Associate Director, Clinical Site Budgets & Payments
Role Overview
The Associate Director, Clinical Site Budgets & Payments will architect and lead the company’s global approach to clinical trial site budgeting, investigator grant strategy, transparency compliance, and site/vendor payment governance across our clinical trial portfolio.
Key Responsibilities
Define Jade’s global investigator grant strategy, including opening-offer tiers, decision and negotiation parameters, aligned with international FMV standards.
Establish and maintain policies for invoiceables, pass-throughs, conditional procedures, screen-fail handling, and complex visit structures; ensure global consistency.
Develop and maintain SOPs/WIs governing budgeting, payments, documentation, and global transparency requirements (e.g., U.S. Sunshine/Open Payments and ex-US equivalents).
Define FMV justification expectations and ensure audit-ready documentation across all investigator/HCP engagements.
Translate clinical protocols into country-specific and site-level cost models that accurately reflect procedures, visit schedules, and conditional events.
Build and maintain global study budget forecasts, partnering closely with Clinical Operations and Finance to ensure alignment with development plans.
Implement and monitor just-in-time CRO funding, minimizing idle cash at CROs while ensuring on-time site payments.
Oversee accruals, spend tracking, payment reconciliation, and close-out documentation for accuracy and inspection readiness.
Serve as Jade’s primary owner of CRO performance for site budgets and payments, including contract expectations, KPIs, and service delivery standards.
Lead the payment-related components of CRO governance forums, including issue resolution, aging analysis, cycle-time performance reviews, and payment forecasting.
Resolve escalated site payment issues, driving sustainable root-cause solutions and process improvements.
Implement a high-touch service model for KOL/HCP payments (consulting, advisory boards, speaking engagements), ensuring accuracy, speed, and FMV alignment.
Partner closely with Clinical Operations, Development Outsourcing, Legal, Compliance, and Finance to ensure budgets and payments reflect protocol intent, operational realities, and compliance needs.
Provide executive-level visibility into performance metrics such as payment timeliness, disputes, forecast accuracy, and CRO funding utilization.
Serve as Jade’s internal subject-matter expert for investigator/HCP budgeting and payment strategy across a global two-program portfolio in Autoimmune disease.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in finance, life sciences, business, or related field with 13+ years of experience or an advanced degree (MBA, MS, MPH) with 10+ years of experience.
10+ years of relevant experience in biotech/pharma or CRO roles with direct responsibility for site budgeting and payment oversight.
Demonstrated ability to interpret clinical protocols and convert them into robust, compliant global site budgets.
Strong understanding of global FMV frameworks and Sunshine/Open Payments transparency requirements.
Proven experience governing a full service CRO, including KPI management, escalation handling, and process improvement.
Ability to analyze financial statements, accruals, and cash flow impacts.
Excellent communication, negotiation, and cross-functional influence.
Experience supporting Autoimmune or immune mediated diseases preferred.
Experience managing global payment models across diverse regulatory environments preferred.
Exposure to KOL/HCP engagement processes with FMV and transparency considerations preferred.