Head of Clinical Operations & Study Delivery

RDI; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

RDI is seeking a senior Clinical Operations leader to own clinical study delivery and build our operating system for a larger, more complex portfolio. You will lead people, dive into studies, and fix what is broken, not preserve the status quo.

This role is in person at our Los Angeles / Van Nuys office, five days a week, with relocation assistance available. You will shape the end-to-end process from protocol to dataset and partner with top IVD clients.

Qualifications

• You have run clinical research yourself.
• IVD and diagnostics experience is valuable, but we care more about what you have personally owned and built than the logo on your résumé.
• The strongest candidate is probably a little underleveraged today: highly capable, frustrated by how slowly decisions move, and ready to own substantially more than their current company will give them.
• If you have built a research site, laboratory, clinical program, CRO, or operating team, we want to hear about it.

Responsibilities

• Own clinical study delivery across RDI, including turning protocols and scopes into real execution plans.
• Keep timelines, enrollment, sites, samples, budgets, risks, and client commitments under control.
• See problems before they become fire drills and ensure project status reflects reality, not optimism.
• Lead and develop PMs, CTMs, CRAs, and clinical staff; decide when to coach, delegate, or step into the work.
• Improve management of study startup, sites, recruitment, monitoring, samples, data, and closeout; build accountable systems.
• Work directly with clients when senior operational judgment is required and build a larger, harder portfolio for the Clinical Operations organization.

Job description

The Role

Can you take a difficult clinical study, figure out what is actually stopping it, and get it under control?

RDI runs diagnostic studies for some of the largest IVD companies in the world. Clients often bring us the hard ones: aggressive timelines, difficult recruitment, unusual sample requirements, complicated site models, or programs that simply need a different approach.

We like that work.

We need another load-bearing operator to own Clinical Operations alongside our CEO and COO and build the team and operating system that let us handle more of it.

This is not a role where you inherit a large department and manage from above. You will lead people, but you also need to understand the work well enough to step into a study, find what is wrong, make the call, and help fix it.

Your job is not to preserve the way RDI operates today. Your job is to make us better.

The Work

You will own clinical study delivery across RDI, including:

• Turn protocols and scopes into real execution plans.
• Keep timelines, enrollment, sites, samples, budgets, risks, and client commitments under control.
• See problems before they become fire drills.
• Make sure project status reflects reality, not optimism.
• Lead and develop PMs, CTMs, CRAs, and clinical staff.
• Decide when to coach, when to delegate, and when to step directly into the work.
• Improve how we manage study startup, sites, recruitment, monitoring, samples, data, and closeout.
• Build systems that make accountability and study status obvious.
• Work directly with clients when difficult programs require senior operational judgment.
• Build the Clinical Operations organization capable of handling a larger and harder portfolio.

Who We Are Looking For

You have run clinical research yourself. You know what happens between the protocol and the final dataset because you have lived it.

You may come from a CRO, sponsor, research site, laboratory, startup, or academia. IVD and diagnostics experience is valuable, but we care more about what you have personally owned and built than the logo on your résumé.

The strongest candidate is probably a little underleveraged today: highly capable, frustrated by how slowly decisions move, and ready to own substantially more than their current company will give them.

If you have built a research site, laboratory, clinical program, CRO, or operating team, we want to hear about it.

What We Are Not Looking For

• Someone whose primary skill is managing other senior people.
• Someone who needs a finished playbook before they can operate.
• Someone who delegates work they no longer understand how to do.
• Someone who waits for perfect information before making a decision.
• Someone looking for a prestigious title, a large staff, and a predictable corporate job.

No leader at RDI gets to stay above the work.

Why Join

Because you want to build a Clinical Operations function rather than inherit one.

Because you want the authority to fix the things you already know are broken.

Because a few years from now, you want to be able to say: I built the clinical operating system that company runs on.

This role is in person at our Los Angeles / Van Nuys office, five days a week. Relocation assistance is available.

If that sounds like a downside, this is probably not the right job.

About RDI

RDI is an IVD-focused CRO. Since 2008, we have run hundreds of diagnostic trials for leading test manufacturers.

We are a small team that moves quickly and expects real ownership. There is no passing a problem along because it sits outside your job description. If something matters, you help get it solved.

The pace is high. The expectations are high. The amount of ownership available to the right person is also unusually high.

About Our Process

Our recruiting process is management-led. If your background is a strong fit, you will hear directly from RDI senior leadership for an initial conversation.

Given applicant volume, we cannot respond to everyone, but we respond to every strong application.