Director of Social Services at Bonita House in Oakland, CA

Job Description

Job Title: Director of Social Services

Department: Administration

FLSA Classification: Exempt – Full time

Reports to: Executive Director

About Us: Bonita House, Inc. (BHI) is a nonprofit mental health agency with multiple sites in Alameda County and an operating budget of $14.5 million. Founded in 1971, BHI provides social rehabilitation including a full range of Medi-Cal services to adults with co-occurring serious mental health and substance use disorders.

Our Mission: To empower people living with mental health and co-occurring substance use challenges to achieve recovery, self-sufficiency, and deeply connected, meaningful lives within their communities.

Our Values: Compassion: Committed to caring, dignity and kindness. Respect: Honor each individual and provide highly ethical services. Progress: Leading the way in creating opportunities to change for the better. Resilience: Channeling hope, building strengths to successfully recover, adapt and grow. Embracing Differences: Honor and celebrate our diverse communities and individual uniqueness.

Summary: The Director of Social Services is a senior clinical and operational leader responsible for the strategic, operational, and administrative oversight of Bonita House’s Crisis, 1410 Residential Treatment, Supported Independent Living programs, and the Quality Assurance team. Reporting to the Executive Director and serving as a member of the Executive Team, this position ensures high-quality, person-centered, recovery-oriented services that advance organizational goals, clinical integrity, regulatory compliance, fiscal stewardship, and positive outcomes for participants, staff, and community partners. This position provides direct supervision to program directors, managers, and/or other designated leadership staff within assigned programs and has overall responsibility for leadership support, accountability, and performance outcomes across the portfolio.

Essential functions:

• Provide strategic leadership and direction for multiple community-based behavioral health programs, ensuring alignment with Bonita House’s mission, values, and organizational priorities.
• Lead program planning, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement efforts to strengthen service quality, participant outcomes, and operational effectiveness.
• Serve as a member of the Executive Team, contributing to agency-wide planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Develop, implement, and monitor program goals, performance indicators, and service delivery standards across assigned programs.
• Ensure programs operate within a recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and person-centered framework.
• Provide guidance and support to Directors/Managers in the day-to-day operations of Crisis, 1410 Residential Treatment, Supported Independent Living, and Quality Assurance, ensuring safe, effective, and responsive services.
• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, county, contract, licensing, accreditation, and agency requirements, including behavioral health, residential treatment, and documentation standards.
• Monitor program documentation, audits, incident reporting, quality assurance activities, and corrective action processes to maintain high standards of care and regulatory readiness.
• Develop and manage program budgets in partnership with finance leadership; monitor expenditures, staffing patterns, and resource allocation to support sustainability and contract performance.
• Use data to assess program performance, identify trends, support decision-making, and prepare reports for executive leadership, funders, and external partners.
• Directly supervise program leaders and managers, including hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, employee development, and accountability.
• Promote a healthy organizational culture that emphasizes collaboration, equity, communication, inclusion, and staff engagement.
• Support leadership development among managers and supervisors to strengthen program operations, compliance, and employee performance.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with county partners, referral sources, funders, community-based organizations, housing partners, emergency response stakeholders, and other external collaborators.
• Represent Bonita House in meetings, committees, community forums, and partner discussions related to assigned programs and strategic initiatives.
• Ensure that participant care and service coordination practices support dignity, stability, recovery, housing retention, wellness, and community integration.
• Partner with clinical and program leadership to support effective admissions, discharges, referrals, crisis response coordination, and continuity of care across the service continuum.
• Respond to high-level operational concerns, critical incidents, and emergent program issues with sound judgment, timely follow-up, and appropriate escalation.
• Support contract development, program expansion, grant opportunities, and implementation of new initiatives as assigned.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of Bonita House’s mission and evolving organizational needs.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in social work, marriage and family therapy, clinical counseling, psychology, or a closely related behavioral health field required.
• Current active California clinical license in good standing required (for example, LCSW, LMFT, LPCC, or equivalent qualifying license as approved by the agency).
• Minimum of two years of post-graduate clinical experience required.
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in behavioral health, social services, residential treatment, crisis services, quality assurance, or a related community-based setting.
• At least 4 years of experience supervising managers or program leaders in multi-site or multi-program environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets, contracts, compliance requirements, program performance, and cross-functional operations.
• Knowledge of community behavioral health systems, crisis services, residential treatment operations, quality assurance practices, and recovery-oriented services.
• Valid California driver’s license, reliable transportation, and ability to travel between program locations as needed.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in nonprofit behavioral health services within California, including county-funded or county-contracted programs.

• Experience overseeing programs serving adults with serious mental health challenges and co-occurring substance use disorders.

• Familiarity with licensing, documentation, audit readiness, and quality improvement expectations in residential treatment, crisis, and community-based service settings.

• Strong knowledge of trauma-informed care, harm reduction, culturally responsive practice, and community-based recovery models.

• Experience providing clinical leadership, consultation, and guidance to multidisciplinary teams in complex community-based settings.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong leadership, organizational, strategic planning, and clinical judgment skills.
• Excellent judgment, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to provide clinical leadership and consultation in support of safe, effective, and ethical service delivery.
• Ability to lead through complexity, change, and urgent operational situations with professionalism and composure.
• Ability to analyze data, monitor outcomes, and use information to improve services and support accountability.
• Strong understanding of staff development, coaching, supervision, and performance management practices.
• Knowledge of professional ethics, scope of practice, confidentiality requirements, and applicable clinical documentation standards.
• Ability to build effective relationships with internal teams, external partners, funders, and community stakeholders.
• Commitment to equity, inclusion, and respectful engagement with diverse staff, participants, and communities.
• Proficiency with documentation systems, Microsoft Office, and other standard business and program management tools.

Work environment/Physical demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Must be able to lift 15 pounds, sit, stand, walk, walk up and downstairs, 50% of the time.

Travel required:

This position requires regular travel to multiple agency and partner locations within the Bay Area. Employees must have reliable transportation and the ability to reach designated sites within reasonable travel times.

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) incumbent in this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the incumbents will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at will” relationship.

EEO Statement: Bonita House provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.