How To Become A Unit Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a unit director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A unit director is a management expert who is in charge of organizing and handling a team of medical experts in a company. You are expected to handle the everyday clinical, and managerial responsibilities for those experts included in the mental well-being and rehabilitation program. More so, you must also aid in employing healthcare experts to optimally increase the branch and margin gains of the medical facilities. As a unit director, you are required to be present in gatherings with the OCFS program. This is to address the functioning and output means of the program.

Furthermore, you must organize and handle payroll and procurement, which consists of balancing bills within budgetary boundaries. You must also form and develop constant communication with customers. A unit director must display outstanding analytical, communication, organization, and interpersonal skills. You must also be attentive to details. You need a bachelor's degree in nursing, business, or psychology to qualify for this job. Alternatively, you can use an associate degree. As a unit director, you will earn an average of $98,705 yearly, which is $47.85 per hour.

ScoreUnit DirectorUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $74,346

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.1

Growth Rate 28%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.71%

Asian 7.50%

Black or African American 12.91%

Hispanic or Latino 13.77%

Unknown 4.25%

White 60.87%

Gender

female 53.99%

male 46.01%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress Level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.8

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.9

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a unit director

Explore unit director education requirements

Most common unit director degrees

Bachelor's

60.4 %

Associate

15.1 %

Master's

14.3 %

Start to develop specific unit director skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	22.77%
Patient Care	20.84%
Customer Service	14.17%
Cleanliness	7.31%
Staff Development	6.14%

Complete relevant unit director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New unit directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a unit director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real unit director resumes.

Research unit director duties and responsibilities

Prepare and manage payroll and purchasing, which include balancing of accounts within budgetary limits; establish daily interaction with clients.
Manage operational organizing of stock and equipment, order supplies and oversee building maintenance, cleanliness and security.
Provide case management services to residents in the Alzheimer's unit.
Migrate all operations to a new ERP and retail system with a successful implementation.

Get unit director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a unit director. The most common roles before becoming a unit director include staff nurse, general manager team lead and assistant manager.

Prepare your unit director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your unit director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a unit director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Unit Director Resume templates

Build a professional Unit Director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Unit Director resume.

Apply for unit director jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a unit director job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

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