The Executive Director, Business Development Children’s Health provides strategic leadership for regional growth, market development, business development, and strategic relationship development for UCSF Children’s Health. The Executive Director is responsible for strengthening UCSF Children’s Health’s competitive position across the region, growing priority service lines and TQ volume, expanding referral relationships, and building the institutional relationships necessary to support long-term growth.

The Executive Director will develop a comprehensive view of UCSF Children’s Health’s position within each priority submarket, including referral patterns, competitive dynamics, hospital and physician relationships, service-line opportunities, existing UCSF partnerships and agreements, and emerging changes in the healthcare landscape. Based on this assessment, the Executive Director will identify where UCSF should defend, deepen, establish, or recapture strategically important relationships and develop market-specific strategies to advance those priorities.

A central expectation of the role is to take a long-term, proactive approach to relationship development. The Executive Director will remain closely attuned to evolving market dynamics, competitive relationships, leadership changes, and emerging partnership opportunities and will initiate relationship-building well in advance of a specific transaction or business opportunity. This includes identifying strategically important hospitals and health systems where UCSF has limited or underdeveloped relationships, as well as relationships currently held by competitors that may become actionable over time.

The Executive Director will personally develop and steward critical senior-level external relationships while also working closely with Children’s Health, UCSF Health, and academic leadership to ensure the appropriate executives, Department Chairs, Division Chiefs, and clinical leaders are actively engaged in cultivating strategically important institutional relationships.

 

Department Overview 

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals are part of UCSF Health, one of the nation’s leading academic health systems, dedicated to advancing health through excellence in patient care, research, and education. Pediatric services span multiple campuses and care settings and include specialized tertiary and quaternary services, community partnerships, and a growing network of affiliated providers and programs.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in related area and / or equivalent experience / training.
• Minimum 10 years of healthcare experience, including experience in business development, strategy, partnerships, affiliations, or related functions.
• 3+ years of experience leading complex strategic initiatives or projects involving multiple internal and external stakeholders
• Advanced ability to direct, influence and motivate staff, project team members, senior executives, physicians and leaders at partner institutions.
• Advanced ability to lead business planning, innovation development, and implementation for a multi-faceted health system.
• Advanced project management skills and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Advanced analytical, financial, and business-planning skills, including the ability to assess market opportunities, develop business cases, and evaluate strategic and financial implications.
• Highly advanced written and verbal communication skills, facilitation, and presentation skills. with the ability to distill complexity down to impactful simplicity, bringing disparate points into clear, linear narratives aimed at achieving specific objectives. Captivating storytelling skills and senior-level gravitas. 
• Skills to interpret and convey highly sophisticated strategic, technical, and financial information in a clear, concise manner, and to make cogent presentations of analyses, reports, and investigation results.

 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree

% 

of time

Essential Function (Yes/No)

  

Key Responsibilities

(To be completed by Supervisor)

25%

 

Regional Market & Competitive Strategy. 

Develop and maintain a comprehensive assessment of UCSF Children’s Health’s position within each priority regional submarket. Evaluate market share and TQ opportunity, referral flows, competitive relationships, hospital and physician alignment, service capabilities, existing UCSF relationships, and emerging market dynamics. Translate these insights into clear priorities for growth and relationship development. Maintain active awareness of changing market conditions, competitor activity, leadership transitions, affiliation strategies, physician alignment, and other developments that could create risk or opportunity for UCSF. Anticipate where important relationships may become available or vulnerable and initiate engagement early enough to position UCSF favorably when opportunities emerge.

 

Partner with Department Chairs, Division Chiefs, service-line leaders, and Children’s Health leadership to translate regional opportunities into specific strategies for growing priority pediatric services and TQ volume. Identify the referral sources, institutions, geographies, physician relationships, and partnerships most likely to accelerate growth and develop targeted plans to pursue them.

20%

 

Strategic Relationship Portfolio. 

Establish and continuously manage a portfolio of the hospital, health system, academic department, physician, and other institutional relationships most important to the long-term growth and market position of Children’s Health. Define relationship objectives and strategies based on whether UCSF needs to protect, deepen, develop, reposition, or recapture a relationship.   Develop and maintain data with an executive dashboard that provides visibility on portfolio performance and opportunities for further growth/value.

 

Create visibility across the range of external relationships already held throughout UCSF—including clinical services agreements, departmental relationships, faculty relationships, affiliations, outreach programs, and other arrangements—and identify opportunities to better coordinate and harness these assets for greater collective impact. Develop strategies that connect otherwise discrete relationships into a more coherent UCSF Children’s Health market presence. 

 

Partner with academic departments to coordinate, support, and maximize the strategic value of Clinical Services Agreements and other externally facing clinical relationships. Develop strong working relationships with Department Chairs, Division Chiefs, departmental administrators, and faculty leaders to understand the portfolio of existing agreements, the strategic objectives they serve, and opportunities to strengthen or expand those relationships.

20%

 

New Hospital Relationship Development. 

Identify hospitals and health systems where new or stronger relationships could materially improve UCSF Children’s Health’s regional position, referral network, service-line growth, or TQ volume. Lead efforts to establish and cultivate those relationships, often well before a defined partnership opportunity exists. 

 

Develop relationship strategies for priority institutions and ensure the appropriate UCSF executives, department and service line leaders are engaged. Work closely with Children’s Health executives, UCSF Health leadership, Department Chairs, Division Chiefs, and other clinical and administrative leaders to establish executive sponsors, coordinate outreach, prepare leaders for key interactions, and maintain continuity in important relationships. The Executive Director is accountable for ensuring UCSF is intentionally cultivating the relationships that matter most to Children’s Health and will orchestrate and coordinate those relationships from pipeline development through transaction, implementation, and ongoing governance. 

20%

 

Opportunity Pipeline & Execution. 

Maintain a disciplined portfolio of growth and partnership opportunities, assessing strategic value, market impact, feasibility, financial implications, and organizational readiness. Lead high-priority opportunities from concept through executive alignment, business case development, negotiation, and implementation in partnership with Strategy, Affiliates & Network, Finance, Legal, clinical leadership, and operations.

15%

 

Service Line Strategic Planning.

Partner with service line leadership and the Strategy Director to develop and advance regional strategies that support the service line’s volume, quality, and strategic goals. Provide a comprehensive assessment of each service line’s regional position, including referral patterns, market dynamics, competitive relationships, existing hospital and physician relationships, and opportunities for growth.

 

Translate this assessment into actionable relationship and market-development plans that fully harness existing relationships, identify opportunities to augment or expand current partnerships, and prioritize strategically important new relationships. Ensure business development efforts are tightly aligned with the service line strategic plan and focused on relationships and partnerships that strengthen regional position, expand access, support quality objectives, and drive sustainable TQ volume growth.

100%