Director Clinical Research Operations

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Provides strategic and operational leadership for a large, multidisciplinary clinical research organization of 100+ staff. Oversees the full clinical research portfolio, including study start-up, regulatory, coordination, research nursing, and financial operations, as well as the clinical research technology ecosystem.

Leads organizational strategy, drives operational excellence, and fosters a high-performing, engaged culture. Serves as a key liaison to leadership, sponsors, and partners, strengthening collaboration and advancing research operations. Ensures effective governance, financial oversight, compliance, and process standardization to support data-driven decisions and a high-quality, efficient research enterprise.

1. Leads a multidisciplinary clinical research organization, partnering with internal and external investigators, institutional leadership, and key stakeholders to advance research initiatives.

2. Drives strategic growth of clinical research by developing and executing a multi-year clinical trials strategy; establishes annual targets for study start-up, enrollment, capacity, and throughput, and leads change management efforts to scale operations.

3. Oversees clinical research operations across multiple sub-departments, including clinical research coordination, pediatric clinical research unit, investigational drug services, regulatory services, study start-up, budget development and negotiation, and research systems utilization.

4. Ensures regulatory compliance and operational excellence by applying deep knowledge of federal regulations and the clinical research environment to support safe, efficient, and high-quality research with a strong focus on transparency, customer service, and continuous improvement.

5. Serves as the primary operational liaison with internal and external partners, including ACRI, ACH, UAMS, sponsors, CROs, consortia, and clinical leadership; promotes clinical research operations, expands partnerships, attracts sponsors, supports funding opportunities, and strengthens investigator engagement, performance, and integration.
 

6. Establishes and governs research operations frameworks, including centralized feasibility, pipeline management, and study prioritization; optimizes resource allocation through workload and capacity modeling to improve activation and enrollment timelines.

7. Builds and leads a high-performing team by overseeing recruitment, training, performance management, and engagement initiatives; fosters a collaborative, inclusive, and results-driven culture.

8. Partners across departments to standardize and enhance research feasibility and start-up processes; ensures compliance with regulatory, financial, and legal requirements while maintaining continuous inspection readiness.

9. Provides financial leadership for clinical research operations, including budgeting, forecasting, pricing, coverage analysis, compliant billing, invoicing, and accounts receivable; supports data-driven portfolio and investment decisions to expand and accelerate clinical research.

10. Performs other duties as assigned in alignment with the scope and level of the role.