Head of Patient Recruitment & Engagement — Ground Floor

Cornerstone Search Group; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Cornerstone Search Group is seeking a Head of Patient Recruitment for a well-funded, rapidly growing biotech in Boston. You will build a new function to optimize recruitment, engagement, and retention across the portfolio with enterprise-wide responsibility and high visibility.

This leadership role offers strategic latitude to shape the approach to patient recruitment and retention, partnering with Clinical Operations, Medical Affairs, and Patient Advocacy, while hands-on execution supports

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, health sciences or related field.
• 10+ years of clinical operations/trial management experience focused on recruitment and retention in pharma/biotech.
• Experience building or scaling patient recruitment capabilities in a growing organization.
• Proven ability to develop an enterprise recruitment strategy and execute.
• Experience with rare disease or complex specialty development areas.
• Experience supporting late-stage/pivotal trials with enrollment complexity.
• Deep understanding of patient recruitment methodologies, site engagement, and patient advocacy networks.

Responsibilities

• Serve as internal SME for patient recruitment, engagement, and retention across protocol design and feasibility.
• Develop and execute recruitment strategies across the clinical portfolio (early to pivotal).
• Translate plans into indication-specific recruitment strategies.
• Create proactive enrollment plans based on epidemiology, geography, sites, and patient journeys.
• Develop data-driven recruitment strategies for rare patient populations.
• Diagnose enrollment challenges and implement creative solutions to improve performance.
• Understand patient journeys, referral pathways, and barriers to participation.
• Collaborate with Clinical Ops, Biostatistics, Medical Affairs, and Patient Advocacy to align on enrollment feasibility.
• Design and oversee multi-channel recruitment campaigns (digital, social, advocacy, referrals).
• Build scalable processes and infrastructure as portfolio expands.
• Develop forecasts, KPIs, dashboards to identify enrollment risks early.

Skills

Strategic recruitment leadership

Multi-channel campaigns

Data-driven recruitment

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in life sciences

Job description

Cornerstone Search Group is seeking a Head of Patient Recruitment for a well-funded, rapidly growing biotech in Boston. You will build a new function to optimize recruitment, engagement, and retention across the portfolio with enterprise-wide responsibility and high visibility.

This leadership role offers strategic latitude to shape the approach to patient recruitment and retention, partnering with Clinical Operations, Medical Affairs, and Patient Advocacy, while hands-on execution supports