Director, Research Site Operations

Job Title

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-Investigators, 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.

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 depth, and foster a collaborative culture.

Ability to communicate clearly with sponsors, investigators, senior leaders, auditors, and cross-functional teams on risks, decisions, timelines, and recovery actions.

Ability to understand budgets, resource utilization, staffing models, revenue and profitability drivers, change impacts, and growth opportunities research site.

Ability to interpret performance dashboards, enrollment trends, quality metrics, staffing data, and sponsor feedback to make timely, evidence-based decisions.

Ability to modernize workflows, strengthen SOP adherence, improve technology adoption, and lead teams through evolving trial designs and sponsor expectations.

Ability to anticipate operational, compliance, participant safety, staffing, facility, recruitment, and sponsor delivery risks and establish practical mitigation plans.

Ability to align work across Clinical Operations, Quality Assurance, Medical/PI leadership, Finance, Legal, Business Development, vendors, and clients.

Bachelor's degree in life sciences, nursing, healthcare administration, clinical research, business, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.

10+ years of progressive clinical research, clinical operations, research site operations, healthcare operations, or CRO/sponsor experience.

5+ years of people leadership, site leadership, department leadership, or equivalent matrix leadership experience in a clinical research or healthcare setting.

Demonstrated knowledge of ICH/GCP, protocol execution, informed consent, participant safety escalation, trial documentation, quality oversight, and audit/inspection readiness expectations.

Experience managing multidisciplinary clinical research teams and coordinating work across investigators, clinical staff, recruitment, regulatory, quality, operations, finance, and sponsor stakeholders.

Experience developing or supporting operational metrics, staffing plans, study readiness processes, recruitment/enrollment plans, quality improvement actions, or financial/resource plans.

Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and standard clinical research systems such as CTMS, eSource/eRegulatory tools, EDC, recruitment systems, dashboards, or related technologies.

CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services is a global, privately held, full-service clinical contract research organization (CRO) focused on the advancement of treatments for chronically and critically ill patient populations. We assist clinical research throughout the lifecycle of development, from drug concept to commercialization. CTI is headquartered in the Greater Cincinnati, OH region with global operations in collaboration with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device firms. For more information, visit

Advance Your Career We support career progression through a structured mentoring program and leadership courses that provide the support needed to grow. We also value ongoing education and training through tuition reimbursement and a dedicated training department.

Join an Award-Winning and Valued Team We have an award-winning unparalleled culture that can be felt by our employees across 60 countries. We support a work-life balance and the importance of time with family by offering generous health benefits and vacation packages, hybrid work from home opportunities, and paid parental leave. We also encourage care for the world around us through our unique CTI Cares program.

Make a Lasting Impact We focus on moving medicine forward by working on treatments for chronically and critically-ill patients, who depend on us to bring life-changing therapies to market.

Important Note In light of recent increase in hiring scams, if you're selected to move onto the next phase of our hiring process, a member of our team will reach out to you directly from an @ctifacts.com email address to guide you through our interview process. Please ensure you are applying for jobs directly on our website ( or from our verified LinkedIn page. Please Note We will never communicate with you via Microsoft Teams or text message We will never ask for your bank account information at any point during the recruitment process

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.