Senior Research Operations Manager Cancer Service Line Supportive Services

Virginia Commonwealth University; Richmond (VA); Hybrid; USD 107,000 - 131,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Tuition assistance

Retirement plan

Career development opportunities

Employee discounts

Job summary

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) seeks a Senior Operations Research Manager for the Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center to provide senior-level operational leadership for survivorship, palliative care, cancer genetics, and related initiatives.

You will build regulatory and data infrastructures, manage studies, and translate program data into actionable insights for leadership and funding opportunities.

Qualifications

• PhD or near-completion in health administration, biomedical sciences, or related field within 12 months or seven years of experience.
• Experience with research operations, protocol development, IRB processes, and regulatory documentation.
• Experience managing complex sponsored initiatives including budgets, purchasing, and reporting.
• Project-management expertise with work plans, schedules, budgets, and change-management strategies.
• Experience supervising staff and collaborating across clinical, academic, and administrative settings.

Responsibilities

• Design and improve standardized research operations across the Cancer Service Line.
• Coordinate lifecycle of investigator-initiated and sponsored projects; ensure regulatory compliance.
• Lead operational planning for grant applications and funded awards; budget monitoring and reporting.
• Develop data-capture plans, databases, data dictionaries, and dashboards.
• Lead multidisciplinary project teams and manage resources and timelines.
• Foster partnerships with community organizations and sponsors for research and outreach.
• Support abstracts, manuscripts, and grant narratives with operational data.
• Prepare concise briefings and executive reports for leadership and stakeholders.

Skills

Project management

Regulatory compliance

Data analysis

Leadership

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

PhD in health administration/biomedical sciences

Tools

Epic

REDCap

Analytics tools

Job description

Benefits:

All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefits, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more.

• Continuing education for undergraduate and graduate tuition for a maximum of 6 credits per semester;
• Professional development opportunities encouraged and offered for employees as part of annual career development, e.g. certifications, seminars, courses, annual conferences, mentorship;
• 28 Vacation Days, 12+ State Holidays, and 4 Days to volunteer;
• Medical, Dental and Vision Health Benefits to meet the needs of employees and their eligible family members from the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as optional FSA;
• Participation in the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and other retirement saving options;
• Parental and Caregiver Leave, Short Term Disability (STD), Disability Insurance, Voluntary Long Term Care Insurance, and Employee Assistance Program.

Unit: Massey Comprehensive Cancer Ctr MBU

Department: Massey Central Admin

Department Summary: Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center
Mission: To reduce the state cancer burden for all Virginians by addressing the confluence between biological, social, and policy drivers through high-impact, cutting-edge research; person-centered care across the continuum, from prevention through survivorship; community integration; and training the next generation of community-centric researchers and healthcare professionals
Vision: To be a premier community-focused cancer center leading the nation in cancer health equity research and ensuring optimal health outcomes for all

Why Richmond?

Duties & Responsibilities:

The Senior Operations Research Manager provides senior-level operational leadership for the Cancer Service Line research portfolio, with primary support for survivorship, palliative care, cancer genetics, integrative health, food and nutrition initiatives, and external partnerships. Reporting to the Medical Director of Cancer Service Line Supportive Services, the position develops and sustains the regulatory, project-management, data, grant, and evaluation infrastructure needed to advance high-quality clinical, health-services, implementation-science, and community-engaged research.

This role functions as a senior project director and subject-matter expert. It exercises independent judgment on complex operational and compliance matters; leads long-range planning; manages concurrent studies and sponsored initiatives; and converts program data into actionable findings, executive reporting, scholarly products, and opportunities for continued funding. The position works across clinical departments, Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, institutional research offices, analytics teams, community organizations, sponsors, and other external collaborators.

Job duties include but are not limited to:

• Research strategy and infrastructure — 20%: Design, implement, and continuously improve standardized research operations across the Cancer Service Line. Establish project charters, work plans, standard operating procedures, governance structures, study start-up processes, regulatory and milestone trackers, quality controls, communication plans, and closeout procedures. Conduct post-project learning reviews and disseminate best practices.
• Research portfolio and regulatory oversight — 20%: Coordinate the full lifecycle of investigator-initiated, sponsored, quality-improvement, and program-evaluation projects. Facilitate protocol development, IRB submissions, amendments, continuing reviews, adverse-event workflows, monitoring readiness, and regulatory correspondence. Promote compliance with VCU requirements, Good Clinical Practice, and applicable FDA, NIH, OHRP, sponsor, and privacy requirements.
• Sponsored programs and financial stewardship — 15%: Lead operational planning for grant applications and funded awards, including scopes of work, timelines, staffing plans, deliverables, reporting calendars, budget development and monitoring, purchasing, effort and resource allocation, and risk escalation. Partner with pre-award and post-award offices to support accurate submissions, compliant spending, timely reporting, and sustainability planning.
• Data, analytics, and evaluation — 15%: Develop data-capture plans, research databases, data dictionaries, participant-tracking systems, and program-evaluation frameworks. Collaborate with Epic and institutional analytics partners to translate clinical workflows and service-line data into reliable dashboards, quality metrics, outcome reports, and research datasets. Apply quantitative and qualitative methods appropriate to the project and communicate limitations early.
• Project and people leadership — 10%: Lead multidisciplinary project teams and facilitate effective team meetings. Define responsibilities, task lists, schedules, dependencies, and short- and long-term resource plans. Supervise or provide functional direction to research and program staff; support hiring, onboarding, training, performance management, protocol competency, and accountability for results.
• Partnerships and community engagement — 10%: Serve as an operational liaison among supportive services, Massey research infrastructure, clinical departments, university offices, sponsors, and community partners. Support multi-site studies, collaborative agreements, patient- and community-engaged research, and initiatives addressing nutrition, food access, health disparities, and other determinants of cancer outcomes.
• Scholarly dissemination — 5%: Support and contribute to abstracts, manuscripts, conference presentations, grant narratives, annual reports, and other dissemination products. Help faculty and teams convert operational and clinical program results into rigorous, publishable scholarship.
• Strategic reporting and change management — 5%: Prepare concise briefings, presentations, decision memos, and executive reports for Cancer Service Line leadership and other stakeholders. Identify changes in scope, timeline, resources, technology, or compliance requirements; assess operational impact; and lead appropriate mitigation and change-management activities.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications

• The ideal candidate must have a PhD or have completed their PhD in health administration, biomedical sciences, or a related field, within 12 months of their hire date or at least seven years of progressively responsible experience in clinical research operations, academic research administration, sponsored program management, health program operations, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Demonstrated responsibility for full-cycle research operations, including protocol development, IRB processes, human-subject protections, regulatory documentation, study activation, monitoring, data collection, and study closeout.
• Experience managing complex sponsored initiatives, including budgets, purchasing, resource allocation, compliance, milestone tracking, and sponsor or institutional reporting.
• Demonstrated project-management expertise, including development of work plans, schedules, budgets, communication plans, risk controls, and change-management strategies for multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Experience supervising, training, mentoring, or providing functional leadership to research or program personnel.
• Experience with research data management, program evaluation, and quantitative or qualitative analysis; ability to collect, interpret, and communicate findings to clinical, community, and senior leadership audiences.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, demonstrated through grants, technical or executive reports, presentations, manuscripts, or peer-reviewed publications.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively across clinical, academic, administrative, analytics, and community settings while fostering respect, professionalism, and civility among people with varied backgrounds and experiences.
• Prior experience with grant submissions and peer-reviewed publications.
• Demonstrated ability to work in and foster an environment of respect, professionalism and civility with a population of faculty, staff, and students from all backgrounds and experiences, or a commitment to do so as a staff member at VCU.

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in health sciences or a related field; candidates who are actively enrolled and expected to complete the degree within six months of hire may be considered.
• Research or program-operations experience in oncology, cancer supportive services, survivorship, palliative care, cancer genetics, integrative health, nutrition, food access, or health disparities
• Experience in an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center or academic medical center and familiarity with cancer-center research and accreditation environments.
• Experience with Epic, REDCap or comparable clinical research platforms, institutional analytics tools, statistical software, or dashboard development.
• Record of peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, abstracts, conference presentations, or substantive contributions to funded research.
• Experience establishing and maintaining partnerships with community-based organizations, healthcare vendors, advocacy groups, or national professional organizations.
• Formal training in biostatistics, program evaluation, implementation science, or project management; PMP certification is preferred but not required.
• Advanced proficiency in Spanish or another language relevant to patient- and community-engaged research is valued but not required.

Salary Range:

Starting at $119,000.00 Commensurate with experience.

VCU is committed to hiring veterans! VCU will include a veteran’s period(s) of military service in the calculation of their annual leave accrual rate. This may provide veterans with an increased leave accrual!

Please let us know if you were referred by a current Massey employee to ensure we honor our commitment to the Employee Referral Program.

Position will remain open until filled. Applications received by October 28th, 2026 will be given priority consideration.

FLSA Exemption Status:

Exempt

Hours per Week:

40

Restricted Position:

No

ORP Eligible:

Yes

Flexible Work Arrangement:

Hybrid

University Job Title:

91927 - Open

Contact Information:

[e-mail]
Callie Darling