Assistant Director for Clinical Trials

Department
 

BSD CCC - Clinical Trials Office

About the Department
 

The University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) is an integral component of the Biological Sciences Division (BSD). The BSD is the largest of four Divisions of the University and includes the Pritzker School of Medicine. UCCCC administers four established scientific programs, and the NCI-sponsored Cancer Center Support Grant provides funding for ten Shared Resources. The Comprehensive Cancer Center is comprised of over 150 faculty members from twenty departments with members currently being awarded over $47 million in total direct costs in peer-reviewed cancer research grants, and $28 million in non-peer reviewed grants and contracts. The activities of the Center are broad and varied, including research, training and education, communications, fundraising, marketing, clinical trials management and community outreach.

UCCCC has one of the largest cancer clinical trials programs in the country and in the Chicago area with nearly 500 adult and pediatric therapeutic trials actively accruing patients. Many of these studies are investigator-initiated, including Phase I or I/II trials, demonstrating UCCCC commitment to translate basic research findings to the clinic through proof-of-principle and early phase studies. UCCCC opens over 250 new trials each year and accrues approximately 900 participants to therapeutic trials each year.

Job Summary
 

The job supervises and monitors a team of support staff responsible for regulatory compliance program activities. Anticipates problems and develops systems to identify areas of risk through internal audits. Uses specialized expertise to manage compliance documentation submission and maintenance, compliance training, compliance committee formation, and other programmatic functions.

The Assistant Regulatory Director (ARD) within the UCCCC Clinical Trials Support Office (CTSO) is responsible for the oversight of daily operations of the regulatory team to ensure that all cancer-focused clinical research is conducted in compliance with all application internal policies, federal regulations and guidelines.

Individual(s) in this role will provide expert guidance to PIs, research team, auditors, and other affiliated staff related to the maintenance of regulatory compliance for the conduct of clinical research activities.

Responsibilities

• Oversight of day-to-day operations of the cancer regulatory team in collaboration with the Regulatory Director and senior regulatory staff members to ensure compliance with all workflows, policies, regulations, and regulations governing the conduct of cancer clinical research; mentors new staff as required.

• Establishes and reinforces clear, measurable performance expectations under the direction of the Regulatory Director; oversee regulatory staff hiring and performance evaluation; implements and oversees staff performance improvement plans (as required).

• Oversee process for new investigator and research staff onboarding and essential document collection.

• Generates reports and monitors timeliness of regulatory activities including trial start-up, amendments, continuing reviews, and other required regulatory activities in collaboration with key stakeholders and departments.

• Identifies and evaluates fundamental issues pertaining to regulatory activities, proposes initiatives to address issues and barriers, and ensure solutions are implemented.

• Serves as a primary liaison representing the institution with regulatory federal and non-federal agencies during external audit; oversee preparation for external audits and regulatory monitoring activities; prepare and oversee implementation of corrective action plans and activities with input from Regulatory Director, senior team members, and other stakeholders as appropriate.

• Develops internal process documents, standard operating procedures, and training materials.

• Leads working groups and/or other internal committees.

• Develops and oversee regulatory staff training including implementation of new training programs in collaboration with senior regulatory staff and CTSO Education Manager.

• Ensures CTMS and other internal systems and databases are kept up to date; monitors compliance using dashboards/reports.

• Coordinates NCTN and other NCI-led group memberships in collaboration grant principal investigators and other stakeholders; ensure group rosters and related documentation are updated as part of UCCCC network growth activities; prepare and distribute reports related to these activities.

• Oversees IRB reliance activities in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.

• Implements and leads the process for regulatory reviews,