Head of Department for Autism Center South

Are you motivated to lead others? Is collaboration and involving citizens and employees part of your natural leadership style?

Are you passionate about delivering high professional quality, and are rehabilitation and learning part of your DNA? And do you have leadership experience? Then read on.

You now have the opportunity to become department head in two fantastic departments, which house dedicated and professionally engaged staff. The departments are undergoing a very good development, where the work environment and a shared professional focus are at the forefront.

About Skovbogård

Skovbogård is an activity and social interaction offering under SEL § 104, which currently houses a total of 47 residents at the two addresses in Rødekro and Aabenraa. The residents are generally characterized by disturbances within the autism spectrum and related disorders.

Residents are offered, among other things, motor skills, gymnastics and physical training, as well as various other daily sensory-stimulating activities. Singing and music, linguistic stimuli and creative expression are part of the weekly program. In kitchen activities, there is a focus on various ADL tasks. Great use is made of the surrounding natural areas. There is the possibility to offer individual STU programs.

About Funkevej

The residential unit at Funkevej consists of eight apartments for longer-term housing under SEL §§ 105 and 85, as well as two apartments for temporary stays under SEL § 107. There are common areas in the form of a kitchen and two living rooms. The common areas are designed so that residents have the option to opt in or out whether they want to be private or part of a community. The framework provides good opportunities for both stability and development to be in focus. For residents in § 107 offers, there is work on housing training with a view to living in their own home with housing support.

About the job

As department head, your tasks will include

• Drive a good development together with the staff and ensure that professionalism is continuously raised.
• Manage processes and create good frames for daily work – including ensuring that the core task is translated into daily task execution, and that the effects of the work are followed up.
• Manage and comply with the department’s budget.
• Have overall responsibility for the work planning in your own departments in close collaboration with work time planners in each area.
• Support the staff in their professional practice and in documentation.
• Translate the annual institutional agreement in close TRI0 collaboration and in cooperation with your leadership colleagues.
• Support staff development, among other things through MUS conversations, but just as much through daily contacts.
• Participate in a dynamic and well-functioning leadership team that focuses on both daily operations and the future strategy for the center.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and build good relationships with, for example, relatives and partners inside and outside Aabenraa Municipality.

About us

Autism Center South is the municipality of Aabenraa’s offering to people with disorders within the autism spectrum and related disorders.

The resident group is characterized by a wide degree of variation in functional levels, which means that Autism Center South has a differentiated palette of offers. The center includes three 24-hour offers, one offer with day and evening staff, an activity and social interaction offering, and support at home.

We employ basic and typical pedagogical approaches, which supplement KRAP and LA2, including social skills training, motivational interviewing, ADL training, mentalization, and total communication. The center has departments in Rødekro, Aabenraa and Padborg and about 235 employees.

We are an organization that is in a very good development, and we have ambitions on behalf of the residents and the center. We continuously work to translate our core task – health, coping and community – into our daily work. To succeed, we also continuously strive to become more skilled and wiser, and we focus on how tasks are solved in a multidisciplinary collaboration. We also place great emphasis on listening to the voices of the residents, and we emphasize the way we solve tasks so that it actually creates value for the residents.

With us you get a lot of influence and freedom, and you will have the opportunity to influence and be part of change processes in your own department, but also across the center in collaboration with the other leadership team. You will not be left alone with your leadership. We actively work in the leadership team with what it means to lead together.

We offer

• A leadership role with a lot of room for action and the opportunity to make a difference
• A strong professional community in Autism Center South and in the leadership team
• An onboarding process and ongoing sparring with the center leader and colleagues
• An working environment with psychological safety and high well-being

About you

We expect you to be professionally capable of

• Having the ability to give pedagogical and professional sparring
• Having an educational background relevant to the specialized area
• Having professional experience from the autism field or related issues
• Having experience with leadership and preferably leadership of staff who are used to working independently
• Having a relevant leadership education or being willing to undertake it when we assess that the time is appropriate
• Having experience working in a politically governed organization, perhaps in a municipality, but it could also be in other contexts

We expect you personally to

• Show trust in employees by listening, delegating, involving and collaborating
• Recognize each employee’s competencies and create opportunities for these to be utilized
• Lead by example for a healthy culture characterized by high psychological safety
• Be a visible and accessible leader who dares to stand by your leadership
• Be reflective in your prioritization and communicate it clearly
• Implement initiatives and ensure they are followed through
• Be good at keeping an overview

Salary and employment terms

Salary and employment terms are in accordance with the applicable leadership agreement.

There may be inquiries and tasks outside normal working hours.

We expect you to be able to start no later than February 1, 2027.

Please note that a criminal background check will be obtained, and employment will be conditional on this being satisfactory.

Aabenraa Municipality has a smoke-free work time.

If you want to know more

You can read more about us and our pedagogical approaches as well as see our method catalog on the center’s website

Also see our video .

You are welcome to contact center leader, Lars Hauge Damm at 21 33 59 08 or [email protected]

Application

Send your application via the link no later than November 22, 2026

There are planned employment interviews on Thursday, December 3, 2026, with a potential interview on Monday, December 14, 2026.

The municipality’s mission is that we together create The Good Life .

If you are a newcomer, we want you to settle in quickly and well. Therefore we have a range of offers for you - and those who may move with you.