Senior Manager, Participant Recruitment Strategy & Transformation

The role

The Senior Manager, Participant Recruitment Strategy & Transformation develops and leads enterprise-wide recruitment strategies to improve enrollment and participant engagement. This role partners with Clinical Operations, Business Development, and Marketing to translate protocol requirements into scalable recruitment plans.

What you will do

• Develop and implement study-specific participant recruitment strategies.
• Create enrollment forecasting models and risk mitigation plans.
• Partner with Feasibility, Clinical Operations, and Business Development for proposal development.
• Analyze protocol criteria and participant population availability.
• Analyze network-wide participant recruitment funnel performance.
• Define recruitment business KPI requirements and performance review frameworks.
• Own cross-functional recruitment transformation roadmaps and project plans.
• Lead business-side platform rollout planning and operational readiness.
• Drive development of scalable recruitment infrastructure and workflows.
• Lead change management with site and central teams.

Required qualifications

• Experience leading multi-workstream implementations, enterprise process change, or complex cross-functional programs in clinical research or healthcare operations.
• Ability to manage project governance, risk registers, dependencies, executive communications, and change adoption without direct authority.
• Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Marketing, Life Sciences, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in clinical research recruitment, feasibility, Participant engagement, digital recruitment, or site operations.
• 3+ years of leadership, strategic program management, or cross-functional project leadership experience.
• Strong understanding of clinical trial recruitment strategy, participant engagement, enrollment forecasting, and operational execution.
• Experience supporting multi-site clinical research studies and site network operations.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with experience interpreting recruitment and operational data.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Working knowledge of GCP, IRB/ethics requirements, Participant privacy expectations, and compliant participant-facing communication practices.

Nice to have

• Experience within a site network, SMO, CRO, or decentralized clinical trial environment.
• Experience with Salesforce, Marketing Cloud, Tableau, Big Query, CRM platforms, recruitment analytics tools, or marketing automation platforms.
• Background in participant recruitment strategy for CNS, metabolic, obesity, vaccine, or specialty therapeutic areas.
• Familiarity with digital participant acquisition strategies.
• Experience supporting sponsor-facing recruitment planning and feasibility discussions
• Knowledge of AI-driven recruitment technologies, Participant segmentation, and predictive enrollment analytics.

About the company

Headlands Research is a leading network of advanced clinical trial sites that leverages technology and support services to broaden outreach and participation. Founded in 2018, the company operates 20+ sites across the US and Canada.