Clinical Quality Program Manager

Pelago; United States; Remote; USD 100,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Pelago, a leading clinical care and AI-enabled health company, is seeking a Care Quality Program Manager to strengthen clinical quality and accreditation readiness across our care programs. You’ll translate audit findings into updated policies, run the Quality and Safety Committee, and partner with clinical managers, Licensing & Quality Operations, product, and operations teams.

This remote, full-time role is open to candidates in the United States, with a focus on Joint Commission readiness,

Qualifications

• Active, unrestricted clinical license in good standing (e.g., LCSW, LPC, LMFT, RN, or licensed psychologist)
• 3+ years in clinical quality, compliance, or auditing
• Familiarity with substance use disorder (SUD), mental health, or behavioral health care
• Proven ability to work independently with minimal supervision
• Strong written communication
• Organized and accountable
• Comfort with ambiguity and iteration

Responsibilities

• Run the Quality and Safety Committee and track follow-through.
• Lead Joint Commission readiness, policies, mock audits, and surveys.
• Translate Joint Commission requirements into practical guidance for managers and care teams.
• Audit documentation, clinical reasoning, and protocol adherence.
• Deliver actionable reports with patterns and recommendations.
• Identify and fix systemic gaps with cross-functional partners.
• Maintain knowledge of regulatory and accreditation requirements

Skills

Independent work

Written communication

Quality auditing

Education

Active clinical license

Job description

Pelago is the leading specialty substance use care provider, built on the belief that effective treatment means matching care intensity to what each member actually needs rather than defaulting to the most expensive intervention. Our programs guide members through every stage of the substance use spectrum, from unhealthy habits to active use disorders, delivering personalized treatment for tobacco, alcohol, opioid, cannabis, and stimulant use based on individual health, habits, genetics, and goals.

With Sona, our voice-first AI Mental Health Specialist, Pelago now applies that same clinically-driven model to mental health, pairing deep clinical expertise with technology to expand access without compromising care quality. We believe technology should make clinical care more precise and more human, not replace the judgment behind it.

Pelago has scaled to helping hundreds of employers and health plans and has already helped more than 750,000 members better manage their substance use. If you're passionate about AI and making an impact on the health of others, join us and make it happen!

Overview of the Role:

As our Care Quality Program Manager, you'll lead clinical quality and accreditation readiness for Pelago's care programs. You'll run clinical audits across our care team, co-lead our Quality and Safety Committee, and serve as the clinical lead for Joint Commission readiness, from policy development through survey day.

You'll be the link between what quality reviews find and what changes as a result. That means turning audit results and committee decisions into updated policies, protocols, and care team tools, then confirming those changes improved care. You'll work closely with clinical managers, our Credentialing, Licensing & Quality Operations Manager, and our product and operations teams.

This is a high-ownership role for a clinician ready to shape a function as it grows.

This is a full time remote role, open to candidates located in the United States.

In This Role You Will:

• Run the Quality and Safety Committee. Co-lead it with our Credentialing, Licensing & Quality Operations Manager: prepare each meeting, turn discussion into clear decisions and owners, and track whether follow-through actually happens.
• Lead clinical readiness for Joint Commission accreditation. Own the required clinical policies, run mock audits, drive corrective action on gaps, and serve as the day-of clinical point of contact during surveys.
• Make standards usable. Translate Joint Commission requirements into practical guidance that clinical managers and the care team can act on.
• Audit clinical work. Run structured audits of documentation, clinical reasoning, protocol adherence, and member interactions against Pelago's standards, keeping records with integrity and confidentiality.
• Turn findings into action. Deliver reports managers can use with their teams, with patterns and recommendations, not just observations.
• Fix systemic gaps. Spot when recurring issues point to gaps in policy, tooling, training, or process; propose updates with clinical, product, and operations partners; and revisit changes to confirm they worked.
• Keep policy compliant. Maintain working knowledge of the regulatory, licensing, and accreditation requirements behind Pelago's programs so every policy change stays grounded and current.

The Background We're Looking For:

3+ years in clinical quality, compliance, or auditing, including hands-on experience running clinical audits, managing a quality program, and/or preparing for accreditation or regulatory surveys (Joint Commission, CARF, or similar)

• An active, unrestricted clinical license in good standing (e.g., LCSW, LPC, LMFT, RN, or licensed psychologist)
• Familiarity with substance use disorder (SUD), mental health, or broader behavioral health care
• Proven ability to work independently: you can take a task, run it, and return with clear findings without hands-on management throughout
• Strong written communication; audit findings, committee summaries, policy documents, and accreditation materials all live or die on how clearly they're written
• Organized and accountable: you track your own follow-through and others' without waiting to be reminded
• Comfort with ambiguity and iteration; this role will help define its own scope over time

Nice-to-have skills:

• Hands-on experience with Joint Commission standards, accreditation surveys, or healthcare regulatory compliance
• Experience with telehealth, distributed care teams, or virtual clinical programs
• Experience using AI tools to improve clinical documentation, auditing, or quality workflows

What you’ll love about us:

We have a whole host of perks for our people! From life essentials to nice-to-haves, there are more than a few good reasons to love working with us. We strive to ensure Pelago employees have equitable access to healthcare, wellbeing, time away, and then some.

• Generous and meaningful equity package
• 401k Plan
• Paid maternity, paternity & new parent leave
• Flexible working environment
• Annual Learning and Development stipend to support continued learning and career development
• Wellness Reimbursement Program
• Access to Reproductive & Family Planning Care
• Substance Use Support for employees and family members

The provided range reflects our US target salary range for this full-time position, which is part of our broader total compensation package, including incentive bonus program, stock options, comprehensive benefits, and incentive pay applicable to eligible roles. Individual pay within the range will vary based on a variety of factors like role-related experience and education, internal pay equity, and other relevant business factors. At Pelago, we are committed to an equitable and fair pay philosophy and review total compensation for our employees at least twice a year.

Base Pay Range

$100,000 - $115,000 USD

This role requires the ability to work lawfully in the United States without employment-based immigration sponsorship. This means that Pelago will not petition the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on your behalf or otherwise support your eligibility to work in the U.S.

As set forth in Pelago’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.