Medical Director – Child and Youth MHS – relocate to Brisbane

In partnership with Children’s Health Queensland, Healthcare Australia is recruiting for this exclusive medical leadership opportunity based in Brisbane, QLD. Lead Queensland’s most complex child mental health service. This role was built for the psychiatrist who leads from the front. A once-in-a-career opportunity to lead at the highest level, within one of the largest child and youth mental health services in the southern hemisphere.

The opportunity: Children’s Health Queensland is seeking an exceptional senior Child and Adolescent psychiatrist to step into one of the most significant medical leadership roles in the country. As Medical Director, Campus CYMHS, you will hold clinical and strategic accountability for 7 specialist campus-based services. This is a role for a leader who thrives in complexity, earns credibility through presence, and finds genuine purpose in the challenge.

• Child Mental Health Inpatient Unit: 9 beds · birth to 13 years
• Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit: 11 beds · 14-18 years
• Jacaranda Place: 12-bed subacute + day program · statewide
• Day Program South: Intensive day treatment · 5-18 years
• Acute Response Team: 24/7 emergency mental health triage
• Queensland Children’s Gender Service: Specialist outpatient + telehealth · statewide

Benefits include:

• 12.75% superannuation
• 17.5% leave loading
• Salary packaging
• Up to 14 weeks paid parental leave
• Long service leave from 7 years
• Annual pay increases
• Relocation support

What you will do:

• Provide overarching clinical leadership and accountability for all campus-based CYMHS services across CHQ HHS.
• Partner closely with the Program Manager, Campus CYMHS to build a high-functioning, evidence-informed service.
• Provide senior leadership in the management of sensitive, high-profile and potentially media-facing matters, ensuring appropriate, timely and professional responses in collaboration with executive leadership and communications teams.
• Lead, develop, and manage 14 direct reports, including senior consultant medical staff.
• Champion patient safety, quality improvement, and innovation, driving measurable improvement in service outcomes.
• Ensure robust training and supervision pathways for junior medical staff, consistent with RANZCP and CHQ requirements.
• Contribute to research, service redesign, and statewide mental health policy alongside the Medical Director, CYMHS.
• Maintain a genuine clinical practice, providing peer-respected, hands-on care alongside your leadership responsibilities.

You are:

• Recognised by your peers as a senior Child and Adolescent psychiatrist with experience in complex inpatient settings.
• A proven leader with a record of driving meaningful change at a tertiary service level.
• Energised by high-stakes environments and known for your composure within them.
• Skilled at managing up, managing across, and managing outward, with equal poise in all directions.
• The type of leader your team wants to follow: present, engaged, and genuinely invested in their growth.

What success looks like:

• Clinical credibility: Your authority comes from your colleagues’ respect, not your title. You stay close to the work.
• Unifying leadership: You bring people with you. You align diverse teams around a shared vision and keep the momentum going.
• You project steadiness when things are hard and clarity when things are unclear. You find the challenge energising.
• You take genuine satisfaction in turning a hard situation into a better one.