Director, Research Site Operations

What you'll do:  

• Lead overall site operations, including daily clinical research site execution, participant flow, staffing, scheduling, study readiness, documentation quality, issue escalation, and operational continuity.
• Translate site and business objectives into clear operating plans, priorities, metrics, governance routines, and accountability mechanisms.
• Partner with VP, Research Site Services and Business Development to execute the growth strategy for the research site, including portfolio mix, operational capacity, service capabilities, and sponsor-facing value proposition.
• Oversee planning, start-up, conduct, enrollment, subject visit execution, data/documentation readiness, and close-out activities for studies conducted at the unit.
• Ensure site operations are conducted in accordance with protocol requirements, ICH/GCP, applicable regulatory requirements, informed consent expectations, participant privacy obligations, CTI SOPs, sponsor requirements, and trial-specific procedures.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for operational, participant safety, staffing, quality, sponsor, system, vendor, or facility issues that may affect study delivery, participant experience, data integrity, or inspection readiness.
• Provide leadership and direction to site managers, clinical research coordinators, laboratory, nursing or clinical staff, and other site contributors, directly or through subordinate leaders.
• Build, coach, and retain a high-performing site leadership team by setting clear expectations, reinforcing accountability, developing talent, succession planning, and addressing performance issues promptly and fairly.
• Partner with Medical Directors, Principal Investigators, Sub-Inestigators, and clinical staff to support appropriate medical oversight, protocol feasibility, subject eligibility, study conduct, safety escalation, and participant-centered care.
• Oversee study readiness activities, including source templates, delegation logs, training documentation, workflow boards, laboratory and vendor setup, equipment readiness, recruitment plans, staffing schedules, and site initiation preparation.
• Lead or support protocol feasibility assessments, operational readiness reviews, enrollment strategy, recruitment strategy, budget input, sponsor qualification visits, pre-study visits, bid defense preparation, and business development activities site opportunities.
• Establish and monitor operational performance metrics, including enrollment, screen failure trends, visit execution, protocol deviation patterns, data entry timeliness, query resolution, participant retention, staff utilization, quality findings, and financial or budget performance.
• Use performance data, quality signals, sponsor feedback, and lessons learned to identify operational risks, improve processes, strengthen predictability, and drive continuous improvement across the clinical research center.
• Partner with Quality Assurance to maintain audit-ready processes, support sponsor audits and regulatory inspections, manage CAPA-related activities, ensure SOP currency, and embed quality-by-design and risk-based thinking into site operations.
• Collaborate with Finance, Contracts, Project Management, Business Development, and operational leaders to support budgets, resource planning, change order awareness, contractual commitments, and profitable delivery of site-based research services.
• Lead cross-functional communication with internal stakeholders and sponsor representatives, including status updates, operational risks, recovery plans, issue resolution, and decision recommendations.
• Promote a culture of participant safety, ethical conduct, inclusion, inspection readiness, sponsor service, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Maintain readiness for urgent operational needs, after-hours escalations, site emergencies, facility alerts, temperature excursions, or other time-sensitive issues that require senior site leadership involvement.
• Perform other duties, responsibilities, and special projects as assigned based on business needs.

What you'll bring:

• Ability to translate site strategy into scalable operating plans, capacity models, governance routines, and measurable outcomes.
• Strong understanding of trial execution, including inpatient or high-intensity visit models, participant safety workflows, recruitment, eligibility, source documentation, and study-specific site setup.
• Practical knowledge of ICH/GCP, informed consent, HIPAA/privacy expectations, trial documentation, protocol compliance, deviation management, CAPA support, and inspection readiness.
• Proven ability to lead managers and multidisciplinary teams, establish accountability, coach for performance, build succession d