Associate Principal, Payer Partnerships

1 in 4 people in the US have a treatable mental health condition, but most providers don't accept insurance, making therapy too expensive for most people. Headway’s mission is to fix this by building a new mental healthcare system everyone can access. We started by solving the biggest barrier to care: insurance. The admin work - credentialing, claims, payment reconciliation - is a nightmare. We've automated that.

But we're going further. Over 75,000 providers across all 50 states run their practice on our software, serving over 1 million patients. We are building the best tools for therapists to run their entire practice, reimagining the experience of finding a therapist, and investing in the platform foundations to enable this at scale. We aren't just a billing layer; we are becoming the platform where care actually happens.

We're a Series D company with $325M+ in funding (a16z, Accel, Spark Capital, etc.), looking for exceptional people to help us achieve this mission. We want your time here to be the most meaningful experience of your career. Join us, and help change mental healthcare for the better.

About the Role

As Headway deepens its partnership with one of our most strategic national health plans, we're looking for an Associate Principal, Payer Partnerships to own the commercial relationships and channel strategy that will expand our footprint and make Headway the go-to mental health partner across the plan's book of business. Reporting to our Principal, Payer Partnerships, you'll work at the intersection of payer commercial teams, building the trust and advocacy that turn a strong partnership into a dominant one.

You will:

• Develop and strengthen senior-level relationships with commercial leadership at our health plan partner, ensuring Headway is known, trusted, and actively championed across their organization

• Develop Headway's understanding of patient acquisition channels, forming a point of view on which segments have appetite for deeper Headway engagement, which partners can facilitate that, and what the strategic tradeoffs are

• Collaborate with internal, cross functional stakeholders to deliver insights to inform product and operations strategy

• Drive strategic initiatives that deepen the partnership, identifying where Headway can expand its role, generate new demand, and increase stickiness across the plan's commercial ecosystem

• Build in a way that scales: document your approach so the commercial channel playbook you develop can be replicated across other accounts

You'd be a great fit if...

• You have a minimum of 7+ years of experience in the healthcare space, preferably in roles within Business Development, or in Strategic Partnerships/Customer-facing roles

• You have a track record of building meaningful relationships from scratch in complex, matrixed organizations — and you do it strategically, not just by being personable

• You've worked in or closely adjacent to the commercial side of healthcare, like at a digital health company with payer or employer channel exposure

• You don't wait for clarity to come to you; when the path forward is unclear, you identify the right questions, find the people and data that can answer them, and form a point of view before anyone asks you to

• You are operationally excellent, able to manage multiple high impact customers and large volume of moving pieces without breaking a sweat

• You think in playbooks. You don't just execute; you document your logic so others can build on it

Compensation and Benefits:

The expected base pay range for this position is $130,000-$200,000, based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for an equity grant, depending on the position and level.

We are committed to offering a comprehensive and competitive total rewards package, including robust health and wellness benefits, retirement savings, and meaningful o