Client Engagement Associate (Remote)

About the role

The Client Engagement Associate supports the execution of START's network-level client engagement strategy and serves as a key operational partner to the Vice President, Client Engagement & Study Activation. This role helps ensure a consistent, responsive, and high-quality experience for Sponsors, CROs, Principal Investigators, sites, and central teams throughout the study lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Supports the Vice President, Client Engagement & Study Activation in the execution of START's network-level client engagement strategy and day-to-day management of Sponsor and CRO relationships.
• Serves as a responsive point of contact for routine Sponsor and CRO inquiries, ensuring requests are acknowledged, appropriately routed, tracked, and resolved in a timely manner.
• Builds and maintains productive working relationships with Sponsors, CROs, Principal Investigators, site leadership, and central functional teams to support a consistent client experience across the START network.
• Develops a strong working knowledge of START's network capabilities, sites, Principal Investigators, centralized processes, study activation model, and operational efficiencies to effectively respond to client questions and communicate organizational capabilities.
• Supports Sponsor/CRO strategic partnership meetings, pipeline reviews, study-specific discussions, and other client-facing meetings, including preparation of agendas, study status summaries, enrollment information, metrics, presentations, and supporting materials.
• Coordinates meeting follow-up by documenting key decisions, commitments, action items, owners, and due dates and ensuring appropriate follow-through across internal teams.
• Maintains visibility into priority studies and client portfolios, working with Pre-Award, Study Activation, Regulatory, Contracts, Budgets, and site teams to obtain accurate and timely study status information.
• Assists in proactively identifying study acquisition, feasibility, activation, and operational barriers that may affect Sponsor/CRO expectations and escalates risks or delays to Client Engagement leadership as appropriate.
• Supports communication of study activation progress, centralized efficiencies, key milestones, and barriers to Sponsors and CROs in partnership with Study Activation and other functional teams.
• Helps coordinate and respond to client requests related to study opportunities, feasibility, site and investigator capabilities, study status, activation timelines, enrollment performance, and other network-level information.
• Partners with internal teams to ensure client-facing information is accurate, consistent, current, and aligned with START's standardized processes and commitments.
• Supports Sponsor and CRO relationship management activities by maintaining organized records of client interactions, meeting history, commitments, follow-up items, study discussions, and relevant relationship intelligence.
• Maintains accurate and timely documentation of client interactions and activities within applicable CRM, tracking systems, dashboards, and shared resources.
• Tracks recurring Sponsor/CRO requests, concerns, feedback, and service trends and helps identify opportunities to improve the overall client experience.
• Supports resolution of routine client concerns by coordinating with the appropriate internal stakeholders, maintaining communication with the client, and ensuring issues are followed through to closure.
• Escalates significant client concerns, relationship risks, service issues, or unresolved operational barriers to Client Engagement leadership in a timely manner.
• Supports preparation of client-facing metrics, dashboards, reports, presentations, and other materials highlighting network performance, study activation, enrollment, operational efficiencies, and partnership activities.
• Assists with preparation and coordination of Sponsor/CRO visits, investigator meetings, strategic partnership meetings, and other network engagement activities.
• Supports onboarding and engagement of new sites and Principal Investigators by helping ensure their capabilities and experience are appropriately represented in network-level Sponsor/CRO discussions and materials.
• Collaborates across departments and geographic regions to promote consistent communication standards and a seamless experience for Sponsors and CROs engaging with multiple START sites.
• Identifies opportunities to improve Client Engagement workflows, tracking tools, reporting, communication standards, and processes as the START network and client portfolio continue to grow.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Experience in clinical research, healthcare, customer/client service, account management, project coordination, or a related environment preferred.
• Strong customer-service orientation with the ability to develop professional relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organizational and project coordination skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, client requests, meetings, deadlines, and follow-up activities simultaneously.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify issues, coordinate appropriate resources, and escalate concerns when necessary.
• Ability to work effectively across multiple departments, sites, geographic regions, and levels of leadership.
• Ability to synthesize information from multiple sources into clear, concise client-facing updates.
• Demonstrated discretion and professionalism when handling sensitive client, study, and organizational information.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications; experience with CRM platforms, dashboards, reporting tools, and clinical research systems preferred.
• Knowledge of clinical research operations, study feasibility, study start-up, study activation, and Sponsor/CRO relationships preferred.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, growing, and highly collaborative environment.

Pay & schedule

• Hourly range: $90,000/annual – $95,000/annual (base pay may vary depending on multiple individualized factors including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience).
• Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm, must be flexible to meet business needs in a variety of time zones.
• Prefer candidates in CST/EST time zones.
• Travel: As needed; anticipated to be less than 20%.
• This is a remote role.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Robust retirement planning: 401(k) plan available with employer matching.
• Financial security: Life and disability insurance.
• Flexible financial options: Health savings and flexible spending accounts.
• Well-being and work-life balance: Paid time off, flexible schedule, and remote work choices.