Lead and grow a palliative care APP team - while maintaining meaningful clinical practice and protected leadership time as the team grows.Base salary $160,000-$190,000/year plus annual performance bonus up to $25,000. This is a clinical leadership role with protected leadership time, not a full staff caseload with management layered on top. Direct patient load is calibrated to team size, creating real capacity to lead.
Setting • License: Inpatient - RWJ Somerset Hospital, Somerville NJ • New Jersey NP or PA license required
NJ Palliative Care Solutions is on a mission to deliver palliative care without walls across New Jersey, partnering with leading health systems including RWJBarnabas Health. We are hiring a Lead Advanced Practice Provider (NP/PA) to guide Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants delivering hospital-based palliative care at RWJ Somerset Hospital. The role combines direct patient care, APP mentoring, quality oversight, documentation standards, and practical program-building.
Leadership model:- A clinical leadership role with protected leadership time.
- May be mostly clinical at launch; as the team grows, direct patient load decreases to create capacity for APP onboarding, shadowing, 1:1 mentorship, case and chart review, clinical escalation, referral relationship management, and performance improvement.
- Visibly different from a staff APP role: the Lead helps set standards, strengthen execution, and improve the team's quality, productivity, and consistency.
Why you'll want this role:- Real ownership: shape clinical standards, mentor APPs, and help build the program.
- Protected leadership time, with the operational and clinical support to use it well.
- Data-guided mentorship and a collaborative interdisciplinary team behind you.
- Academic pathways, CME, and a clear path to grow your leadership.
- Primarily a Monday-Friday schedule with flexibility to swap workdays.
What you'll do:- Provide day-to-day leadership, mentoring, and clinical support to NPs and PAs.
- Carry a focused clinical caseload calibrated to team size - performing at the top of your license with best-practice, holistic, patient-centered, evidence-based interdisciplinary palliative medicine.
- Provide palliative care consultations and follow-up visits across the hospital continuum - from high-acuity ED and ICU encounters to ongoing management on medical, surgical, and specialty units.
- Lead goals-of-care and advance care planning conversations with patients and families, coordinating with partner SNFs and/or hospices if and when appropriate.
- Promote evidence-based standards, quality, and consistent documentation across the team - fully integrating into hospital workflows and shaping the palliative medicine practice.
- Give discharge planning as much attention as intake, managing transitions from inpatient to each patient's next setting based on their longitudinal preferences and best interests.
- Support onboarding, shadowing, case review, quality review, and escalation workflows.
- Build referral relationships and represent NJPCS with hospital partners.
What you bring:- Active New Jersey NP or PA license and national board certification.
- DEA + CDS registration, or ability to obtain by start date.
- Minimum 5 years of palliative care experience.
- 1-2+ years of leadership, mentoring, precepting, team lead, or supervisory experience.
- Palliative care certification (e.g., ACHPN / CHPN) preferred.
- Strong communication, clinical judgment, operational follow-through, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Compensation & total rewards:- Competitive base salary: $160,000-$190,000/year.
- Annual performance bonus up to $25,000, rewarding both productivity (RVUs) and quality of care.
- 28 days of paid time off your first year, growing to 33 days at 2 years, in one flexible bank.
- Malpractice & professional liability ($1M / $3M), license & DEA renewals, up to $1,000/year CME, up to $2,000 tuition reimbursement.
- Medical via Cigna PPO, including a $0/month employee-only option, plus dental, vision, and an HSA.
- Short- and long-term disability, voluntary life & AD&D, and accident / critical-illness / hospital coverage.
- 401(k) retirement plan, plus pre-tax FSA, dependent-care FSA, HSA, and commuter benefits.
- 24/7 Employee Assistance Program, identity-theft protection, legal plan, pet benefits, and member discounts.
This position is full-time, and full-time is our strong preference. That said, we know exceptional clinicians sometimes need a different arrangement - for the right candidate, we're open to discussing part-time or per-diem schedules. If that's you, please apply and tell us what schedule you have in mind.
