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Director, Patient Safety Reliability and Transformation - F/T - Days

University of California - Irvine Health
medical insurance
United States, California, Orange
Apr 03, 2026
Who We Are

UCI Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, and the only academic health system based in Orange County. UCI Health is comprised of its main campus, UCI Medical Center, a 459-bed, acute care hospital in in Orange, Calif., four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and ambulatory care centers across the region. Listed among America's Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 23 consecutive years, UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to Orange County's only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County.

To learn more about UCI Health, visit www.ucihealth.org.


Your Role on the Team

Position Summary:

The Director, Patient Safety Reliability and Transformation is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership, administrative oversight, and systemwide coordination of all patient safety, high reliability, and performance improvement functions across UCI Health. The incumbent is accountable for the development and execution of an integrated approach that aligns patient safety, performance improvement, and system transformation to achieve zero preventable harm, optimize patient outcomes, and drive sustainable organizational change in alignment with regulatory, accreditation, and organizational standards. This role maintains accountability for the design and implementation of comprehensive programs to minimize patient harm through the development of systems that advance a culture of safety, proactively identify risk, encourage adverse event reporting, and promote thoughtful, learning-oriented analysis of safety events and near misses across all assigned areas. The Director leads the development and implementation of departmental goals, policies, and performance improvement initiatives, and is responsible for the selection, onboarding, competency validation, performance evaluation, and professional development of all assigned coworkers. This position serves as a key liaison to all healthcare services, nursing, clinical and administrative departments, medical staff organizations, and committees throughout UCI Health, collaborating with executive and senior leadership to ensure patient safety and high reliability principles are integrated across the enterprise. The Director exercises wide latitude of authority in determining departmental goals and measures to achieve systemwide patient safety, reliability, and transformation objectives with limited oversight.


What It Takes to be Successful

Required Qualifications:

7+ years of experience in healthcare quality and patient safety with demonstrated ability in design, implementation and sustainment of performance improvement activities in a health care setting including skillful application of continuous quality improvement and patient safety sciences

5+ years of progressive administrative leadership experience in quality improvement, performance improvement, operational excellence or patient safety in an academic medical center or large, integrated, tertiary health care setting providing expert level understanding of the art and the science of quality improvement and patient safety

Exceptional level of professionalism, discretion and the ability to work on highly sensitive and confidential projects

Knowledge of current trends and best practices in healthcare quality improvement and patient safety

Successful track record of effective, team-oriented working relationships with physicians, nurses and other health professionals

Outstanding negotiation, written, and verbal communication skills

Outstanding listening, interpersonal relationship building, and problem-solving skills

Able to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously with demonstrated ability to complete projects successfully on time and within budget

Bachelor's Degree in related field

Deep understanding of HRO principles, Just Culture, and safety science

Preferred Qualifications:

MSN or Masters in related field

Record of presentations at regional and/or national meetings focused on quality and patient safety

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Current Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, CPHQ

Total Rewards

We offer a wealth of benefits to make working at UCI even more rewarding. These benefits may include medical insurance, sick and vacation time, retirement savings plans, and access to a number of discounts and perks. Please utilize the links listed here to learn more about our compensation practices and benefits.

Conditions of Employment:

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) seeks to provide a safe and healthy environment for the entire UCI community. As part of this commitment, all applicants who accept an offer of employment must comply with the following conditions of employment:

  • Background Check and Live Scan
  • Employment Misconduct*
  • Legal Right to Work in the United States
  • Vaccination Policies
  • Smoking and Tobacco Policy
  • Drug Free Environment

*Misconduct Disclosure Requirement: As a condition of employment, the final candidate who accepts a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose if they have been subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct; received notice of any allegations or are currently the subject of any administrative or disciplinary proceedings involving misconduct; have left a position after receiving notice of allegations or while under investigation in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding involving misconduct; or have filed an appeal of a finding of misconduct with a previous employer.

The following additional conditions may apply, some of which are dependent upon business unit or job specific requirements.

  • California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act
  • E-Verify
  • Pre-Placement Health Evaluation

Details of each policy may be reviewed by visiting the following page: https://hr.uci.edu/new-hire/conditions-of-employment.php

Closing Statement:

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC Anti-Discrimination Policy.

We are committed to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce along with honoring unique experiences, perspectives, and identities. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable, and welcoming.

UCI provides reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities upon request. For more information, please contact UCI's Employee Experience Center (EEC) at eec@uci.edu or at (949) 824-0500, Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.


Consideration for Work Authorization Sponsorship

Must be able to provide proof of work authorization
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