Program Implementation Manager, Clinical Studies

Since our founding in 1924, we've cut cardiovascular disease deaths in half, but there is still so much more to do. To overcome today’s biggest health challenges and accelerate this progress, we need passionate individuals like you. This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, grant-funded opportunity with current funding expiring on July 30, 2031. This position can be home-based.

About the role

This individual will be responsible for the day-to-day recruitment, consultation, and project management of activities for various cardiovascular clinical studies. Building on established relationships with hospitals, health systems, and clinics, this role will provide in-depth process and quality improvement consultation, including individual site support, facilitation of educational opportunities, intervention tracking, and process mapping.

Responsibilities

• Leverage available data to identify and develop a pipeline of prospective hospitals and associated clinics for clinical trial patient referrals in a variety of Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) trials.
• Cultivate and manage relationships to achieve program goals.
• Oversee and coordinate the full site activation lifecycle, including trial site contracting, regulatory onboarding, and required documentation.
• Prospect new hospitals and associated clinics by working with established customers, routinely reviewing their data, consulting on identification of patients, and clearly conveying the referral process to all involved site staff.
• Serve as the main account manager of participating sites. Onboard and train participating sites, providing education on protocol requirements, data collection, reporting expectations, and regulatory obligations; manage and consult sites on both site-level and system-level responsibilities.
• Ensure accuracy in information collected and oversee ongoing regulatory compliance and monitoring activities across trial sites, including internal tracking, regulatory documentation, and information shared with stakeholders.
• Routinely meet with and visit sites to boost patient referrals, focusing on gaining a deep understanding of care pathways and optimizing workflows.
• Lead and manage patient recruitment, enrollment, and retention strategies across trial sites, including outreach, screening, follow-up operations, and proactive troubleshooting of barriers; monitor performance and provide regular progress updates to trial leadership.
• Serve as the primary patient liaison throughout the clinical trial lifecycle, addressing barriers to participation, supporting long-term engagement, and sharing actionable insights with leadership to enhance patient experience and study outcomes.
• Assess each site’s clinical research team’s patient recruitment and retention success and offer suggestions for process improvement.
• Develop and deliver education toolkit and training materials to trial hospitals, field staff, and other departments, ensuring tangible solutions to overcome evolving barriers.
• Establish and conduct related data monitoring activities including patient volume, referral tracking, data entry, engagement, data completion, data quality, and patient and clinician barriers.
• Develop and deliver site and program-wide targeted education and training materials, utilizing collected insights; this includes fully developing and implementing national educational webinars for clinicians and healthcare leadership, researching and creating patient and clinician educational materials.
• Identify, build, cultivate, and manage key high-level partner and customer relationships to achieve program goals. Collaborate with related project committees and other high-level physicians and C-suite members from participating sites and stakeholders.
• Analyze, collate, and present results of training, education, and data to continually evaluate next steps and needs for the program. Address any inconsistencies appropriately and within a timely manner.
• Communicate regularly with project leadership to ensure tasks are completed according to the project timeline. Routinely prepare and present findings to internal and external project leadership. Work with colleagues and external partners through ongoing meetings to report out on project deliverables.
• Attend site meetings, project-level meetings, leadership meetings, and related scientific conferences.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for sites throughout the trial lifecycle, from initial engagement through closeout, ensuring strong collaboration, timely issue resolution, and adherence to study requirements.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor, including additional trial support on other projects.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Three (3) years or equivalent experience.
• Experience interacting and engaging with clinicians and C-suite, ideally in a hospital setting.
• Experience communicating complex information and directions to varying levels of healthcare professionals and leadership.
• Strong verbal, written, and presentation communication skills, including communication with clinical leadership.
• Experience in healthcare or in a public health-related organization, clinical studies, clinical registries, patient registries, or quality improvement programs.
• Experience with program/project management, including influencing performance without direct line accountability.
• Experience with account management and sales success/business development.
• Ability to function and drive work independently with minimal supervision.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite skills, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Ability to work in a team environment and interact with all levels of American Heart Association staff, volunteers, and the public.
• Ability to travel up to 15% nationally with overnight stay.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree.
• Knowledge of clinical trial operations, preferably from a sponsor perspective.
• Knowledge of Cardiovascular Diseases.

Skills

• Positive relationship cultivation skills.
• Strong project management skills.
• Results-oriented.

Benefits

The American Heart Association invests in its people with a comprehensive total rewards package:

• Compensation: Competitive base salary with regular market value reviews. Expected pay range: $70,000 to $90,000; geographic differentials may apply.
• Performance and Recognition: Annual salary planning and incentive programs based on position type.
• Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance; robust retirement program with employer match and automatic contribution; employee assistance program; employee wellness program; telemedicine and medical consultation.
• Professional Development: Access to Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), mentoring programs, and HeartU, the Association’s national online university with over 100,000 resources.
• Work-Life Harmonization: Minimum of 16 days Paid Time Off (PTO) for new employees, increasing with seniority; 12 paid holidays, including year-end days off.
• Tuition Assistance: Financial support for career development related to current or potential future positions.