What are the responsibilities and job description for the Head of Enhanced Care Management Operations position at Sunlight?
Sunlight Health is reimagining Enhanced Care Management for families involved in the child welfare and justice systems. We partner with dependency legal services organizations, CASA programs, child welfare agencies, and community advocates to deliver tech-enabled, family-centered ECM services that address both healthcare and social determinants of health.
We serve families at their most critical moments — when reunification, stability, and health outcomes hang in the balance. Our model centers the entire family unit, not just the child in care. We recognize that healthcare navigation is critical to family preservation and reunification, and we meet families where they are: in courthouses, in communities, and in their lives. Where clinically appropriate, we work with parents, caregivers, and youth together — addressing the interconnected health and social needs that impact family stability.
Our Impact
Start Date: January 30, 2026 (or as close as possible)
Location: Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid: Courthouse-based Remote)
Compensation: Salary Equity
The Opportunity
We're hiring our first clinical leader — a founding operator who will wear two hats:
Phase 1 (Feb-Q1 2026): Lead Care Manager providing direct ECM services to 100 families involved in the child welfare system while establishing operational foundations
Phase 2 (Q2 2026): Head of ECM Operations building and managing a multi-site care team serving 2,500 members across LA County
This is not a typical VP role managing established teams. This is a roll-up-your-sleeves founding position where you'll provide direct care to families in the child welfare system while simultaneously architecting the operations infrastructure for rapid scale.
What You'll Do
Direct Clinical Service Delivery
Required Qualifications
By 90 Days
Mission-Critical Work: You'll serve families at their most vulnerable moments, directly impacting reunification and health outcomes for entire family units — children, parents, and caregivers — in the child welfare system.
Founding Operator Equity: Significant equity stake reflecting the foundational nature of this role.
Unique Population Focus: Most ECM providers avoid children/youth and child welfare populations due to complexity. We lean in with a family-centered model — and we're building the category.
Tech-Enabled Scale: Our platform and partnerships allow higher caseloads without sacrificing quality, creating sustainable economics for high-touch care.
Partnership Model: Work alongside respected organizations across the child welfare ecosystem — dependency legal services, CASA programs, child welfare agencies, and community advocates — not in isolation.
Advisors Who Built the System: Alex Briscoe (key architect of California's youth behavioral health benefits for Medi-Cal), Cassie Choi (ECM provider founder), and other recognized leaders in California's safety net.
The Pay Range For This Role Is
200,000 - 225,000 USD per year(California Office)
We serve families at their most critical moments — when reunification, stability, and health outcomes hang in the balance. Our model centers the entire family unit, not just the child in care. We recognize that healthcare navigation is critical to family preservation and reunification, and we meet families where they are: in courthouses, in communities, and in their lives. Where clinically appropriate, we work with parents, caregivers, and youth together — addressing the interconnected health and social needs that impact family stability.
Our Impact
- Supporting 5,000 California youth and families through existing platforms
- Partnering with 16 CASA and child welfare organizations statewide
- Launching in LA County with partnerships across dependency legal services, CASA programs, and child welfare stakeholders serving 12,000 ECM-eligible families
Start Date: January 30, 2026 (or as close as possible)
Location: Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid: Courthouse-based Remote)
Compensation: Salary Equity
The Opportunity
We're hiring our first clinical leader — a founding operator who will wear two hats:
Phase 1 (Feb-Q1 2026): Lead Care Manager providing direct ECM services to 100 families involved in the child welfare system while establishing operational foundations
Phase 2 (Q2 2026): Head of ECM Operations building and managing a multi-site care team serving 2,500 members across LA County
This is not a typical VP role managing established teams. This is a roll-up-your-sleeves founding position where you'll provide direct care to families in the child welfare system while simultaneously architecting the operations infrastructure for rapid scale.
What You'll Do
Direct Clinical Service Delivery
- Provide Enhanced Care Management services to families involved in the child welfare system, centering the whole family unit wherever clinically feasible
- Conduct comprehensive assessments of healthcare and social determinant needs for parents, caregivers, and youth
- Develop and manage family-centered care plans addressing physical health, behavioral health, substance use, housing, and family stabilization
- Coordinate care across multiple family members, providers, courts, child welfare agencies, and community supports
- Maintain compliance with health plan (LA Care, HealthNet, Molina) and CalAIM ECM documentation and quality standards
- Meet families in courthouse, community, and home settings for face-to-face engagement
- Serve as subject matter expert on family-centered approaches for child welfare and justice-involved populations
- Design workflows, staffing models, and clinical protocols for scalable family-centered ECM delivery
- Implement care management platform and optimize for multi-member family workflows
- Establish quality assurance, documentation standards, and audit readiness processes
- Build relationships with health plans (LA Care, HealthNet, Molina) and ensure contract compliance
- Develop training programs emphasizing family-centered care principles and clinical supervision frameworks
- Define and track key performance metrics (family engagement, care plan completion, health outcomes, reunification support)
- Partner with product and tech teams to optimize platform functionality for family-centered clinical needs
- Create hiring profiles and recruitment pipelines for care team expansion
- Serve as clinical liaison to dependency legal services organizations, CASA programs, DCFS social workers, and court personnel
- Build trust-based relationships across child welfare system stakeholders (legal advocates, child welfare agencies, community organizations)
- Collaborate with operational partners on readiness and health plan engagement
- Represent Sunlight Health's clinical voice and family-centered care model in partnership development and contract negotiations
Required Qualifications
- LCSW license in California (active and in good standing) - This could be negotiated based on your background.
- 3-5 years healthcare or social services operations/management experience — you've built teams, managed programs, or led service line growth
- Direct clinical experience with child welfare and/or justice-involved populations — you understand trauma-informed care, family systems theory, dependency court processes, and whole-family engagement approaches
- Track record as a founding or early operator — you've built something from early stage and thrived in ambiguity
- LA-based and committed to in-person, courthouse-based service delivery
- Startup mentality — comfortable with rapid iteration, high ownership, and wearing multiple hats
- Mission alignment — deep commitment to family-centered care, serving families in crisis, and addressing systemic inequities in child welfare and healthcare
- ECM or CalAIM program experience (provider-side or health plan-side)
- P&L management or unit economics understanding
- Lived experience with foster care, child welfare, or justice system
- Bilingual (Spanish/English)
- Experience implementing care management platforms or health IT systems
- Background in dependency law, DCFS collaboration, court-based services, or family preservation programs
- Previous startup or high-growth environment experience
By 90 Days
- Providing direct ECM services to 100 families with high engagement and quality documentation
- Care management platform fully implemented and optimized for family-centered workflows
- Operational playbooks drafted for family assessment, care planning, and multi-member care coordination
- Strong relationships established with legal services partners, CASA programs, health plans, and child welfare stakeholders
- Scaled pilot to 250 members with consistent quality metrics and demonstrated family engagement
- First care manager hired and onboarded with family-centered care training program
- Quality assurance framework in place passing health plan audits
- Operational readiness to expand to additional legal services organizations, CASA partners, and child welfare collaborators
- Managing team of 5-10 care managers serving 2,500 members across multiple child welfare system partnerships
- Multi-site operations across LA County with documented workflows and training systems
- Strong performance on health plan quality metrics (engagement, utilization, outcomes) and family-centered care delivery
- Sunlight Health recognized as clinical leader in family-centered ECM for child welfare populations
Mission-Critical Work: You'll serve families at their most vulnerable moments, directly impacting reunification and health outcomes for entire family units — children, parents, and caregivers — in the child welfare system.
Founding Operator Equity: Significant equity stake reflecting the foundational nature of this role.
Unique Population Focus: Most ECM providers avoid children/youth and child welfare populations due to complexity. We lean in with a family-centered model — and we're building the category.
Tech-Enabled Scale: Our platform and partnerships allow higher caseloads without sacrificing quality, creating sustainable economics for high-touch care.
Partnership Model: Work alongside respected organizations across the child welfare ecosystem — dependency legal services, CASA programs, child welfare agencies, and community advocates — not in isolation.
Advisors Who Built the System: Alex Briscoe (key architect of California's youth behavioral health benefits for Medi-Cal), Cassie Choi (ECM provider founder), and other recognized leaders in California's safety net.
The Pay Range For This Role Is
200,000 - 225,000 USD per year(California Office)
Salary : $200,000 - $225,000
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