Job Description

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance

Position: Medical Director – Psychiatry (MD/DO)

Location: Orange, CA or Long Beach, CA (hybrid: up to 2 days remote)

Schedule: Full-time; 5 days per week (W2 Only)

About the Role

The Medical Director – Psychiatry (MD/DO) will provides clinical leadership, physician oversight, and strategic direction for the organization’s psychiatric services and medical staff.

Administratively, the role is responsible for advancing clinical quality, patient safety, evidence-based practice, clinician performance, and integration of psychiatric care across levels of care and clinical programs. The Medical Director partners closely with executive leadership, medical staff, operations, quality, clinical research, and other clinical disciplines to establish and maintain a high-reliability model of psychiatric care. The role will also oversee physician recruitment and retention as a key metric of success. The position combines clinical practice with meaningful administrative, physician-leadership, quality-improvement, and program-development responsibilities. The ideal candidate is an accomplished psychiatrist with strong clinical judgment, demonstrated physician leadership experience, and the ability to translate evidence and clinical strategy into scalable operational practice.

Clinically, the role will have a small direct clinical care component for outpatient mental health and clinical supervision of their clinical staff. There will be potential opportunities to participate in clinical research or value-based care services depending on the candidate’s interests and experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish clinical standards, protocols, pathways, and evidence-based practices for psychiatric assessment and treatment.
• Provide physician oversight of complex and high-acuity clinical cases for quality improvement and assurance.
• Develop physician recruitment pipelines and improve clinician retention.
• Establish and monitor psychiatric quality and patient-safety standards.
• Develop and oversee clinical quality metrics and physician-performance measures.
• Collaborate with the organization's research leadership to develop clinical outcomes and real-world evidence initiatives.
• Conduct psychiatric evaluations (in-person and via telehealth).
• Develop individualized, integrated treatment plans with the care team.
• Supervise and collaborate with interdisciplinary providers (e.g. MDs, NPs, PAs, SWs).
• Opportunities to participate in interventional psychiatry service and clinical research pipelines.
• Participate in crisis intervention and emergency care as needed.
• Maintain accurate documentation and comply with all regulatory standards.

Qualifications

• Current, valid, and unrestricted California medical license, NPI, and DEA registration
• Board Certification
• Minimum 3 years of independent psychiatric experience
• Prior experience with management of other physicians preferred; Experience with clinical quality, patient safety, and performance improvement.
• No disciplinary actions or restrictions on licensure

Why Join PNS?

• Be part of a mission-driven organization committed to providing exceptional quality-focused and patient-centered care.
• Work in a supportive interdisciplinary and academically driven team environment.
• Enjoy a balanced hybrid outpatient practice with opportunities for both in-person and telehealth care.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and paid time-off.

Pacific Neuropsychiatric Specialists (PNS)

We are a patient-centered, quality-focused, outpatient mental health group serving patients across 3 counties, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Inland Empire. We take pride in providing accessible, high-quality, and innovative mental health care to the community where teamwork and patient-centered care are at the core of everything we do. Our interdisciplinary team includes Psychiatrists, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Therapists-- all committed to helping patients achieve meaningful and lasting improvement in their lives. In addition, we have evidence-based interventional psychiatry modalities and conduct extensive clinical and pharmaceutical research.

Flexible work from home options available.

Compensation: $375,000.00 - $541,000.00 per year

Pacific Neuropsychiatric Specialists specializes in high quality mental health care for patients of all ages, offering advanced diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, and other complex mental health conditions.

PNS was founded on a simple conviction: every person deserves access to compassionate, expert psychiatric care. Our roots trace back over 30 years to groundbreaking psychiatric research, and since 2006, that same commitment has grown PNS into one of Southern California's largest outpatient psychiatric groups.

In 2024, ATP Clinical Research became part of PNS, and Dr. Gustavo Alva joined as Medical Director, Clinical Research, making PNS one of the largest community based psychiatric research programs in the country.

Today, we're Southern California's trusted name in high quality mental health care, and we're growing: 60+ full-time providers, 200+ clinical trials, and 8 locations across the region.

Whether you're providing direct patient care, supporting groundbreaking research, or helping run one of our clinics, you'll be part of a team that treats children, teenagers, and adults facing anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, postpartum depression, dementia, and more.

Come grow with us. We're looking for people who want their work to matter.