Participant Recruitment Operations Manager

About the role

The Participant Recruitment Operations Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operational performance of the centralized patient recruitment function and recruitment call center. This role translates study-level enrollment requirements into actionable recruitment workload, staffing, productivity, and funnel goals; monitors performance against those expectations; and takes timely corrective action when enrollment is at risk. The Manager leads a remote team of patient recruiters and is accountable for call center execution, lead management, pre-screening productivity, call quality, participant experience, recruiter coaching, funnel forecasting, capacity planning, performance reporting, and consistent operational processes across studies and sites. Success requires a strong command of recruitment data, the ability to identify funnel leakage and operational barriers, and disciplined follow-through to ensure recruitment resources align with current and forecasted enrollment needs while maintaining a professional, empathetic, and participant-centered recruitment experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead and supervise remote participant recruitment call center members and manage the daily operations, workload, and performance of the centralized recruitment call center.
• Translate site and study enrollment targets into weekly and daily recruitment goals, including required lead volume, contact activity, prequalification, scheduling, screening, and enrollment expectations.
• Build and maintain study-level recruitment funnel forecasts to determine the volume of leads, recruiter activity, and call center capacity required to support enrollment goals and timelines.
• Monitor actual funnel performance against forecast and identify gaps, trends, and risks early; recommend and implement corrective actions based on where performance is breaking down.
• Own call center productivity and performance management, including lead response time, contact attempts, contact rate, prequalification rate, scheduling rate, appointment conversion, recruiter throughput, backlog, aging leads, and other operational KPIs.
• Establish productivity expectations by recruiter and study based on enrollment priority, lead volume, complexity, and available capacity; rebalance workload as enrollment needs change.
• Conduct routine performance reviews of recruiter productivity and call quality; provide actionable coaching, establish improvement expectations, and escalate sustained performance gaps when necessary.
• Regularly monitor and evaluate recruiter calls for communication quality, professionalism, rapport building, active listening, study explanation, prescreening effectiveness, objection handling, and overall participant experience.
• Provide ongoing individual and team-based call coaching to strengthen recruiter communication skills, confidence, consistency, participant rapport, and effectiveness in moving qualified participants through the recruitment funnel.
• Establish and maintain call quality standards and scorecards that incorporate participant experience, communication effectiveness, protocol-appropriate study discussion, and adherence to recruitment workflows; use call monitoring trends to inform targeted training and performance improvement.