Area Manager for Housing and Respite Care – help shape a new highly specialized center

Are you prepared to lead a highly specialized housing and respite area for children and young people with complex functional impairments – and at the same time play a central role in building a completely new organization?

We are seeking an experienced and ambitious area leader who can set a clear professional and managerial direction for our housing and respite services and, together with the center director, leadership colleagues and department heads, help shape the new center that brings Geelsgårdskolen and 3Kløveren together.

The new center will be a large specialized organization with around 500 employees and offerings in school, STU, housing, respite, therapy, specialized functions, counseling as well as knowledge and development. Our ambition is for the new center to be known for highly specialized professional expertise, strong leadership, proven quality, and cohesive efforts around children and young people with some of the most complex support needs .

As area leader for Housing and Respite you therefore have a rare opportunity to both lead a complex operation here and now and shape how the area should be organized, led, and developed in the coming years.

Your area

Housing and respite comprises the center's housing and respite offerings on three campuses: Geelsgård, Margueritten, and Åbjerggård. In the upcoming organization, the area is one of four main areas with direct reference to the center director.

The children in our offerings have developmental delays and complex and multi-faceted support needs. Many require extensive support around the clock, and some offerings operate with 1:1- and 2:1 staffing. The task thus places high demands on both pedagogical and health professional quality, on staff competencies and safety, and on stable and professional operations.

You will be a leader of leaders. Daily personnel management must be close to the individual offerings, while your main task is to set direction, ensure coherence, and create the framework for your six department heads and their staff to succeed with the core task.

You will also help develop one common leadership culture across campuses, each with its own histories, traditions, and workflows.

A unique development task

We stand at a point where much is decided – but even more must be created. Therefore we are seeking an area leader who wants and can build the organization together with us .

The overarching organizational direction is set. But culture, collaboration formats, and the concrete way we will be one integrated center must be developed in the coming years. You will thus have a real opportunity to influence a large and highly specialized area.

You, together with your department heads, will be responsible for developing a housing and respite area where high professional quality, safe operations, and a good working environment go hand in hand. Shared direction and relevant common standards must be created, while respecting the differences between the children, the offerings, and the campuses.

You will among other things

• lead and develop the area’s department heads and create a strong and committed leadership team
• set a clear strategic and professional direction for the housing and respite area
• create coherence across Geelsgård, Margueritten, and Åbjerggård
• ensure stable operations, good financial management and systematic follow-up on quality
• strengthen the coherence between pedagogical and health professional efforts
• develop common workflows and quality standards where it adds value
• work systematically with working environment, safety and prevention in an area with high emotional demands and risk of violence and outwardly directed behavior
• strengthen recruitment, retention and competency development
• ensure professional and trustful collaboration with children and young people, parents, municipalities, authorities and other partners
• actively contribute to the development of the entire new center – also outside your own area.

Part of the center's strategic leadership

As area leader you will be part of the center's top management together with the center director and the two other area leaders. The new organization is built around a clear leadership responsibility close to core tasks combined with a strong cross-cutting strategic leadership community.

We therefore expect that you can both be a strong representative for your own area and at the same time think and act in the center's overall interests. This requires you to thrive in complexity and move between strategy, professional development, economy, working environment and operations.

As area leader you must be close enough to practice to understand it – but with sufficient organizational height to prioritize, set direction, and create coherence – and not be the one who solves all the problems yourself.

In addition you must be able to create a leadership group where there is room for professional disagreement, but where joint decisions are followed by joint action.

Who are you?

There may be several paths to the position. For example you may have a background in pedagogy, social work, or health care combined with relevant leadership training. Your concrete leadership experience and results will, however, weigh heavily.

We place particular emphasis on the following

• have solid experience leading leaders and can develop both the individual leader and a leadership group
• can create direction in change and at the same time ensure stability and proper operations as the organization develops
• have professional understanding of the specialized social sector and preferably experience with children and young people with extensive and complex support needs
• can lead across professional disciplines and foster strong collaboration between, among others, pedagogical and health professional perspectives
• work systematically with quality and data and can translate documentation, inspections, audits, working environment data and professional observations into concrete leadership and development
• have organizational judgment and can navigate a large public and politically governed organization with many different stakeholders
• can generate buy-in through clarity, involvement and persistence.

We are not looking for a particular personality type. But we expect you to stand firm when the situation requires it and to be inquisitive when others know more than you.

If you are motivated by creating something together with others – and by making an already important organization even better – this could be a leadership opportunity for you.

Salary and terms of employment

We offer a permanent position as of December 1, 2026. Employment is subject to the applicable collective agreement between Danish Regions and the relevant professional organization. Salary placement is based on a fixed monthly salary according to your professional background or according to the agreement for Other Administrative Chiefs.

Submit your application via the link no later than October 18. We will conduct the first interview on October 21 and the second interview on October 28. As part of the recruitment process, a test period will be included.

In connection with the employment, we will obtain references as well as child and criminal records. Employment is conditional on the information in the certificates.

Want to know more?

You are very welcome to contact center director Rasmus Rubæk at tel. 30 12 45 08 or [email protected] if you want to hear more about the position, the organization, or the development task that awaits.

Application deadline: Oct 18, 2026

Location: The Social Enterprise