Director Cardiovascular Services

 

CAREER OPPORTUNITY

Director, Cardiovascular Services

Cardiac Cath Lab  |  Interventional Radiology  |  Procedural Recovery

Leading Not-for-Profit Regional Medical Center & Level II Trauma Center  |  Nursing Leadership

Modesto, California (Central Valley)  |  Full-Time, Exempt  |  Days, Monday–Friday, weekends as needed  |  On-site

COMPENSATION: $200,054 – $320,091 BASE SALARY Plus leader performance-based bonus, merit increases, a fully employer-funded pension-style retirement plan, and a matched savings plan

 

You have spent more than a decade building cath lab and interventional teams, and lately the job feels less like leading and more like absorbing. Saturday add-on cases. A call schedule that never quite closes. Forty-plus people looking to you for answers while you own a budget without the authority to fix what is driving it. You are not imagining the toll: 37% of nurse leaders now say the work is hurting their health, and nearly one in four is planning an exit.

This is a director seat built for the leader who wants full ownership of a procedural service line — with a health system that funds it, backs it, and gets out of your way.

Our client — a not-for-profit health system ranked among Forbes’ America’s Best Large Employers and operating a Leapfrog “A” regional medical center in California’s Central Valley — is seeking a Director, Cardiovascular Services to lead its Advanced Medical Diagnostic Center: the Cardiac Cath Lab, Interventional Radiology, and the pre- and post-procedure recovery unit. You will provide administrative and nursing leadership for the full interventional platform of a 419-bed, Level II Trauma Center that is U.S. News High Performing in heart attack, heart failure, and heart arrhythmia care, and ranked among Healthgrades’ America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Vascular Surgery. Reporting to hospital senior leadership, you will partner directly with interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, and a management team that runs the day-to-day so you can run the strategy, the budget, and the growth. You will function as the executive owner of a procedural service line — not a super-manager buried in staffing grids.

•     Real Authority — You establish the operating and capital budget, set policy and procedure, and design the care-delivery structure. Senior leadership expects you to allocate resources and make decisions with little direction, not to file requests and wait.

•     Meaningful Scope — Cath lab, interventional radiology, and procedural recovery under one leader, in a growing market where the hospital already draws referrals across the county and beyond. The runway to expand the interventional cardiovascular program is real, and it is yours to shape.

•     True Physician Partnership — The hospital scored a perfect 120/120 on Leapfrog’s leadership and staff collaboration measure. You will build the interventional strategy with your physicians, not negotiate around them.

•     A Manageable Span — A manager tier sits beneath you and owns unit-level operations. Your job is to develop those managers, remove obstacles, and lead through them, which is exactly the structure the AONL span-of-control research says protects both the leader and the staff.

•     A Schedule You Can Keep — Monday through Friday days, exempt, with weekend coverage only as needed. You are not carrying the staff call schedule. Generous PTO, and a culture that expects you to use it.

•     A System That Invests — More than $2 billion in capital spending last year, a nine-figure campus expansion breaking ground on this hospital’s grounds, 83% employee engagement (86th percentile nationally), 10.7% turnover, and a leadership academy that put 13,000 employees through structured development in a single year.

•     Lead administrative and nursing operations across the Cardiac Cath Lab, Interventional Radiology, and the procedural recovery unit, delivering safe, consistent, high-quality patient care and an exceptional patient experience.

•     Own the operating and capital budget for the service line, with input from your management team, and ensure financial targets are met and variances are addressed early.

•     Work with senior leadership to develop short- and long-term strategic plans for cardiovascular and interventional growth that complement hospital and system priorities.

•     Set the direction of policies and procedures and build the structure that keeps procedural care safe, standardized, and effective across three distinct environments.

•     Partner with physicians, medical staff, and hospital leaders to resolve operational challenges, improve throughput, and make the interventional platform the easiest place in the region for physicians to practice.

•     Develop, coach, and retain your managers and frontline teams, building the kind of stable, engaged workforce that drives procedural quality and volume.

•     Ensure continuous regulatory and accreditation readiness across cath lab, IR, and recovery.

Required

•     Graduate of an accredited school of nursing.

•     Active California Registered Nurse (RN) license and BLS certification.

•     12 years of recent, relevant experience, including progressive nursing leadership in acute-care or procedural settings.

•     Advanced knowledge of nursing operations and workflows, the budgetary process, and the healthcare financial environment.

•     A credible leadership presence: calm under pressure, clear in communication, and able to motivate and engage people you do not directly control.

Preferred

•     BSN and MSN (or MHA/MBA with a nursing background).

•     Leadership experience in a cardiac cath lab, interventional radiology, or hybrid procedural environment.

•     Director-level experience in a trauma center or large acute-care hospital.

•     Nurse executive certification (NEA-BC, NE-BC, or CENP).

•     Epic EHR familiarity and Lean or other process-improvement experience.

•     A track record of growing a cardiovascular or interventional program: PCI or Chest Pain Center accreditation, structural heart, EP, or vascular expansion.

Compensation	•     $200,054 – $320,091 base salary, placed within the range based on experience, education, and internal equity. This range sits at or above the 90th percentile of every public benchmark for the title in California. •     Performance-based leader bonus and merit-based annual increases.
Health & Wellness	•     Medical, dental, and vision plans with low premiums and broad provider networks. •     Employee Assistance Program at no cost to you and your eligible family members, with wellness resources included.
Financial Security	•     Two retirement plans: a 100% employer-funded cash-balance retirement plan (pay credits tiered by service, a guaranteed 3.5% interest floor, three-year vesting) plus a savings plan with employer matching and pre-tax and Roth options. •     Employer-paid life and long-term disability coverage, dependent care FSA, and financial planning support.
Growth & Development	•     Tuition reimbursement and clinical certification support. •     A system Leadership Academy and Emerging Leader Program; more than 40,000 learning experiences delivered to employees last year, up 216% over the prior year. •     Career pathways and formal mentorship across one of the largest integrated health systems in Northern California.
Work-Life Balance	•     Generous paid time off and leave benefits. •     Fertility and adoption resources; voluntary accident, critical illness, legal, identity-protection, and pet insurance. •     A Monday–Friday day-shift leadership schedule in a community where a 15-minute commute is normal.

 

Our client is a not-for-profit, integrated health system with more than a century of history in Northern California, roughly 64,000 employees, and 3.6 million patients served last year. It invested more than $2 billion in capital in a single year, opened or expanded 31 sites, hired more than 1,100 physicians and advanced practice clinicians with 90% retention, and reinvested about $1.2 billion in community benefit. Its heart and vascular enterprise cares for nearly half a million patients a year with more than 325 specialists, five cardiac surgery centers, and eight hospitals recognized by U.S. News for heart attack and heart failure care.

The hospital you would lead in is the Central Valley’s flagship: 419 licensed beds, a Level II Trauma Center and Level II NICU, and the region’s referral destination for cardiovascular, cancer, stroke, orthopedic, and women’s and children’s services. It earned a Leapfrog “A” in Spring 2026, is a U.S. News Best Regional Hospital rated High Performing in nine conditions and procedures, and ranks #2 in California and among the nation’s 50 best for vascular surgery. Nurse staffing runs at 10.65 nursing hours per patient day, and the hospital meets every one of Leapfrog’s hospital-acquired infection standards. A nine-figure campus expansion, including a new ambulatory surgery center, broke ground on the hospital grounds this year.

Culturally, this is an organization that measures itself and publishes the results: 83% employee engagement, 85% of employees recommending it as a place to work, a 40% reduction in first-year turnover, and recognition from Forbes (America’s Best Large Employers, top 1% for company culture, Best-in-State Employer for California), Newsweek (America’s Greatest Workplaces, three consecutive years), and Modern Healthcare (Best Places to Work in Healthcare). It is also an early adopter of ambient AI documentation and enterprise clinical AI, freeing 1.6 million clinical hours through automation last year.

Modesto is where California’s cost of living finally makes sense. The metro sits 19% below the state average, with typical homes around $584,000, roughly half the price of the Bay Area an hour and a half to the west. Four international airports are within 90 minutes, and Yosemite is two hours east; locals describe the city as halfway between San Francisco and the Sierra. Home to a Broadway-touring performing arts center, a symphony, minor-league baseball, a 16-mile river trail, California’s newest state park, and the Graffiti Summer celebration born of the town’s American Graffiti heritage, Modesto pairs a real farm-to-fork food culture with the kind of neighborhoods, schools, and short commutes that senior clinical leaders rarely find in coastal California.

 

READY TO MAKE YOUR NEXT MOVE?

Contact your Bileddo Associates recruiting representative for a confidential conversation about next steps.

Client identity and full application details will be shared with qualified, vetted candidates.

Our client 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, or protected veteran status.