Job Summary
Come work as a Medical Director with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH)!
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is looking for a Medical Director, Resident Doctors Employment Affairs.
The Medical Director, Resident Doctors Employment Affairs provides strategic medical leadership for the integration, coordination, quality, and advancement of Resident Doctor training environments across VCH, British Columbia’s partner Health Authorities (HA) and affiliated academic institutions, recognizing the dual nature of Resident Doctors as employees of VCH for the employment record and authorized clinical learners within VCH.
Reporting to the VP Medicine and Academic Affairs VCH, the role works in close partnership with provincial Health Authority leadership, VCH People team, academic institutions, operational leaders, physician educators, and Resident Doctors. In a dyad partnership with the Director, Resident Doctors Employment Affairs, the Medical Director provides strategic leadership to support alignment between healthcare delivery, postgraduate medical education, workforce planning, and Resident Doctor employment frameworks across British Columbia. Through this shared leadership of the Resident Doctors Employment Affairs Office (REAO), the Medical Director provides provincial medical leadership related to clinical training environments, physician engagement, Resident Doctors wellbeing, employment experience, and alignment between healthcare delivery systems and postgraduate medical education.
The role supports the development of a VCH coordinated and provincially integrated approach to Resident Doctor employment-related operational matters, while ensuring alignment with academic partners, patient safety principles, physician workforce priorities, and organizational strategic objectives.
The Medical Director serves as a senior physician advisor to provincial leadership and provides clinical and strategic oversight relating to Resident Doctors integration within healthcare delivery systems across VCH, and through HA partnerships across British Columbia. The Medical Director plays a key provincial leadership role in advancing the quality, consistency, safety, and integration of postgraduate medical education within British Columbia’s healthcare system. The role directly influences Resident Doctors’ experience, physician workforce sustainability, patient safety, and the future development of the physician workforce across the province.
This role operates within a model of shared accountability and partnership, recognizing the distributed nature of medical staff governance and the intersection with operational, academic, and corporate functions. The work is grounded in VCH’s commitment to our pillars of Indigenous Cultural Safety, Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Planetary Health.
Key Accountabilities
Provincial Medical Leadership
- Provides physician leadership and advice regarding the evolution and sustainability of British Columbia's provincial Resident Doctor employment model, supporting alignment between employment obligations, educational requirements, operational service needs, and physician workforce priorities.
- Provides provincial medical leadership relating to Resident Doctor employment, integration, and clinical training environments.
- Leads development of provincial strategies supporting high-quality, safe, and consistent Resident Doctor training experiences across VCH and partner Health Authorities and clinical training sites.
- Advises VCH leadership and partner Health Authorities and academic partners on emerging issues, opportunities, and risks affecting Resident Doctors.
- Supports alignment between healthcare delivery priorities, postgraduate medical education, and physician workforce needs.
- Contributes to provincial physician workforce planning initiatives related to Resident Doctors and future physician supply.
Quality, Safety and Resident Doctor Experience
- Provides medical leadership related to Resident Doctor professional practice, wellness, professional conduct, supervision, fatigue management and psychological safety.
- Advises on complex matters involving Resident Doctors where clinical practice, workplace culture, education, and patient safety intersect and serves as a point of escalation for related matters and concerns.
- Supports HA wide, and provincial consistency in approaches to Resident Doctors integration as employees and authorized clinical learners within clinical care environments.
- Collaborates with academic institutions and Health Authorities to support matters related to accreditation, including risks, concerns, and quality improvement opportunities.
- Promotes high-quality clinical teaching environments, culture, and physician engagement in medical education.
Collaboration with Academic Institutions & Health Authorities
- Develops strong collaborative relationships with postgraduate medical education leadership at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), Health Authorities, and affiliated teaching sites.
- Participates in provincial committees, governance structures, and strategic initiatives relating to Resident Doctors clinical placements and employment environments.
- Supports integration and coordination between academic and operational leadership structures.
- Acts as a physician liaison between academic institutions, operational leadership, and the Offices of Medical Affairs in the Health Authorities.
- With the Director, Resident Doctors Employment Affairs as dyad, provides leadership of REAO and the Council on Resident Education in Medicine (CORE-Med).
Governance, Policy & Strategic Improvement
- Provides physician leadership in development of provincial standards, policies, procedures, and governance frameworks relating to Resident Doctors and clinical training and employment environments.
- Supports physician supervisors and operational leaders in managing Resident Doctor-related clinical and professionalism matters.
- Promotes consistent approaches to escalation, support, and communication processes relating to Resident Doctors.
- Supports development of standardized approaches to quality improvement, reporting, and performance monitoring relating to Resident Doctor experiences and clinical training environments.
- Advises on policy alignment between academic institutions and Health Authorities where clinical training and employment obligations intersect.
- Contributes to development of provincial metrics, dashboards, and reporting frameworks relating to Resident Doctors training environments and workforce trends.
Engagement & Leadership Development
- Promotes physician engagement in Resident Doctors supervision and integration into clinical environments across British Columbia.
- Encourages collaborative and respectful relationships between medical staff physicians, operational teams, and Resident Doctors.
- Acts as a champion for innovation, continuous quality improvement, and system integration.
Qualifications
- A Doctor of Medicine Degree and licensure in good standing with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia
- Faculty appointment with the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Medicine or with the Simon Fraser University (SFU) School of Medicine
- Eligibility for medical staff privileges or credentialed medical provider (CMP) with VCH.
- Demonstrated senior medical leadership experience developing and implementing organizational strategic initiatives within large, complex organizations.
- Demonstrated strong understanding of medical education, Resident Doctor clinical training environments, physician workforce systems, medical staff governance, and academic governance.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional, enterprise-wide initiatives within complex healthcare and academic systems.
Role Specific Expertise
- Demonstrated expertise in senior level consultation, facilitation and coaching, including the ability to support executive leaders, directors and cross functional teams through sensitive, complex or high risk discussions using conflict sensitive and trauma informed approaches.
- Advanced communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex issues and develop clear, accessible and compelling narratives, presentations and briefing materials that support executive decision making, accountability and organizational learning.
- Strong change management capability, including the ability to support large scale cultural and organizational transformation, navigate resistance, influence behaviour changes and contribute to embedding inclusive practices across diverse operational environments.
- Demonstrated ability to apply systems thinking in strategic planning contexts, including identifying interdependencies, anticipating risks and contributing to the design of long term organizational change initiatives.
- Proven program and project leadership capability, including skills in prioritization, resource coordination, implementation support, evaluation and cross organizational alignment.
- Advanced analytical skills, including the ability to examine policies, programs and engagement data through an intersectional lens to identify systemic trends, assess progress and inform executive level decision making.
- Demonstrated political acuity, sound judgment and organizational awareness when navigating complex environments, advising senior leaders and communicating sensitive or high impact information.
- Understanding of accessibility principles within complex public sector environments, including applying legislative requirements, universal design principles and recognized best practice standards
Closing Statement
At Vancouver Coastal Health, our vision of healthy lives in healthy communities inspires us and our values and pillars guide us. We support equitable practices, diverse teams, and inclusive environments, which are integral to creating welcoming spaces where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and feel supported. We encourage applications from equity-deserving communities, including Indigenous Peoples and members of racialized groups, people with disabilities and people of all gender identities and expressions and sexual orientation.
Interested applicants please submit a resume and covering letter, including alignment to VCH values and pillars, by October 16, 2026 to:
Olivia Todd
Manager, Talent Acquisition, Medical Staff
[email protected]
