Senior Manager, Investigative Science

Kaiser Permanente; Pleasanton (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaiser Permanente in California seeks a senior research leader to build and manage an innovative research program, secure funding, and oversee budgets and compliance across studies. The role emphasizes mentoring, cross-functional collaboration, proposal development, and ensuring scientific integrity and timely delivery of research outcomes.

The successful candidate will lead complex study designs, manage staff, and partner with clinical and scientific stakeholders to advance health outcomes.

Qualifications

• Minimum four (4) years PI experience in externally- or internally-funded research.
• Doctoral degree in Health Services, Public Health, or related field + 4+ years research experience.
• Minimum two (2) years managing budgets.
• Minimum five (5) years in a leadership role.

Responsibilities

• Mentor senior team members on research methodologies and career development.
• Ensure compliance with local, state, federal laws and funding requirements.
• Lead development and management of complex research budgets and timelines.
• Oversee proposal development and pre-award activities for large projects.
• Collaborate with senior leaders to staff, train, and evaluate team performance.
• Coordinate with clinical partners to ensure data quality and integrity.
• Serves as reviewer or committee member within the scientific community and engages external stakeholders.
• Leads and participates in leadership activities to ensure integrity, efficiency, and quality of research.

Skills

Ambiguity management

Attention to detail

Communication

Leadership

Decision making

Team building

Strategic thinking

Problem solving

Cross-group collaboration

Project management

Education

Doctoral degree in health research or related field

Job description

Job Summary:

In addition to the responsibilities listed below, this position is responsible for building and maintaining an innovative research program and the procurement of research funding from internal and external sources; managing the implementation of an externally-funded or internally-funded research project and/or program to ensure compliance with award requirements; overseeing fiscal management and ensuring the appropriate use of funds; and evaluating projects and forecasting workload and costs to determine budgets and proper allocation of staff.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Creates and advocates for developmental opportunities for others; builds collaborative, cross-functional relationships. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; works with leaders and employees to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to drive performance improvement. Pursues professional growth; hires, trains, and develops talent for growth opportunities; strategically evaluates talent for succession planning; sets performance management guidelines and expectations across teams / units. Oversees implementation, adapts, and stays up to date with organizational change, challenges, feedback, best practices, processes, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Fosters open dialogue amongst team members, engages, motivates, and promotes collaboration within and across teams; motivates teams to meet business objectives. Delegates tasks and decisions as appropriate; provides appropriate support, guidance and scope; encourages development and consideration of options in decision making; fosters access to stakeholders.
• Manages designated units or teams by translating business plans into tactical action items; oversees the completion of work assignments and identifies opportunities for improvement; ensures all policies and procedures are followed; partners with key stakeholders and business leaders to ensure products and/or services meet requirements and expectations while aligning with departmental strategies. Aligns team efforts; builds accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results; assumes responsibility for decision making; fosters direct reports to resolve escalated issues as appropriate. Communicates goals and objectives; incorporates resources, costs, and forecasts into team and unit plans; ensures matrixed resources are fulfilling service or performance requirements across reporting lines. Removes obstacles that impact performance; identifies and addresses improvement opportunities; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; influences teams and units to operate in alignment with operational and business objectives.
• Participates in mentoring activities by: serving as a mentor and advisor to senior team members by providing guidance on research methodologies, project management, and career development, as well as fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment and overseeing mentorship activities across the department/division.
• Assists in the management of research projects by: partnering with senior leadership to ensure compliance for all research studies and to drive the appropriate application of all applicable local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and accreditation standards, and any funding agency, grant, and/or contract management policies, and terms and conditions of the award across teams and remaining up to date with all organizational, funding, and regulatory agency policies and procedures, and other regulatory requirements relevant to the research environment by attending trainings; leveraging expert knowledge from within ones field to lead teams in the design and development of highly complex study methodologies, protocols, and data collection and analysis plans, as well as providing strategic and managerial oversight to other scientists within ones division to ensure data quality and scientific integrity across research studies; working with senior leaders to establish expectations on maintaining the quality, accuracy, and integrity of data across teams, and leading and/or conducting highly complex qualitative and/or quantitative data collection, cleaning, management, and/or analyses; coaching management and across teams on and collaborating with cross-functional research partners to ensure alignment of project plans, coordinate activities, and provide consultation toward achieving project goals; leading and/or assisting in the development and monitoring of highly complex and/or large research study budgets, timelines, and/or deliverables as well as collaborating with senior management to identify and recommend uses for division/department operation budgets; and collaborating with senior management to determine staffing needs and hiring, training, evaluating performance, and assigning work to team members to ensure integrity, efficiency, and quality of research studies, as well as leading the implementation of training to support staff development.
• Contributes to the development of proposals by: leading and supporting the development and writing of large and/or complex proposals with national impact as a principal or co-investigator, from conceptualization to submission and providing oversight to and setting performance expectations for team members as well as contributing to the development of resources and systems within a division to support proposal development; and serving as a resource within a division on the oversight of pre-award activities (e.g., define and negotiation of aspects of the proposal including the scope of work, budget, and identification of research staff) for highly complex and/or large proposals that may vary in number.
• Advances knowledge of the scientific community by: leveraging expert knowledge to provide guidance across teams, assist, and/or lead the interpretation and/or presentation of highly complex data; and lead- and/or co-authoring technical products and peer-reviewed publications and/or developing abstracts, posters, and/or presentations to disseminate research findings locally, nationally, or internationally to clinical partners, collaborators, stakeholders, or wider audiences, as well as managing dissemination activities for senior authored products.
• Participates in service to the local and scientific community by: serving as a reviewer for scientific journals and grant review panels, participating in committees, conferences, and/or professional organizations, and serving as a resource to the team on insights, advancements, and/or changes in the industry.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: (Core)

• Ambiguity/Uncertainty Management
• Attention to Detail
• Business Knowledge
• Communication
• Constructive Feedback
• Critical Thinking
• Cross-Group Collaboration
• Decision Making
• Dependability
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Support
• Drives Results
• Facilitation Skills
• Health Care Industry
• Influencing Others
• Integrity
• Leadership
• Learning Agility
• Organizational Savvy
• Problem Solving
• Short- and Long-term Learning & Recall
• Strategic Thinking
• Team Building
• Teamwork
• Topic-Specific Communication

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: (Functional)

• Research Funding
• Business Process Improvement
• Change Management
• Confidentiality
• Data Governance
• Employee/Labor Relations
• Health Care Compliance
• Interpretation & Dissemination of Research
• Project Management
• Research & Evaluation Data Collection
• Research & Evaluation Study Design
• Research Ethics
• Scientific Writing
• Stakeholder Management
• Systems Thinking

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum four (4) years of experience serving as a principal investigator designing and conducting research in an externally and/or internally funded research environment.
• Doctoral degree in Health Services, Public Health, Community Health, Health Education, Social/Behavioral Science, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy or directly related scientific field related to health research AND Minimum four (4) years of experience in a scientific field related to health or health services research and/or evaluation or a directly related field.
• Minimum two (2) years of experience managing operational or project budgets.
• Minimum five (5) years of experience in a leadership role with or without direct reports.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ten (10) years of experience performing analytical techniques on a research project(s).
• Served as an author (lead author, co-author, contributor) on published research products (e.g., journal articles, books, public entity reports, policy briefs, evidence-based reviews, white papers, clinical guidelines).