Senior Director of Nursing, Oncology - 141268

UC San Diego Health has been at the forefront of oncology research and cancer care innovation since 1978. Following the opening of its flagship standalone facility, Moores Cancer Center, on the UC San Diego Health La Jolla campus in 2005, UC San Diego Health has expanded its oncology services to five comprehensive outpatient locations across the region.

Moores Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, a distinction awarded to cancer centers that demonstrate exceptional achievement in cancer research, clinical care, education, and community impact. Committed to advancing groundbreaking research and delivering exceptional patient-centered care, Moores Cancer Center remains a national leader in oncology innovation. UC San Diego Health and its cancer programs are consistently recognized among the nation's leading health care and oncology organizations, earning accolades from U.S. News & World Report, Vizient, and other respected institutions.

UC San Diego Health is also a Magnet-recognized health system, reflecting its commitment to nursing excellence, professional nursing practice, quality outcomes, innovation, and a culture that supports and empowers the nursing workforce. The Senior Director of Nursing, Oncology plays a critical leadership role in advancing these standards of excellence across oncology services.

The Senior Director of Nursing, Oncology oversees all nursing operations within UC San Diego Health's outpatient oncology services, including oncology clinics, infusion services, and radiation oncology. This highly visible leadership role serves as a key member of the Oncology Services and Moores Cancer Center leadership team, providing strategic and operational oversight in support of exceptional patient care, nursing excellence, and organizational goals.

POSITION SUMMARY

Reporting directly to the Chief Administrative Officer of Oncology and Radiation Therapy Services, the Senior Director of Nursing, Oncology is a highly experienced executive nursing leader providing responsible for the strategic, clinical, administrative, and operational leadership of nursing services across UC San Diego Health's comprehensive oncology enterprise.

The Senior Director provides executive oversight for nursing practice and operations across oncology ambulatory clinics, infusion services, and radiation medicine. The position leads through subordinate directors, managers, and other nursing leaders and is accountable for ensuring consistent standards of clinical excellence, patient safety, operational performance, workforce effectiveness, financial stewardship, regulatory compliance, and professional nursing practice across a large, complex, and geographically distributed oncology network.

The Senior Director maintains a matrixed reporting relationship to the Chief Clinical Officer/Chief Nursing Officer for UC San Diego Health and serves as an active member of the Nursing Executive Committee, representing Oncology in enterprise-wide nursing strategy, policy, quality, and professional practice initiatives.

This position requires an accomplished, collaborative, and highly visible executive nursing leader who can successfully navigate a complex academic health system, lead through organizational complexity, and cultivate trusted partnerships across clinical, operational, administrative, and academic constituencies. The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong understanding of oncology care delivery, nursing and clinical operations, physician and interdisciplinary partnerships, organizational culture, workforce strategy, and human resources and labor relations, including effective partnership within a unionized environment. The role also requires an appreciation for the unique clinical, operational, academic, and regulatory complexities of a Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Candidates with demonstrated leadership experience within UC San Diego Health, UC San Diego Oncology, or a similarly complex academic health systems are strongly preferred. Internal candidates who bring established institutional knowledge, demonstrated organizational effectiveness, strong cross-functional relationships, and a proven record of successful leadership within UC San Diego Health are particularly encouraged to apply. Experience navigating UC San Diego Health's organizational structure, culture, policies, labor environment, and shared governance model will be highly valued.

Highly qualified external candidates are also welcomed and encouraged to apply, particularly those who bring comparable senior or executive nursing leadership experience within complex academic health systems, NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, or other nationally recognized oncology programs. External candidates should demonstrate a record of successfully leading large, complex clinical operations; building effective physician, nursing, and administrative partnerships; advancing workforce and organizational priorities; and achieving measurable improvements in quality, safety, patient experience, operational performance, and employee engagement.

Patient Care, Quality, and Nursing Excellence

The Senior Director is accountable for advancing exceptional patient outcomes and ensuring the consistent delivery of safe, high-quality, evidence-based, and patient-centered nursing care throughout Oncology.

The incumbent establishes and sustains high standards of nursing practice and ensures that clinical care, nursing competencies, staffing models, and operational practices support the needs of complex oncology patient populations. The Senior Director promotes an environment in which nurses and interdisciplinary team members have a meaningful voice in clinical practice, shared governance, quality improvement, and innovation.

The Senior Director is accountable for nursing quality, safety, patient experience, operational effectiveness, and responsible stewardship of resources. The incumbent collaborates closely with physicians, APPs, nursing leaders, clinical staff, administrators, and other health care professionals to ensure coordinated, integrated care across the oncology continuum.

The Senior Director serves as an executive resource and trusted advisor to nursing leaders, staff, physicians, APPs, students, and other clinical and administrative partners.

Executive and Administrative Leadership

The Senior Director is expected to be a strategic, data-driven executive; accomplished program developer; experienced operator; and effective change leader. The leader translates organizational strategy into measurable operational priorities and leads complex initiatives across multiple clinical environments and organizational structures.

The position has significant responsibility for nursing department budgets, workforce planning, resource allocation, productivity, capital and operational planning, and overall financial performance. The Senior Director ensures resources are deployed effectively and responsibly while maintaining the highest standards of patient care, quality, safety, workforce engagement, and operational performance.

The incumbent recognizes that excellence requires continuous learning, innovation, accountability, and improvement and establishes an environment in which leaders and teams are empowered to identify opportunities, implement sustainable change, and achieve measurable results.

The Senior Director participates with executive leadership in developing and executing short- and long-term organizational strategies and ensures subordinate leaders possess the change-management capabilities necessary to support an agile, resilient, and high-performing workforce.

Culture, Collaboration, and Emotional Intelligence

Exceptional interpersonal effectiveness and a high degree of emotional intelligence are essential to success in this role. Organizational culture is central to the success of UC San Diego Oncology, and the Senior Director must be an accessible, credible, and collaborative leader capable of building trust across diverse constituencies.

The incumbent must effectively lead within both direct and matrixed reporting structures and develop productive relationships with executive leaders, physicians, nursing leaders, APPs, faculty, staff, peers, and external partners.

The Senior Director will proactively partner with physician and administrative leaders to ensure effective, coordinated care throughout Oncology and Radiation Therapy Services. The physician-administrative-nursing dyad/triad partnership model is foundational to collaborative leadership and organizational success.

The Senior Director is expected to foster a culture of psychological safety, accountability, transparency, inclusion, professional respect, shared decision-making, and continuous improvement. The incumbent will model UC San Diego Health's values and create an environment in which leaders and staff are supported, challenged, developed, and empowered to perform at their highest level.

Oncology Representative and Spokesperson

The Senior Director serves as a principal representative and advocate for Oncology Nursing throughout UC San Diego Health.

The incumbent represents Oncology on the UC San Diego Health Nursing Executive Committee and collaborates closely with the Senior Director of Ambulatory Nursing, Chief Clinical Officer/Chief Nursing Officer, physician and administrative executives, and other senior leaders and cross-functional committees.

The Senior Director also maintains an appropriate external presence within professional associations, community organizations, academic and clinical networks, and oncology-focused organizations. The incumbent represents UC San Diego Health and Oncology Nursing in advancing professional practice, workforce development, patient advocacy, clinical excellence, and the evolving needs of patients and families affected by cancer.

Organizational Scope and Accountability

The Senior Director oversees, through subordinate leaders and managers, large and complex clinical departments and programs encompassing multiple functional disciplines and professional classifications. The position has significant organizational impact and responsibility for developing and administering policies, programs, systems, and strategic initiatives.

The incumbent manages significant human, financial, clinical, and physical resources and operates with a high degree of autonomy and executive accountability. The Senior Director ensures appropriate stewardship of departmental resources and oversees the development and implementation of systems, controls, policies, and procedures designed to protect organizational assets and support sustainable operational performance.

The Senior Director works collaboratively with executive leadership to develop short- and long-term strategies; leads complex organizational change; represents nursing on cross-functional and enterprise-wide committees; and ensures nursing care remains aligned with organizational policies, professional standards, accreditation requirements, regulatory requirements, and UC San Diego Health's strategic priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

* Provides executive leadership, oversight, and accountability for the quality, safety, effectiveness, and consistency of nursing practice and patient care across UC San Diego Oncology.

* Represents UC San Diego clinical oncology at internal and external events as a senior executive.

* Establishes and advances a comprehensive nursing strategy aligned with the strategic priorities of Oncology, UC San Diego Health, and the broader academic health system.

* Provides strategic and operational leadership for workforce, staffing, fiscal capital, and material resources. Develops, implements and monitors short- and long-range financial and operational plans and collaborates with executive leadership on fiscal planning, resource allocation, and investment priorities.

* Forecasts workforce planning and talent-development strategies based on organizational growth, patient acuity and complexity, clinical demand, workforce benchmarks, productivity, staffing data, and evolving models of oncology care.

* Develops, mentors, and holds accountable subordinate nursing leaders, creating a strong leadership pipeline and succession strategy across oncology.

* Establishes a psychologically safe and highly collaborative environment that advances shared governance, professional nursing practice, staff engagement, interdisciplinary teamwork, innovation, and continuous improvement

* Partners closely with physicians, APPs, administrative executives, and operational leaders through established dyad and triad leadership models to advance clinical quality, access, patient experience, operational performance, and strategic growth.

* Provides executive guidance regarding nursing workforce and labor relations matters, including bargaining-unit considerations, contract implementation, workforce changes, and consistent application of organizational practices.

* Ensures compliance with applicable requirements and standards established by The Joint Commission (TJC), California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Magnet Recognition Program, and other regulatory, accreditation, licensing, quality, and professional organizations.

* Represents Oncology Nursing on system-wide committees and participates in strategic planning with senior leadership across inpatient, ambulatory, pediatric, cancer center, and other clinical environments to advance coordination and integration of care.

* Ensures nursing leaders have access to meaningful mentorship, executive development, professional development, and succession-planning opportunities and establishes strategies to develop and retain a strong pipeline of future nursing leaders.

* Leads the development, implementation, assessment, and continuous improvement of oncology nursing competencies, professional practice standards, education programs, and performance expectations in partnership with clinical educators and nursing leadership.

* Uses data, benchmarking, quality metrics, workforce analytics, financial information, and patient outcomes to identify opportunities, establish priorities, measure organizational performance, and guide executive decision-making.

* Supports strategic growth and expansion of oncology services by developing scalable nursing models, workforce plans, leadership structures, and operational standards that maintain consistent quality across existing and emerging sites of care.

* Participates in appropriate professional associations, community organizations, and advocacy initiatives to advance oncology nursing, address the evolving health care needs of patients and families, and contribute to discussions involving workforce development, health care access, patient education, affordability, and cancer care delivery.

• Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (BSN) and eight or more years of relevant professional nursing experience, including progressively responsible leadership experience.

• Current and active Registered Nurse (RN) in the State of California, or ability to obtain California licensure in accordance with organizational requirements prior to appointment.

• Significant leadership experience within a large, complex ambulatory, oncology, academic health system, or comparable multidisciplinary clinical environment, ideally within a NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

• Demonstrated experience leading through subordinate directors, managers, supervisors, or other nursing leaders within a complex organizational structure.

• Experience leading within a represented labor environment.

• Demonstrated executive-level responsibility for clinical quality, patient safety, nursing practice, workforce planning, financial management, operational performance, and organizational change.

• Advanced knowledge of applicable regulatory, legislative, accreditation, licensing, labor, quality, and compliance requirements affecting nursing and healthcare operations.

• Advanced understanding of hospital and ambulatory operations within a complex, multi-site or multi-hospital health system and knowledge of professional standards governing multidisciplinary clinical teams.

• Demonstrated ability to build effective physician-nursing-administrative partnerships and successfully lead within direct, matrixed, dyad, and interdisciplinary organizational structures.

• Advanced communication, relationship management, and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated emotional intelligence and the ability to establish credibility and trust across all levels of the organization.

• Demonstrated ability to engage and motivate leaders and staff around patient care priorities, organizational strategy, culture, mission, vision, and values.

• Advanced leadership, financial, workforce, and operations-management capabilities, including demonstrated experience developing nursing leaders and advancing shared governance.

• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategic plans and successfully implement complex organizational change across a large clinical enterprise.

• In-depth knowledge of a broad scope of relevant regulatory requirements, as well as legislative, accreditation, licensing and compliance environments.

• Master's degree or higher in Nursing, Health Administration, Business Administration, Public Health, or another relevant field.

• Five or more years of progressive senior nursing leadership experience, including direct leadership and development of nurse directors, managers, or equivalent leaders.

• Five or more years of progressive experience within an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, major academic medical center, or similarly complex oncology enterprise.

• Significant executive nursing leadership experience across multiple oncology settings, including ambulatory clinics, infusion services, radiation oncology, and/or APP programs.

• Demonstrated knowledge of UC San Diego Health, UC San Diego Oncology, and/or University of California systems, policies, organizational structures, and culture.

• Prior successful leadership experience within UC San Diego Health or UC San Diego Oncology is strongly preferred, particularly experience demonstrating effective cross-functional partnerships, organizational knowledge, and a record of advancing strategic and operational priorities.

• Demonstrated experience leading within a Magnet-recognized organization and advancing professional nursing practice, shared governance, nursing quality, workforce engagement, and leadership development.

• Experience supporting organizational growth, service-line expansion, integration of new clinical sites, or standardization of nursing operations across geographically distributed locations.

• Oncology nursing certification, nurse executive certification, or relevant professional certification.

• Must be able to work various hours and multiple locations based on operational and business needs.

• Must maintain all required professional licenses, credentials, certifications, and organizational requirements applicable to the position.

• Employment is subject to a criminal background check and pre-employment physical in accordance with UC San Diego Health requirements.