Sr. Director Resident Experience & Engagement - Full-Time 3rd Shift

Summary/Objective: The Senior Director of Resident Experience and Engagement provides enterprise-level leadership for Social Services and Life Enrichment for North Shore centers, translating strategy into practical, center-ready solutions. This role elevates psychosocial care and meaningful engagement as key drivers of clinical quality, regulatory outcomes, and resident and family experience.

Reporting to the Chief Clinical Officer, this leader serves as the operational and clinical authority for Social Services and Life Enrichment while functioning as a key strategic partner to Learning & Development, People and Culture, and Operations. This role is accountable for advancing practice standards and ensuring alignment between strategy and execution across centers. The role is intentionally designed to deliver practical, real-world solutions, inform system-wide learning priorities, and ensure that training and tools reflect the realities of life inside a skilled nursing center.

This is a senior, experienced leadership role requiring strong clinical-operational judgment, credibility with center leadership, and the ability to move seamlessly between strategy, execution, and coaching.

Essential Functions

Enterprise Leadership for Social Services and Life Enrichment

• Provides system-level leadership and direction for Social Services and Life Enrichment programs across centers, ensuring consistency, quality, and regulatory alignment.
• Establishes clear expectations for practice that support resident rights, psychosocial well-being, meaningful engagement, and interdisciplinary care planning.
• Partners with Vice Presidents of Success, Executive Directors, DONs, and NHAs to assess program performance, identify risk, and prioritize improvement opportunities.
• Accountable for the development, standardization, and ongoing advancement of Social Services and Life Enrichment practices across the organization.
• Monitors and evaluates program effectiveness using data, feedback, and field insights to drive continuous improvement.

Clinical Experience and Operational Support

• Serves as a rapid-response resource for high-priority Social Services and Life Enrichment challenges, offering timely, practical guidance that can be implemented immediately.
• Develops field-ready tools such as checklists, templates, coaching guides, and short learning resources that address common survey risks and operational pain points.
• Conducts on-site and virtual consultations to observe practice, troubleshoot barriers, and support improvement.

Strategic Partnership with Learning & Development

• Functions as a senior partner to the Learning & Development team, ensuring learning strategies are grounded in resident experience and center reality.
• Acts as a “reality check” and advisor for L&D initiatives affecting centers, with a specific focus on feasibility, usability, and near-term impact.
• Provides subject matter expertise and field intelligence to inform L&D priorities, while allowing L&D to own instructional design, scaling, and enterprise rollout.
• Collaborates with L&D to identify which center-tested tools and approaches are ready for broader system adoption.

Training, Coaching, and Capability Building

• Leads the content direction and practice standards for Social Services and Life Enrichment training, including onboarding guidance, role clarity, and advanced skill development.
• Coaches and mentors Social Services Directors, Coordinators, and Life Enrichment leaders to strengthen leadership effectiveness, judgment, and program management.
• Supports interdisciplinary leaders in understanding how psychosocial care and meaningful engagement directly influence clinical outcomes and resident safety.

Regulatory, Survey, and Quality Integration

• Serves as the clinical lead for Social Services and Life Enrichment-related regulatory interpretation and application at the system level.
• Partners with Clinical teams to prepare centers for survey, respond to findings, and implement sustained corrective action.
• Integrates Social Services and Life Enrichment priorities into QAPI initiatives, performance improvement projects, and resident experience metrics.
• Drives improvement in survey performance, psychosocial outcomes, and resident experience indicators related to Social Services and Life Enrichment.

Innovation and Program Advancement

• Identifies emerging best practices in psychosocial care and resident engagement and evaluates their applicability to North Shore Health centers.
• Encourages thoughtful innovation that balances creativity with operational feasibility and regulatory expectations.
• Guides the development of tools and approaches that reduce administrative burden while strengthening resident-centered outcomes.

Travel

• Regular travel to centers is required to provide on-site support, observation, training, and consultation.
• Amount of travel can range from 10% to 80% of time depending on level of training & coaching needs and priorities.

Supervisory Responsibility

• This role does not carry direct day-to-day supervision of center-level staff.
• Provides functional leadership and establishes practice expectations for Social Services and Life Enrichment leaders across the organization, without direct supervisory responsibility.

Resident Rights:

• Knows Resident Rights
• Help the residents/patients exercise and/or protect their rights
• Reports resident/patient complaints to management
• Maintains confidentiality of resident/patient information

HIPAA:

• Follows and adheres to the organization’s policies and procedures implementing HIPAA requirements for the privacy and security of protected health information
• Uses and/or discloses only minimum amount of Protected Health Information necessary to complete assigned tasks
• Reports all suspected violation of company’s HIPAA policies or procedures to the Compliance Officer

Education and Experience

Required

• Degree in Social Work, Therapeutic Recreation, Human Services, Healthcare Administration, or a related field.
• Significant progressive experience in long-term care or post-acute healthcare, with demonstrated leadership in Social Services and/or Life Enrichment.
• Proven ability to operate at both system and center level, translating strategy into operational practice.

Strongly Preferred

• Licensed Nursing Home Administrator (NHA) or equivalent senior leadership experience.
• Experience supporting multi-site organizations.
• Deep familiarity with survey processes, regulatory expectations, and quality improvement in skilled nursing.

Skills and Attributes

• Exceptional operational judgment and ability to prioritize what matters most.
• High credibility with executive leaders, center leadership, and frontline staff.
• Ability to balance structure with flexibility and innovation.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex expectations without oversimplifying risk.
• Decisive, solutions-oriented mindset grounded in resident-centered values.
• Passion for advancing dignity, meaning, and psychosocial well-being for older adults.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

The employee will frequently sit, stand and walk. This role will require significant use of standard computer/laptop equipment. This role will be required to occasionally carry (up to 10 pounds).

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.