Join Us as a Nature-Based Pediatric OT!
🌳 If you're a pediatric OT who loves the outdoors, this is the job for you! ☀️
Most pediatric OT jobs look pretty similar. You work in a clinic or school, you see kids one at a time, you document, repeat. At Outdoor Kids OT, your clinic is the local park. You’ll run groups in the woods, do individual sessions on the trail, and watch kids do things in nature that they flat-out won't do indoors. Since 2015, OKOT has built our entire clinical approach around connection with nature and others, and it works.
We are currently hiring a full-time (32+ hrs/week) or part-time Occupational Therapist for our East Bay location, working primarily at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley and Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland, with a start date in late July or early August 2026.
If you’re interested in working with us in other locations, please feel free to apply now. We’re always growing!
COMPENSATION
All positions are paid hourly per California law. ALL working hours are paid at your full hourly rate, including planning, documentation time, treatment sessions, email, meetings, consult calls, etc. We do NOT pay a lower admin rate for documentation or administrative tasks as some employers do.
Base pay for a weekday schedule is $54.33–$64.89/hour ($113,006-134,971/year) depending on years of licensed OT experience.
Saturday hours are available at 1.5x pay ($81.50-97.33/hour); therapists who take Saturday shifts can earn annual compensation to $118,222–$141,201.
All full-time therapists receive guaranteed annual raises and are eligible for yearly performance bonuses up to $3,000.
10-month contracts are available for therapists who want summers off, with June and July fully off.
BENEFITS (full-time, 32+ hours per week)
- 4 weeks paid time off
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Chiropractic and acupuncture benefits
- Life insurance
- State Disability Insurance, including short-term disability and paid family leave
- CalSavers retirement plan
- Mileage reimbursement
- Free AOTA-approved continuing education units
- Flexibility to complete documentation and non-direct-care tasks from home or anywhere that works for you
- 4-day work week options available for full-time employees
- 10-month schedule available for full-time or part-time employees
Read more details below to see if you might be a good fit for our team!
WHAT YOUR DAYS WOULD LOOK LIKE WORKING AT OKOT
We believe in giving therapists maximal flexibility over their own schedule. A typical day might go like this: you spend the morning planning sessions, then go pull supplies from our shared supply shed, and take care of documentation from wherever works for you (a coffee shop, your couch, a park bench). In the afternoon, you're in the local park running a few individual sessions or a therapy group, using trails, trees, and open space as your clinical environment.
Your caseload will be a mix of outdoor small groups (5-6 children) and individual sessions. Groups are the heart of our model and they require a different clinical skill set than one-on-one therapy- more dynamic, more on-your-feet, and more fun!
You won't ever be alone. You'll have a dedicated site lead therapist as your clinical mentor, real-time team access via WhatsApp, monthly all-staff meetings, monthly in-person skill-building and peer connection sessions, plus ongoing professional development opportunities for advanced clinical reasoning and growth as a therapist.
WE'RE LOOKING FOR OTs WHO:
- Hold an active OTR/L license in California, or have one in progress
- Have 3–5 years of experience as a licensed OT practitioner (truly exceptional new grads may be considered)
- Have the physical energy to run, hike, climb, and play outdoors for hours, in all weather, including the muddy, cold, and unpredictable kind
- Can think quickly on their feet and stay calm when things go sideways
- Have strong clinical reasoning and clear communication with kids, families, and colleagues
- Can support children's self-regulation using a relationship-based approach
- Bring solid documentation habits and organizational systems to manage a full caseload
- Have experience leading small groups of children
- Embrace a growth mindset, asking questions, admitting mistakes, and treating failure as data
- Enjoy mentoring fieldwork or pre-OT students
WHAT YOU'LL GAIN
When you join OKOT, you get immediate access to training in the ConTiGO Approach at no cost to you, including free access to the full ConTiGO training program (a $2,300 value) and 30 hours of AOTA-approved continuing education (3.0 CEUs) built into your onboarding. Ongoing CE is a standard benefit, not a one-time perk. You'll be mentored by OTs who helped build this field, with full clinical support from day one.
Job Requirements (Physical Demands & Work Environment)
To successfully perform this role, candidates must be able to:
Work outdoors for extended periods (2–6+ hours per day) in all weather, including heat, cold, rain, wind, and mud, while navigating uneven natural terrain such as trails, hills, sand, and wooded areas.
Physically engage with children through running, climbing, hiking, balancing, and playing, and lift or carry children and equipment up to approximately 40–50 lbs.
Maintain the stamina to stay actively engaged through constant movement and quick transitions for the full duration of a session.
Respond quickly to safety needs, including changing direction rapidly, assisting a falling or dysregulated child, and keeping visual supervision of multiple moving children at once.
Facilitate and manage small groups of 4–6 children in an open outdoor environment, tracking each child's location and maintaining group safety.
Stay situationally aware of environmental risks (weather, terrain, wildlife, other people) while remaining calm and regulated in unpredictable or chaotic moments.
Communicate clearly in outdoor settings where noise, distance, or distraction may interfere, and transport and drive to session locations including parks, schools, and community sites.
Use fine and gross motor skills to set up activities and handle materials, and bring strong attention to detail and executive functioning to manage documentation, scheduling, and administrative tasks.
We review applications on a rolling basis and will reach out to schedule interviews with outstanding candidates.