Summary

The Director of Research Operations provides strategic and operational leadership to support the success of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Research at Baylor College of Medicine (ICTR). The ICTR is the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) home for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program. This role involves collaborating with the Associate Dean, Clinical Research and the CTSA Principal Investigators on research planning, financial management, and resource allocation. The Director is responsible for advancing translational and clinical science through developing and implementing operational plans, overseeing research objectives, and ensuring compliance with institutional and NCATS/NIH policies. This position emphasizes optimizing grant funding, improving financial oversight, and ensuring adherence to regulatory standards. The Director also plays a crucial role in quality assurance, data management, and technology commercialization, ensuring the timely dissemination of research results and promoting open science and data-sharing principles. Additionally, the role includes fostering team development, managing multiple research teams, and creatinga collaborative, growth-oriented culture to support workforce development in clinical research. This role will interface with the BCM Office of Research, University of Houston partner and several CTPH affiliates.

This position is eligible for a performance-based bonus.

This position is eligible to work a hybrid work arrangement within the Greater Houston, TX area after a training period.

Job Duties

Operational and Administrative Research Planning and Oversight

• Collaborate with the Associate Dean, Clinical Research on short- and long-term planning, including financial management and resource allocation.
• Develop and implement operational plans to support the ICTR’s success.
• Ensure research objectives and milestones, approaches, and designs are implemented for advancing translational and clinical science.
• Manage multiple teams led by managers and supervisors, to include defining work responsibilities and prioritization, setting performance development plans and goals and conducting annual performance evaluations.
• Ensure the ongoing review and development of process improvements to maximize productivity.

Policy Implementation

• Communicate and ensure adherence to the terms and conditions of the CTSA award and institutional research policies and procedures within the department, maintaining compliance and consistency.
• Ensurethat all participating entities implement and adhere to the policies, procedures, best practices, and other measures established by NCATS/NIH.
• Ensureall partnering institutions are fully integrated into CTSA hub activities and ensures effective communication strategies for partnering and collaborating institutions.
• Facilitate communication with collaborators and maintain relationships in a proactive fashion.

Grant Funding Optimization and Financial Oversight

• Address challenges impeding successful grant submission and funding success rates.
• Drive initiatives that enhance grant preparation, submission, and success.
• Review and analyze award revenues, expenditures, and overall fiscal performance to ensure financial sustainability and growth.
• Ensurewritten Prior Approval from the NCATS Grants Management Specialist in consultation with the NCATS Project Collaborator before undertaking certain activities or incurring specific costs.

Quality Assurance & Compliance

• Implementa resource-sharing plan that achieves the goal of sharing research resources in a timely manner with appropriate privacy and confidentiality protections to facilitate further research, reuse of data, and replication.
• Ensuretimely public dissemination, including publication of results, data and other products, concordant with governance policies and protocols.

Technology Commercialization

• Oversee the collection of data to evaluate the impact of the CTSA award on the hub and provide data to NCATS for oversight and measurement of the impact of the CTSA Program.
• Ensure the use of Common Data Elements during the planning phases of a project to optimize data collection and facilitate broad data sharing.
• Facilitate the utilization and range of expertise and capabilities in the areas of Health Informatics to make digital assets interoperable for research, ensuring data security, and embracing a culture of Open Science and Data Sharing that adhere to the F.A.I.R. principles across all aspects of the CTSA hub and the CTSA Program consortium.

Team Leadership & Development

• Manage multiple teams, define work responsibilities, and prioritize projects.
• Set performance development goals, conduct annual evaluations, and foster a culture of growth and collaboration.
• Create a culture that incentivizes and appropriately recognizes collaboration and communication, facilitates workforce development, and engages with stakeholders in all aspects of translational science research.
• Establishprofessional development opportunities for clinical research staff that encourage work in clinical and translational science research.
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Eleven years of directly related experience with four years of supervisory experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree. Seven years of directly related experience with four years of supervisory experience.