Mass General Brigham (MGB) seeks an inaugural system-level Chief Nurse Executive (CNE) to provide strategic leadership for nursing across one of the nation’s largest, most renowned academic health systems. This is a highly consequential enterprise role – responsible for guiding professional nursing practice for more than 15,000 nursing and Patient Care Services employees across MGB. The creation of this role reflects a clear and intentional commitment to ensuring that nursing leadership, expertise, and perspectives are central to shaping the system’s clinical priorities and strategic direction for the future.
As a not-for-profit academic health system, MGB is committed to advancing patient care, research, teaching, and community service. With twelve hospitals, including Harvard teaching hospitals Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Mass Eye and Ear, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, McLean Hospital, and seven community hospitals, MGB is a comprehensive, horizontally-integrated health system that also includes a health plan, a large physician network, community health centers, home care, and other health-related entities. Providing direct care to 1.9 million patients annually, MGB is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of its local community and patients in need worldwide. MGB is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the world, with over $2.7 billion in annual research funding, and is committed to advancing health care through basic science breakthroughs, the discovery of new treatments, and the rapid delivery of emerging therapies to its patients.
Nurses are, and always have been, at the heart of MGB’s mission, leading critical work in safety, quality, innovation, and education. As the senior-most nursing leader, the CNE will serve as the architect of nursing standards and practice across the enterprise, unifying quality performance, clinical practice, nursing leadership, and priorities across the continuum of care, including inpatient, ambulatory, home-based, community, and emerging care models, and driving bold innovation in nursing practice. The CNE will define and advance the future of nursing at MGB, driving exceptional care delivery, highest achievement in quality, safety, and patient experience, professional excellence, innovation, and rapid adoption of new technologies, high-reliability practices, and career fulfillment across the entire academic healthcare system. In keeping with MGB’s broader mission, the CNE will serve as the academic leader for nursing, ensuring a rich professional culture that advances opportunities for shared learning, professional development, and systemwide collaboration.
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), the CNE will provide executive leadership to the system’s Chief Nursing Officers and unify quality performance, clinical practice, and professional standards for nursing across all MGB entities by partnering closely with the senior leaders, institute leaders, department chairs, and operations executives. In doing so, the CNE ensures nursing perspectives, insights, and priorities are fully embedded across clinical and operational decision-making, organizational planning, and enterprise performance.
The CNE will work closely with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Chief Quality Officer, and Chief Patient Experience Officer to develop and operationalize the high-reliability goals set by the CMO and approved by the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Directors. The CNE is accountable for partnering with the CMO to translate systemwide objectives into actionable nursing initiatives, drive execution across nursing services, and ensure nursing delivers measurable improvement against its quality, safety, and patient experience priorities. As a High Reliability Organization (HRO) that elevates quality performance in its systemwide strategy, all system leaders are responsible for embedding a culture of continuous improvement, robust measurement, and risk mitigation across care settings.
As a member of MGB’s Senior Management Committee, which is led by President and CEO Anne Klibanski, MD, the CNE will work side by side with system leaders, elevating the voice of the nursing community within the most senior leadership committee and establishing a clear pathway for nurses to influence decisions that advance their shared mission.
The CNE will oversee and advance nursing research across the enterprise, ensuring coordination of research priorities, collaboration among investigators, and alignment of research initiatives with MGB’s broader scientific mission.
In close partnership with the MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP)—soon to be renamed Mass General Brigham University—the CNE will play a central role in advancing MGB’s academic mission for nursing. This partnership will strengthen the pipeline of future nurses, expand opportunities for clinical education and research collaboration, and ensure that MGB remains a national leader in preparing the next generation of nursing professionals. The CNE will be eligible for a faculty appointment at IHP and will work closely with its leadership to align academic programs, clinical training, and workforce development with the evolving needs of the health system.
The successful CNE will be a seasoned leader with a track record of success as the senior-most nursing executive at a large, well-respected, complex, high-performing health system and an influential voice in national nursing practice. Candidates with advanced management degrees eager to step into leadership roles in the healthcare system are encouraged to apply. The CNE will have deep knowledge and experience in nursing practice, care management systems, quality and safety, innovation, and the implementation of best practices. Familiarity with nursing and medical research and a deep understanding of nursing education and development are desirable.
This leader will be a skilled, direct communicator and leader committed to driving change and cultivating an environment that promotes retention, professional development, employee satisfaction, and wellness. The successful candidate will have a track record of enhancing the nursing workforce by recruiting and retaining top nursing professionals and leaders, and by providing career development opportunities across the entire MGB system. This highly visible role requires a relational, servant-leadership mindset grounded in mutual respect, transparency, humility, collaboration, and accountability. Ideal candidates will be performance-oriented, operationally adept, innovative leaders passionate about enhancing performance in highly matrixed health system environments.
The base salary range for this position is $750,000-$950,000, along with market-competitive incentive compensation. This compensation level is a good faith determination of anticipated compensation at the time of this job advertisement and may be modified in the future.
Please direct all inquiries, nominations, and applications to the WittKieffer consultants supporting this search: Steve Davis, Kimberly Smith, and Angela Raphael through the WittKieffer Candidate Portal by using the buttons below. For additional information, please contact Angela Raphael at