
You will see the difference your leadership makes: in symptom reduction, functional gains, student outcomes, and a generation of clinicians who learned what excellent school-based mental health care looks like because you defined it.
