Medical Director, Clinical AI

About the role

You will own the clinical strategy that ensures Pelago's care programs remain evidence-based, safe, and scalable across diverse populations. You will act as the primary clinical authority responsible for embedding rigorous medical judgment into every AI-driven feature and workflow. This role demands comfort with rapid experimentation while maintaining uncompromising standards for documentation, compliance, and patient safety. You will translate complex clinical science into clear protocols that engineers, product managers, and care teams can consistently apply. You will partner directly with AI and product teams to shape tools that augment, rather than replace, clinical decision-making. You will champion a culture where technology amplifies human expertise and improves outcomes across substance use and mental health care.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and own the end-to-end clinical protocols, guidelines, and quality standards that govern Pelago's entire care model and program delivery.

Provide oversight and supervision for the care team, serving as the primary escalation point for complex or high-acuity cases that require immediate clinical judgment.

Ensure clinical practice remains aligned with current evidence-based research, regulatory requirements, and licensing standards across all programs and jurisdictions.

Lead ongoing clinical quality review, analyzing outcomes data, identifying protocol drift, and refining care pathways to improve effectiveness and safety.

Oversee medication-assisted treatment (MAT/MOUD) programs, ensuring prescribing practices, documentation, and monitoring meet both clinical and regulatory standards.

Serve as the embedded clinical authority for AI-powered care programs, supervising their development, deployment, and continuous evaluation against Pelago's quality benchmarks.

Participate directly in product design reviews, prompt engineering sessions, annotation strategies, and model output evaluations to ensure clinical accuracy and safety.

Define and maintain clinical governance frameworks for AI-assisted care, including quality assurance standards, escalation pathways, and comprehensive documentation requirements.

Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Design teams to provide structured clinical feedback and ongoing evaluation that keeps AI tools tightly grounded in evidence-based practice.

Help design how care team roles and responsibilities evolve as automation scales, balancing efficiency with empathy, safety, and human oversight.

Build robust feedback loops between AI-assisted and human-delivered care, ensuring smooth transitions and escalations between automated and live clinical support.

Partner with Care Managers and clinical supervisors to align operational workflows with clinical standards, improving both outcomes and team effectiveness.

Champion data-informed refinement of care protocols, using outcomes, adverse events, and user feedback to drive iterative improvements across the platform.

Act as the clinical spokesperson for Pelago's AI initiatives, clearly articulating to stakeholders how clinical oversight is preserved in automated tools.

Requirements

Board certification in Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry, or a related specialty with demonstrated experience in clinical leadership in digital health or telehealth environments.

Active and unrestricted medical license in at least one U.S. jurisdiction, with a strong preference for candidates licensed in New York and proven experience navigating multi-state regulatory requirements.

Current board certification or eligibility in Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry, or a closely related specialty with deep experience in substance use and mental health treatment.

Demonstrated experience leading clinical teams, supervising care delivery, and managing complex, high-acuity cases in a structured clinical environment.

Proven ability to interpret and apply clinical evidence, research findings, and regulatory guidance to program design, care protocols, and quality improvement initiatives.

Strong understanding of medication-assisted treatment (MAT/MOUD), including clinical indications, dosing considerations, monitoring parameters, and regulatory constraints around controlled substances.

Experience partnering with product, engineering, and data teams in a technology-driven environment, including familiarity with AI-assisted tools, prompt design, and model evaluation concepts.

Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex clinical concepts into clear, actionable guidance for both clinical and non-clinical stakeholders.

Commitment to maintaining the highest standards of documentation, clinical safety, and regulatory compliance in fast-paced, technology-enabled care settings.

Deep empathy, cultural humility, and a patient-centered mindset, with a track record of delivering compassionate, equitable care to diverse populations across the substance use and mental health spectrum.