Program Director (Residential, PHP, IOP) 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.
Hire a licensed Program Director who can connect residential, PHP, and IOP operations with authorization work and daily clinical follow-up.
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.
Get a free talent snapshot · Get a free job description review
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.
- Program Manager
- PHP / IOP Director
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?
This leader reviews admissions, staffing gaps, overdue records, planned discharges, and payer requests. You need someone who can turn clinical decisions into clear assignments across residential, PHP, and IOP without taking over each clinician’s work. Residential, PHP, and IOP are not interchangeable settings.
PHP centers on structured daily treatment and attendance. IOP depends on workable group schedules, outpatient engagement, and clear communication when attendance changes. Ask what the candidate reviewed each morning and how they followed a patient moving between levels of care.
Authorization and UR experience needs detail. A director may prepare reviews personally, coach therapists on supporting documentation, or oversee staff who submit records. Ask what they did when a payer asked for missing information, approved fewer days than requested, or challenged the planned level of care. Their answer should show documentation discipline, escalation judgment, and respect for clinical scope.
What do we check before you see anyone?
Active clinical license and supervision status. We confirm an active clinician license and ask where they have supervised staff. Your organization completes credentialing and determines whether your state and assigned duties call for supervision authority or another credential. Level-of-care operations.
- We ask candidates to walk through a residential, PHP, or IOP day. Who reviews admissions? How are step-down decisions shared? What changes when a patient misses PHP or IOP programming?
- Authorization and UR work. We separate personal experience from team oversight. We ask what records they reviewed, how they prepared for payer contact, and how they responded when notes did not support the requested stay.
- Documentation follow-up. We ask how they identify late treatment plans, unsigned notes, incomplete discharge records, or conflicting clinical narratives. We also ask who owns the correction and how repeat gaps are addressed.
- Staffing and supervision. We explore how they cover therapist absences, protect scheduled groups, arrange supervision, and keep admission work moving. Where nursing, case management, or support staff are present, we ask how they coordinate handoffs.
- Safety, incidents, and reporting. We ask what the candidate does after an incident, which facts they gather, and who they notify. We screen for exposure to reporting processes without assuming the same rules apply in every state.
Where do we find them, and why would they move?
Clinical supervisors and senior therapists are common source pools. Some are ready to move from a caseload and small-team oversight into responsibility for a full program. Others want clearer authority over schedules, record follow-up, admissions flow, or program changes. People may also consider a move after an ownership change, a limited promotion path, or unclear decision rights.
We ask why they are open, what levels of care they have led, and what support they expect from ownership and clinical leadership.
Which mistakes stall the search?
A common mistake is hiring a licensed clinician who has supervised therapists but has never managed the daily handoff between residential, PHP, and IOP. Another is accepting payer experience as a résumé claim without asking what they reviewed, submitted, escalated, and taught staff to document.
Selecting for one EHR alone instead of testing how the candidate finds incomplete records, assigns corrections, and checks completion.
How would we run the search for this opening?
We review your active levels of care, reporting structure, license expectations, payer mix, schedule model, and decisions this leader will own. We screen credentials, work history, leadership scope, level-of-care operations, and authorization experience. You meet candidates who match the agreed brief.
Set the operating brief
This separates a Program Director search from a Program Manager or PHP / IOP Director search.
Screen the working record
We use questions about staffing absences, admission volume, documentation gaps, and disputed payer decisions.
Run focused interviews
We help you test their workday judgment, while your organization conducts its own credentialing, references, and clinical assessment before a hiring decision.
Where this search connects
Behavioral Health Leadership & Licensed Clinicians
SpecialtyBehavioral Health & Addiction Treatment
SettingPE-Backed Healthcare Platforms
SettingBehavioral Health Medical Director
Related roleExecutive Director, Treatment Center
Related roleClinical Director (Behavioral Health / Addiction)
Related roleLicensed Clinical Psychologist
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 Program Director (Residential, PHP, IOP), 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
Not ready to start a search?
Get a free talent snapshot
We tell you where qualified Program Director (Residential, PHP, IOP) are working in your area and what it takes to move them. No fee. No obligation.
Get a free job description review
Paste or upload the JD. We flag unclear scope, requirements and terms that may put strong candidates off. No fee. No obligation.
Should this director have experience in residential, PHP, and IOP?
It depends on the services they will oversee. A leader over all three should understand their different schedules, transitions, record demands, and staffing patterns. Deep experience in two settings may work when the third has strong on-site leadership. Residential work often involves overnight handoffs, incidents, admissions, and round-the-clock staffing.
Does this role need an active clinical license?
We screen for an active clinical license. Whether the person must also qualify to supervise staff depends on your state rules and the duties you assign. Your team makes the final credentialing decision.
How do you test authorization and UR experience?
We ask what the candidate personally handled and what their team handled. We discuss record preparation, additional-information requests, continued-stay reviews, shorter approvals, and clinician coaching when documentation was incomplete.
What if a leading candidate receives a counteroffer?
We explore their reason for moving before offer discussions. If a counteroffer appears, we revisit reporting relationships, workload, decision authority, and advancement concerns. Compensation may matter, but it may not resolve the reason they considered leaving.
What are the fees and placement terms?
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. Locum, travel, contract coverage, and placement into your own per diem pool are available on request, with terms, licensing, credentialing, and malpractice arrangements confirmed before anyone starts.
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 residential, PHP, and IOP services operate. We will screen for a Program Director who can manage the decisions your teams face each day.
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?
Clinical Director (Behavioral Health / Addiction) · Director of Behavioral Health Services (Hospital)
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 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.