Description
UC Davis Medical Center
Sacramento, CA
Director of Risk and Emergency Management
Apply By Date: Sunday, May 3, 2026 by 11:59pm Pacific; screening and selection can begin any time.
Under the direction of the Safety Services Associate Vice Chancellor, the Risk Director provides strategic leadership for campus Risk Management, including Insurance and Claims Administration, Worker’s Compensation, Emergency Management, Mission Continuity, and Youth Protection. This role advances a comprehensive enterprise approach to identifying, assessing, and managing risk in support of the University’s teaching, research, and public service missions. The Director works closely with senior leadership to guide institutional strategies related to enterprise risk exposure, regulatory compliance, crisis management, and loss mitigation. The Director builds cross-functional partnerships to elevate risk awareness and embed enterprise risk management principles into campus decision-making.
Department Overview
The position directly supervises the Campus Emergency Manager, Mission Continuity Planner, Risk Analysts, Workers' Compensation Analysts, and the Youth Protection Specialist, providing strategic direction and accountability across all functional areas.
Key Responsibilities
Enterprise Risk & Strategic Leadership (20%)
- Establishes strategic direction and long-range planning for enterprise risk, resilience, and institutional risk tolerance.
- Advises senior leadership on emerging and evolving risks, including reputational, operational, financial, compliance, safety, and crisis-related exposures.
- Leads enterprise-wide risk identification, assessment, mitigation, reporting, and governance initiatives.
- Represents the campus in systemwide Risk Management forums and collaborates with UCOP and external partners on policy development, insurance strategy, and risk initiatives.
- Promotes integration of risk-informed decision-making into institutional planning and operations.
Insurance, Claims & Self-Insurance Program Oversight (30%)
- Provides executive oversight of campus insured and self-insured programs, including General Liability, Auto Liability, Employment Practices Liability, Property, Professional Liability, Travel, Fine Arts, Marine, Workers’ Compensation, and specialty coverages.
- Provides executive oversight of the Workers’ Compensation program, including claims administration, supplemental benefits, OSHA compliance, regulatory reporting, and strategic loss prevention initiatives.
- Directs and participates in campus claims and litigation strategy in coordination with defense counsel, UCOP, Third Party Administrators (TPAs), brokers, and campus leadership to ensure timely, compliant, and fiscally responsible resolution of matters.
- Oversees and ensures timely underwriting submissions, broker negotiations, coverage analysis, and insurance placement to optimize protection of institutional assets and financial resources.
- Reviews complex, high-exposure, or sensitive claims and participates in settlement strategy and risk mitigation planning.
- Ensures compliance with federal, state, and University policies, statutory requirements, and systemwide insurance guidelines.
- Monitors loss trends, benchmarking data, and financial exposure to inform strategic risk mitigation initiatives and reduce claim frequency and severity.
- Builds reports and presents outcomes to leadership as needed.
Emergency Management & Business Continuity (25%)
- Provides executive oversight of campus emergency preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery programs. Includes strategic support, investment and policies around ongoing training and institutional capacity building.
- Ensures compliance with NIMS/SEMS and regulatory emergency planning requirements.
- Coordinates, integrates, and aligns emergency management and mission continuity efforts with campus programs, leadership, and safety governance structures.
- Provides strategic guidance to campus leadership, committees, departments, and safety partners to strengthen preparedness and response capabilities.
- Directs enterprise-wide Business Impact Analysis and continuity planning efforts to strengthen institutional resilience.
- Advises senior leadership during Emergency Operations Center activations and crisis response efforts. Will serve as EOC Director for situation dependent issues and events.
Youth Protection & Compliance Leadership (5%)
- Provides oversight and strategic direction for campus youth protection initiatives, ensuring compliance with Protection of Minors policies and regulatory requirements
- Ensures development of training programs, compliance monitoring, risk mitigation strategies, and reporting mechanisms to safeguard minors participating in university programs.
- Advises campus leadership on youth safety risk exposures and oversees corrective actions related to non-compliance or emerging risk trends.
- Provides strategic guidance to campus leadership, committees, departments, and safety partners to strengthen preparedness and response capabilities.
Data Analytics & Reporting (5%)
- Directs development of dashboards, benchmarking, and risk analytics to inform leadership decisions.
- Ensures regulatory compliance reporting including OSHA recordkeeping, Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting, and systemwide risk reporting requirements. Utilizes trend analysis to guide loss prevention and strategic risk reduction.
Be Smart About Safety Program Oversight (5%)
- Provides executive oversight of the campus Be Smart About Safety (BSAS) program, ensuring strategic allocation of funds to support loss prevention, loss control, and safety enhancement initiatives.
- Establishes campus processes for identifying risk priorities, soliciting proposals, coordinating review and approval, and tracking measurable outcomes.
- Maintains accurate records of submissions, decisions, and outcomes.
- Ensures BSAS funding aligns with eligible risk categories and supports
- measurable reductions in frequency and severity of losses, including workers’ compensation, liability, property, auto, and employment-related exposures.
- Partners with campus stakeholders to promote awareness, implementation, and accountability for BSAS-funded initiatives.
Supervision & Organizational Leadership (10%)
- Establishes and maintains collaborative relationships with exterior partners across the enterprise to inform and affect risk-based policy and decision making.
- Provides leadership and oversight to professional staff across specialized risk disciplines.
- Exercises authority to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend this action.
- Establishes performance expectations, promotes professional development, and ensures operational excellence and accountability.
- Fosters a culture of compliance, collaboration, service excellence, and continuous improvement.
Benefits
Outstanding benefits and perks are among the many rewards of working for the University of California. UC Davis offers a full range of benefits, resources and programs to help you bring your best self to work, as well as to help you and your family achieve your health, wellness, financial and career goals. Learn more about the benefits below and eligibility rules by visiting either our handy Benefits Summary for UC Davis Health Employees or Benefits Summary for UC Davis Employees and our Benefits Page.
As you consider joining UC Davis, we invite you to explore our Principles of Community, our Clinical Strategic Plan and strategic vision for research and education. We believe you belong here. The University of California, Davis is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status.
Please visit our UCDH job site for a complete description, requirements, and application portal:
http://50.73.55.13/counter.php?id=320669
Job ID #85288
