PACE Center Director Recruiters
Healthcare Headhunters recruits healthcare professionals for employers. No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
This is what we do all day: recruit healthcare professionals.
Hiring a PACE Center Director means finding someone who can keep transportation, center services, staffing, and interdisciplinary decisions connected without blurring clinical authority.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
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What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
What does an open seat cost you every week?
An open role costs you more than the recruiting fee. Someone covers the work, waits for care, or stops a service. We ask what is falling behind and who is carrying it. Use your own figures to compare the cost of waiting with the cost of hiring.
The seat is costing you every week.
Overtime, diverted patients, a stretched team and a schedule held together by favors.
The posting brought the wrong people.
Applicants arrive, but the person who has done this exact work is employed and not looking.
You are the one chasing.
Screening calls, no-shows and follow-ups land on the desk of someone with a facility to run.
What does this hire really come down to?
A PACE center serves older adults through coordinated medical care, social services, rehabilitation, meals, and daily support. Your director must connect those services with transportation and care delivered beyond the center. We recruit for the actual operating assignment: who reports to this person, which decisions they own, and where clinical leaders retain authority.
Start with the director's decision boundaries. Does this person supervise center staff, transportation, contracted services, or only selected departments? Who handles participant complaints and staffing changes? A strong applicant can explain how they resolved competing needs while keeping the interdisciplinary team informed. Ask for the sequence, not simply a claim of collaboration.
Distinguish center leadership from clinical oversight. If your position combines operations with licensed clinical duties, identify those duties and the required license. Do not treat a nursing background as a substitute for demonstrated center management.
What do we check before you see anyone?
Transportation disruptions: Ask, "If several participants arrive late, what would you review first?" Useful answers connect dispatch communication, scheduled services, meals, staffing, and participant needs. Look for clear handoffs rather than an unsupported promise to fix every delay personally. Interdisciplinary coordination: Ask, "How did you track an operational issue raised during team discussion?"
- Listen for an assigned owner, documented follow-up, and confirmation that the affected service changed. The director should distinguish operational follow-through from clinical decision-making.
- Staffing decisions: Ask, "How would you respond if absences affected personal care support and scheduled activities?" Look for a review of available skills, participant needs, supervisory coverage, and escalation routes. Ask which decisions needed another leader's approval.
- Participant and family concerns: Ask, "How did you investigate a complaint about a missed service?" A useful answer separates the person's account, staff records, immediate communication, and corrective action. Ask how the director closed the loop without promising unapproved care changes.
- Performance and spending: Ask, "Which center measures did you review, and what decision changed afterward?" Strong answers name attendance, transportation delays, overtime, service interruptions, or other relevant measures. Ask how the applicant checked the data before changing staffing or vendor arrangements.
- Authority and credentials: Ask, "Which responsibilities belonged to you, and which belonged to clinical leadership?" Confirm education, relevant licenses where applicable, reporting relationships, and work history. Your organization completes its own credentialing and clinical assessment for any combined clinical assignment.
Where do we find them, and why would they move?
We look at PACE programs and comparable senior care operations with coordinated transportation, day services, and multidisciplinary teams. Adult day health leaders may bring relevant center experience. Applicants from home-based care or post-acute services need closer questioning about daily attendance, on-site staffing, and coordination across services.
A director might consider moving for clearer authority, a different reporting structure, or a role focused on one center rather than several locations. We ask whether they expect direct supervision of transportation staff, control over center schedules, or authority to approve overtime. That discussion helps you distinguish a workable move from a mismatch over clinical or operational control.
Which mistakes stall the search?
A common mistake is treating all senior living management as equivalent. Ask whether the applicant managed scheduled day services and transportation, not just residential staffing or building operations. Another is leaving reporting lines vague. If department leaders answer elsewhere, explain how the director secures action when participant services are delayed.
Combining clinical and operational duties without defining them. State the license needed for assigned clinical work and identify who makes treatment decisions.
How would we run the search for this opening?
We discuss service scope, reporting lines, staffing oversight, transportation responsibilities, and current operational concerns. We review work history, credentials, and fit through specific examples involving attendance, staff coverage, complaints, and interdisciplinary follow-through. You assess how finalists would work with clinical leaders and department supervisors.
Define the center assignment
You identify the decisions this director can make independently and those needing clinical or executive approval.
Screen against daily decisions
We present the relevant experience and any unanswered questions for your interview team.
Test the handoffs
Before an offer, clarify authority, expected measures, and escalation routes. Compare their responses to a disrupted transportation schedule, including whom they would contact and which service conflicts need clinical review. No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Where this search connects
Post-Acute, Senior Living & Home-Based Care Leadership
SpecialtySkilled Nursing & Post-Acute Care
SettingSenior Living (Assisted Living, Memory Care, CCRC)
SettingHome Health & Hospice
SettingPE-Backed Healthcare Platforms
SettingNursing Home Administrator (NHA)
Related roleAssistant Director of Nursing (ADON)
Related roleMDS Coordinator
Related roleRegional Nurse Consultant
Related roleNational median annual wage. SOC 11-9111, Medical and Health Services Managers.
BLS reports Medical and Health Services Managers as one occupation. It does not publish a separate estimate for PACE Center Director, its setting or its engagement terms.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, 2025-05, released 2026-05-15. View source. See the full guide.
Open roles
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Can an adult day health director be a credible candidate?
Yes, when their experience includes relevant staffing, transportation, and service coordination. Ask how they would work within PACE's interdisciplinary structure rather than assuming the settings are interchangeable. The director may address attendance, staffing gaps, service delays, and family concerns without directing treatment.
Must our PACE Center Director be a nurse?
Not solely because the role leads a center. If you assign licensed nursing duties, specify the applicable license and assess those duties separately from operations leadership.
Should transportation report to this director?
That depends on your operating structure. Even with separate supervision, define how the director escalates delays affecting center attendance and scheduled services.
How should we interview for participant complaints?
Use a hypothetical missed-service complaint and ask for the investigation sequence. Listen for fact-checking, respectful communication, appropriate clinical referral, and documented follow-up.
What should we settle before making an offer?
Confirm department oversight, spending authority, clinical boundaries, and after-hours escalation. Discuss who addresses recurring service delays when the responsible department reports to another leader.
What should you send us about this role?
Send us the role, where the person will work and what needs to change with this hire. We will ask about the work, not just the title. Share any license or schedule limits that could rule someone out before we begin the search.
Tell us how your PACE center operates and where this director needs decision authority. We can help you turn that assignment into a focused search.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
Which other positions in this family should you consider?
Director of Business Development (Home Health & Hospice) · Regional MDS Coordinator
What do you get at each step of the search?
Our process for every search: calibrate the seat with you, map the market, research the real people, reach out to each one personally, qualify them in live conversation, then hand you a short list with a written brief on each person and support through the offer.
Search Calibration
You get an agreed brief: the work, reporting line, credentials, schedule, and offer you can make.
Market Mapping
You get a search aimed at relevant backgrounds, including people working now who have not applied.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We check appropriate ways to reach the people identified for your search. You do not have to chase them yourself.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We explain your actual job and follow up with people who may consider a conversation.
Live Candidate Qualification
You see people we have spoken with about the work, interest, and practical fit, not an unread resume pile.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You get a written brief and support through interviews and offer discussions. You make the hiring decision.
How long will it take to see a short list?
That depends on the job, schedule, available people, and what your employer can offer. We discuss those constraints before outreach and update you as candidates respond. We do not promise a fixed shortlist date. We check the job brief before arranging interviews. Tell us which parts of the role you can change.
What if a candidate receives a counteroffer?
We ask why the person wants to move and discuss competing decisions before an offer. A counteroffer can still change their choice. Keep the duties and offer clear rather than assuming more money settles every concern. Tell us early if parts of your offer cannot change, so the candidate hears it from us first.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. Ask us to walk through those terms before you sign, so you know how a replacement would work for your opening and who would start it.
What do we not do in a standard permanent search?
We do not bill standard contingency search by the hour or simply repost your job. Temporary coverage is a separate arrangement. Any retainer or different engagement must be agreed, not assumed. Tell us early if you need coverage while the permanent search runs.