Vice President, Emory Clinical Research Office (ECRO)

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Description

The Vice President, Emory Clinical Research Office (ECRO) provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and operational oversight for Emory's central clinical research administration enterprise. Reporting to the Associate Chief Scientific Officer, the Vice President is responsible for the strategic, operational, and financial leadership of ECRO, including pre- and post-award administration, grants and contracts management, clinical research compliance and transparency, and operational support services designed to meet the needs of Emory's world-class investigators as they pursue groundbreaking clinical research. The Vice President also serves as a key representative of Emory's clinical research enterprise, driving strategic partnerships, supporting institutional growth, and advancing Emory's reputation as a leading destination for clinical research.

ECRO serves as Emory University's centralized clinical research administration organization, supporting clinical research conducted across the Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC), including the School of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, Winship Cancer Institute, and affiliated clinical and research programs. ECRO provides integrated clinical research administration services, in partnership with other Emory University offices, schools, and units, across a broad and diverse portfolio of industry-sponsored, federally funded and other non-industry-sponsored clinical research, encompassing more than 1,000 active clinical studies. As a core enterprise unit, ECRO enables the efficient, compliant, and service-oriented administration of clinical research and is central to growing Emory's portfolio in support of its mission to advance human health through discovery and innovation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Sets and executes a multi-year strategic and operating plan that positions ECRO as a service-oriented organization aligned with Emory's clinical research growth and priorities.
• Shapes and sustains a high-performing culture that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, service excellence, and employee engagement.
• Represents ECRO across the Emory research enterprise, strengthening awareness of services, building trusted relationships with investigators and stakeholders, and leveraging feedback to inform continuous improvement efforts.
• Anticipates shifts in the clinical research landscape, including sponsor expectations, regulatory changes, and emerging trial modalities, and proactively adapts ECRO's services, processes, and capabilities to meet evolving needs.
• Leads sustainability planning for ECRO, including workforce planning, organizational design, talent development and succession planning across its functions.
• Represents Emory externally with sponsors, Clinical Research Organizations (CROs), peer institutions, regulatory agencies, and professional organizations as appropriate, advancing Emory's visibility, reputation, and leadership within the clinical research community.
• Builds and maintains strategic relationships with current and prospective sponsors, industry partners, funding agencies, and other external stakeholders to expand Emory's clinical research portfolio and position Emory as a partner of choice for clinical research.
• Serves as a senior member of the Chief Scientific Officer's team, representing ECRO on relevant WHSC and university and health system-wide research governance bodies.
• Manages day-to-day operations of ECRO, including human resources, organizational design, space planning, budget, and coordination with technology partners to ensure systems effectively support operational needs.
• Provides strategic oversight of the clinical research infrastructure, people, processes, and policies that support industry-sponsored, federally funded, and other non-industry-sponsored studies.
• Oversees pre-award and post-award administration for grant-funded clinical research, including proposal support, award management, compliance activities, financial stewardship, and close-out, in partnership with institutional research administration offices.
• Partners with technology, informatics, and operational leaders to ensure key systems (e.g., Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS), Electronic Health Record (EHR), Financial systems, and other tools) support ECRO workflows, reporting, and performance management needs.
• Develops and maintains a sustainable financial model for ECRO, including fee structures, indirect cost recovery approaches, and recharges mechanisms informed by peer benchmarking and organizational needs.
• Monitors and reports on ECRO's financial performance to the Associate Chief Scientific Officer and institutional leadership, including revenues, expenses, cost recovery, and emerging risks, and implements corrective actions as needed to support long-term financial sustainability.
• Ensures fee structures, indirect cost recovery approaches, and other components of ECRO's financial model are supported by appropriate methodologies and documented justification and oversees communication to relevant stakeholders as needed.
• Maintains ECRO's clinical research compliance and transparency oversight program to ensure ECRO-supported activities align with federal, state, sponsor and institutional requirements, including policies, internal audit requirements and expectations (e.g., FDA, OHRP, NIH, GCP/ICH, CMS, ClinicalTrials.gov, Uniform Guidance and other federal grant administration requirements).
• Oversees clinical research contracting processes to promote timely study activation, appropriate risk management, and alignment with institutional and sponsor requirements,in partnership with the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), and the Office of General Counsel (OGC).
• Champions a service-oriented culture across ECRO, treating faculty investigators and study teams as partners and designing ECRO's services to anticipate and respond to their needs.
• Leads the evolution of investigator-facing support services, ensuring investigators have access to the resources, expertise, and guidance needed to successfully execute investigator-initiated studies.
• Leads organizational change management efforts across ECRO, ensuring effective communication, stakeholder engagement, and adoption of new processes, technologies and ways of working.
• Performs related responsibilities as required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: 

• Master's degree in a relevant field such as business administration, healthcare administration, health sciences, public health, clinical research administration, or related discipline and 10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in clinical research administration at an academic medical center, health system, or comparably complex research environment. Doctorate or terminal professional degree such as Ph.D., M.D., D.O., PharmD, J.D., or DrPH strongly preferred.
• Comprehensive understanding of the end-to-end clinical research lifecycle across industry-sponsored, federally funded, and other non-industry sponsored studies, with the breadth and perspective to provide strategic leadership across all ECRO functions.
• Direct accountability for the following functions strongly preferred: clinical research pre-award administration, grants management, feasibility and study activation, budgeting and coverage analysis, contracting, post-award financial management, invoicing, clinical research compliance, and investigator and study team support services.
• Experience supporting and overseeing sponsored research administration and grants management, including pre-award administration, award management, compliance activities, financial stewardship, and close-out. Demonstrated strategic acumen, with the ability to translate institutional priorities into a clear multi-year roadmap and execute against it.
• Proven success leading large, multi-disciplinary teams at the executive level, with demonstrated ability to direct and develop functional leaders and drive performance across a complex organization. Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to translate complex operational and regulatory matters for executive, faculty, and lay audiences.
• Additional preferred qualifications include demonstrated experience leading complex organizations and multi-disciplinary teams through strategic, operational, and organizational evolution in an academic research environment and experience building, scaling, or overseeing centralized research administrative services in a complex academic environment.

NOTE: This role will be granted the opportunity to work from home regularly but must be able to commute to Emory University on a flexible weekly schedule based upon business needs.  Schedule is based on agreed upon guidelines of department. This role requires residency in the state of GA. Emory reserves the right to change remote work status with notice to employee.

Additional Details