Director, Nutrition Services

Director, Nutrition Services

The Director, Nutrition Services provides strategic, operational, and clinical leadership for Institute-wide nutrition services, ensuring safe, compliant, and patient-centered nutrition care and programs. This role oversees clinical nutrition practice standards, workflows, and resources to support high-quality oncology care across ambulatory and partner-based care settings. The Director partners with clinical, operational, and administrative leaders to align nutrition services with organizational priorities, regulatory requirements, and evidence-based practice. The position is responsible for performance management, continuous improvement, and effective stewardship of budgets, vendors, and systems supporting nutrition services.

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS, and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy, leadership, and service design: Develops and executes a nutrition services strategy aligned with Institute priorities, including growth in ambulatory care, supportive oncology, and network/partner integration; defines service goals, operating rhythms, and performance measures.

Clinical nutrition practice oversight: Establishes and maintains evidence-based clinical practice standards (e.g., screening, assessment, intervention, documentation, and follow-up), ensuring consistent, high-quality oncology nutrition care and appropriate triage for complex cases.

Operational management and resource stewardship: Leads day-to-day operations of nutrition services, including staffing models, scheduling/capacity planning, service workflows, and cross-coverage; ensures timely, reliable service delivery across clinics and programs.

Quality, safety, and compliance: Ensures compliance with applicable standards and policies (e.g., patient safety, infection prevention, food allergy management, documentation standards, privacy, and relevant federal/state requirements); leads audits, corrective actions, and risk mitigation activities.

Financial management and vendor partnerships: Develops and manages budgets; monitors expense drivers; evaluates and manages vendors and contracts supporting nutrition services (e.g., supplements, enteral product access processes, education materials, and any food service-related partners), ensuring value, service quality, and continuity.

Data, reporting, and continuous improvement: Establishes dashboards and key metrics (e.g., malnutrition risk identification, referral response times, visit volume, patient experience indicators, and outcomes where applicable); uses data to drive process improvement, standardization, and scalable service models.

Collaboration, communication, and program support: Partners with physicians, APPs, nurses, social work, pharmacy, operations, and partner hospitals to integrate nutrition services into care pathways; supports patient education initiatives and, as appropriate, research/clinical program needs (e.g., protocol-related nutrition guidance and patient-facing materials).

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Expert knowledge of clinical nutrition principles and medical nutrition therapy, with strong preference for oncology nutrition expertise and experience managing complex symptom- and treatment-related nutrition issues.

Ability to establish practice standards, policies, and workflows that support consistent, high-quality care in a matrixed, high-acuity ambulatory environment.

Working knowledge of malnutrition risk identification approaches, referral triage, and documentation practices; ability to operationalize these in collaboration with clinical teams.

Knowledge of healthcare quality and safety concepts, including incident response, audit readiness, and continuous improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, PDSA, root cause analysis).

Knowledge of applicable regulatory and accreditation expectations relevant to nutrition services and patient care documentation; ability to interpret requirements and translate them into practical operating procedures.

Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, contract/vendor management, and resource planning tied to service demand.

Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, and retain a multidisciplinary team; capability to build accountability, improve performance, and sustain a culture of collaboration and service excellence.

Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and align clinical and operational leaders on standards, priorities, and change initiatives.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical nutrition topics into clear guidance for varied audiences (patients, clinicians, and leadership).

Strong analytical skills, including the ability to define meaningful metrics, interpret data trends, and present actionable insights.

Proficiency with common healthcare and productivity tools (e.g., EMR documentation workflows, Microsoft Office), and ability to support effective use of systems that enable scheduling, reporting, and service delivery.

Demonstrated judgment, discretion, and ability to handle sensitive information with confidentiality and professionalism.

Commitment to equitable, culturally responsive care and inclusive communication practices across diverse patient and staff populations.

Minimum Job Qualifications

Master's Degree in Nutrition, Dietetics, Public Health, Health Administration, or a related field required. Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive experience in clinical nutrition and/or nutrition services operations, including 1-2 years of management experience or progressive leadership experience required.

License/Certification/Registration Required:

Registered and Licensed Dietitian required. Professional registration with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics required.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

Yes

Patient Contact:

Yes

Special Working Conditions:

n/a

At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we work every day to create an innovative, caring, and inclusive environment where every patient, family, and staff member feels they belong. As relentless as we are in our mission to reduce the burden of cancer for all, we are committed to having faculty and staff who offer multifaceted experiences. Cancer knows no boundaries and when it comes to hiring the most dedicated and compassionate professionals, neither do we. If working in this kind of organization inspires you, we encourage you to apply.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an equal opportunity employer and affirms the right of every qualified applicant to receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, ancestry, military service, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.