Executive Director

Hospice Muskoka; Port Carling; On-site; CAD 126,000 - 141,000; Full time

Job summary

Hospice Muskoka seeks an Executive Director to guide its next chapter in providing compassionate palliative and end‑of‑life care across South and West Muskoka. Reporting to the Board, the ED will lead strategic and operational initiatives, ensuring exceptional care, financial sustainability, and strong stakeholder relations.

With a strong reputation and an engaged Board, the ED will foster collaboration across staff, volunteers, partners, and donors, driving innovation while upholding the

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of senior leadership experience in not-for-profit or community-based settings.
• Demonstrated experience working with a Board of Directors and strategic planning.
• Strong business acumen with budgeting, cash flow and compliance oversight.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: advance Hospice Muskoka's mission and priorities and ensure sustainability.
• Operational Excellence: lead programs, ensure safety, compliance, accreditation and best practices.
• Governance and Board Relations: support governance and provide timely Board information.
• Organizational Compliance and Risk: maintain governance, privacy, security and confidentiality.
• People Leadership: foster inclusive, high-performing culture and workforce planning.
• Financial Stewardship: oversee budgeting, forecasting, internal controls, and fundraising support.
• Community Engagement: serve as ambassador, build partnerships and stakeholder relations.
• Continuous Improvement: promote innovation and evaluate programs for impact.

Skills

Senior leadership

Board governance

Budget & finance

Stakeholder relations

Strategic planning

Risk management

Communication

Job description

For more than 30 years, Hospice Muskoka has been providing compassionate palliative, end-of-life, and bereavement care to individuals and families across South and West Muskoka. Incorporated in 1995 as a charitable, not-for-profit organization, Hospice Muskoka has evolved from a community-based hospice into a recognized leader in delivering a comprehensive continuum of palliative care services.

Today, Hospice Muskoka, serves more than 100,000 residents across two towns, two townships, and two First Nations communities, through our residential hospice care - Andy’s House – and the various services we offer – grief, bereavement and caregiver support, pain and symptom management, palliative care education, advance care planning clinics, and most recently, our innovative community palliative care program Andy's House at Home. The organization is widely respected within the health and social services sector for its commitment to exceptional, person-centred care, collaboration, and innovation.

The success of Hospice Muskoka is built upon the unwavering commitment of its employees, volunteers, Board of Directors, healthcare partners, donors, community supporters, and government representatives. Together, they have created an organization that is trusted, respected, and deeply valued by the communities it serves.

The Opportunity

With the planned retirement of its long-serving executive leader, the Board of Directors is seeking an exceptional Executive Director to guide Hospice Muskoka into its next chapter.

This is an exciting opportunity to build upon a strong organizational foundation, lead a dedicated and passionate team, strengthen strategic partnerships, and continue advancing innovative, high-quality hospice and palliative care services for the communities of South and West Muskoka.

The successful candidate will join a respected organization with a strong reputation, an engaged Board, dedicated employees and volunteers, and a community committed to ensuring compassionate care is available to every individual and family when they need it most.

Position Purpose and Outcomes

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director will provide strategic and operational leadership to ensure Hospice Muskoka continues to deliver exceptional care while remaining financially sustainable, operationally effective, and responsive to the evolving needs of the community. The successful candidate will inspire a culture of collaboration, accountability, and innovation while fostering strong relationships with employees, volunteers, healthcare partners, donors, governments, and the broader community.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Provides strategic leadership to advance Hospice Muskoka's mission, vision, and strategic priorities while ensuring organizational sustainability and long-term success.
• Operational Excellence:Develops and executes operational plans that support the achievement of the Strategic Plan. Provides overall leadership for the organization's operations, ensuring programs and services are delivered safely, efficiently, and in accordance with applicable legislation, professional standards, accreditation requirements, and best practices.
• Governance and Board Relations: Builds a strong, collaborative partnership with the Board of Directors by supporting effective governance, providing timely and meaningful information to inform decision-making, and ensuring the Board has appropriate oversight of organizational performance, financial sustainability, quality, compliance, and risk. Keeps the Board informed of emerging issues, trends, opportunities, and matters of strategic significance.
• Organizational Compliance and Risk Management: Ensures effective governance, compliance, and risk management frameworks are in place to meet all legislative, regulatory, contractual, and organizational obligations. Maintains robust systems to safeguard the privacy, security, and confidentiality of resident, client, employee, volunteer, and donor information.
• People Leadership: Fosters an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing culture grounded in Hospice Muskoka's mission, vision, and values. Ensures the organization has the leadership, talent, workforce planning, and human resource practices necessary to support exceptional care & programming, organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, and a safe and healthy workplace.
• Financial Stewardship: Ensures the long-term financial sustainability of Hospice Muskoka through effective financial stewardship, strategic resource allocation, budgeting, forecasting, internal controls, cash flow management and compliance with financial regulations. Supports fundraising and revenue generation activities. Provides the Board with timely financial analysis and recommendations to support informed governance and decision-making.
• Community and Stakeholder Engagement: Serves as the primary ambassador for Hospice Muskoka, cultivating trusted relationships with residents, clients and families, healthcare providers, community organizations, donors, governments, funding partners, media, and other stakeholders. Champions integrated care, advocates for hospice and palliative care, and strengthens Hospice Muskoka's profile and influence within the local, regional, and provincial healthcare system.
• Continuous Improvement and Innovation: Promotes a culture of innovation, quality improvement, and organizational learning by regularly evaluating programs, services, systems, and processes to enhance organizational effectiveness, service excellence, and long‑term sustainability.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of senior leadership experience, ideally within a not-for-profit or community-based organization.
• Demonstrated experience working collaboratively with a Board of Directors, supporting effective governance and strategic planning.
• Strong business acumen with confidence in managing operations and finances, with an eye to sustainability and the ability to identify risks and support sound decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively oversee an annual budget, manage cash flow, ensure compliance with financial regulations, and ensure proper utilization of resources.
• Proven ability to lead teams and build strong, trusting and collaborative relationships with staff, families, the Board, donors, partner organizations, volunteers, and the community.
• A calm and practical approach to decision-making.

Nice-to-Haves

• Knowledge of hospice palliative care, community health, or Ontario's healthcare system.
• Experience leading an accredited healthcare organization.
• Experience in fundraising, donor stewardship, and community engagement.
• Strategic Agility, Planning and Implementation – future oriented and anticipates consequences and trends, including community needs, painting a credible vision of possibilities and likelihoods; sets objectives and goals, accurately scoping out tasks and projects and schedules and monitors progress; anticipates and adjusts for problems and roadblocks and evaluates results against goals.
• Leadership – Establishes clear direction and objectives, holding all team members accountable; maintains two-way dialogue with others, inviting and welcoming input; brings out the best in people; consistently models the mission, vision and values of Hospice Muskoka.
• Interpersonal Savvy and Composure – builds rapport and constructive and effective relationships with all stakeholders using diplomacy and tact; a settling influence in crisis.
• Communication – provides the timely information needed for staff to do their jobs and for the Board to make decisions; effective in a variety of formal presentation settings, inside and outside the organization, with the ability to influence and engage; able to write clearly and succinctly getting messages across that have the desired effect.
• Political and Health Care Environment Awareness – sensitive and knowledgeable to political issues and the Health Care Environment and their impact on Hospice Muskoka; improving services through integration with other providers of care; an openness to new ideas and the ability to adapt in a changing environment.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $125,870 - $141,480 per annum plus a comprehensive benefits package.

Organization Brief

Please visit the Hospice Muskoka Careers page to review the Organization Brief.

Hospice Muskoka confirms this job posting is for an upcoming vacancy (planned retirement) that we are actively seeking to fill.

Artificial intelligence may be used in various aspects of the recruitment process to assist with screening applicants, however all decisions are reviewed and finalized by humans.

Hospice Muskoka is committed to equity and diversity in the workplace. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, believing that diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives make us stronger.

We are committed to providing all persons with equal opportunities and standards of goods and services and we are compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require disability related accommodation to participate in the Executive Director recruitment process, please advise Sutherland HR Consulting as soon as possible. Accommodation may be provided in all steps of the hiring process. Any questions regarding this posting should be directed to Catharine Vickery.