Clinical Research Project Manager - Primary Care & Hypertension Research

Job Details

The Clinical Research Project Manager independently leads and manages clinical trials from study start-up through closeout, ensuring adherence to protocol requirements, institutional standards, and applicable regulatory guidelines. This role provides operational oversight of research activities, including feasibility planning, subject recruitment and retention, data and specimen management, and regulatory compliance. The manager may supervise and develop research staff, drives process improvements, and contributes to the development of standard operating procedures. Additionally, the position represents the organization in internal and external forums and serves as a subject matter expert, providing strategic guidance and consultation at the departmental or institutional level.

Job Description

In this role, the Clinical Research Project Manager will provide operational leadership for an enterprise-wide clinical implementation project focused on hypertension management in primary care and support investigators and projects across the Primary Care Research Center. In collaboration with Center leadership, principal investigators, and project sponsors, the manager will translate strategic priorities into operational plans and coordinate stakeholders, resources, milestones, deliverables, budgets, reporting, and evaluation activities to support successful project execution.

The hypertension management project, funded by the PCORI Health System Implementation Initiative, will implement a team-based, comprehensive care model to address care gaps related to this condition across the Jefferson primary care network. It will evaluate the implementation, as well as effectiveness, of the program on patient-level blood pressures outcomes and patient-reported health distress and self-efficacy. The work is informed by findings from PCORI-funded comparative clinical effectiveness research on clinic- and telehealth-based models of hypertension care. 

The Jefferson Primary Care Research Center is a university-wide structure that supports investigators and leaders from across multiple disciplines who conduct research within the primary care environment. The Center’s core research areas include primary care innovation, cardiovascular health, lifestyle medicine and weight management, geriatrics, cancer prevention, integrated behavioral health, and women’s health.

The Clinical Research Project Manager independently leads and manages clinical trials from study start-up through closeout, ensuring adherence to protocol requirements, institutional standards, and applicable regulatory guidelines. This role provides operational oversight of research activities, including feasibility planning, subject recruitment and retention, data and specimen management, and regulatory compliance. The manager may supervise and develop research staff, drives process improvements, and contributes to the development of standard operating procedures. Additionally, the position represents the organization in internal and external forums and serves as a subject matter expert, providing strategic guidance and consultation at the departmental or institutional level.

Job Duties

• Leads the operational planning and execution of an enterprise-wide clinical implementation project focused on hypertension management in primary care, coordinating activities across participating practices, clinical teams, project leadership, and other Jefferson Health stakeholders.
• Supports principal investigators and Center leadership in planning and managing grant-funded research, implementation initiatives, and other projects within the Primary Care Research Center, including defining project requirements, timelines, milestones, deliverables, resource needs, and measures of success.
• Proactively identifies and addresses project risks, implementation barriers, scope changes, and emerging challenges; facilitates communication and alignment among investigators, project teams, administrative partners, external collaborators, and other stakeholders.
• Monitors project deliverables, reporting requirements, budgets, expenditures, and evaluation activities in collaboration with project leadership and post-award teams, and supports the use of findings to inform program improvement and operational decision-making.
• Independently oversees and executes all phases of clinical trials from start-up to closeout, including feasibility assessments, protocol coordination (screening, recruiting, enrolling, consenting), data and biological specimen management, and preparation for monitoring visits, ensuring compliance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and all applicable regulations.
• May supervise, train, and mentor research staff, ensuring proper conduct of clinical trials, adherence to protocols, and consistent application of regulatory and institutional standards.
• Prepares, reviews, and submits regulatory and IRB documentation in a timely manner, maintains accurate study records and subject logs, tracks study finances, and performs quality control assessments to ensure integrity, accuracy, and audit readiness of clinical trial data.
• Leads or supports research operations within a division or department, contributes to and implements standard operating procedures, participates in leadership initiatives, and represents the organization internally and externally while providing expert consultation on clinical research processes and compliance.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of clinical research experience or Master’s Degree and 3 year clinical research experience.

Additional Qualifications

• Oversees the completion of all necessary regulatory preparations prior to sponsor visits (e.g., monitoring and auditing visits, site activation visits). Ensures that any regulatory action items resulting from a sponsor visit are completed in a timely and efficient manner.
• Ensures that regulatory document version control is maintained, and that all clinical trial documentation is “audit ready" at all times.
• Reviews all regulatory submission materials to ensure timeliness, accuracy, comprehensiveness, or compliance with regulatory standards.
• Creates and establishes a process for ensuring quality submissions to the TJU IRB and the FDA. Interacts with Principal Investigators (PIs), Jefferson Clinical Research Institute (JCRI), Office of Research Administration (ORA), Office of Human Research (OHR), hospital staff, etc. to ensure efficient processing of trials.
• Works with the Team to ensure all communications regarding regulatory documentation that are provided by sponsors are distributed and received by the regulatory staff in a timely manner.
• Actively participates and represents the departments in feasibility assessments.
• Manages all aspects of clinical research regulation from protocol inception to completion; and tracking quality metrics.
• Directs regulatory documentation and workflow for clinical trials through the use of project management techniques and tools (e.g., spreadsheets, progress reports, priority setting).
• Maintains an efficient organizational structure for processing all clinical protocols assigned to the Team, which includes NCI cooperative group protocols, industry-sponsored trials, and investigator-initiated studies including multi-sites.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Work Shift

Workday Day (United States of America)

Worker Sub Type

Regular

Employee Entity

Thomas Jefferson University

Primary Location Address

1015 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Nationally ranked, Jefferson, which is principally located in the greater Philadelphia region, Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, is reimagining health care and higher education to create unparalleled value. Jefferson is more than 65,000 people strong, dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow's professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic/programmatic, clinical and applied research. Thomas Jefferson University, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing, and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and three schools offering 200+ undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,300 students. Jefferson Health, nationally ranked as one of the top 15 not-for-profit health care systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at 32 hospitals campuses and more than 700 outpatient and urgent care locations throughout the region. Jefferson Health Plans is a not-for-profit managed health care organization providing a broad range of health coverage options in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 35 years.    

Jefferson is committed to providing equal educa­tional and employment opportunities for all persons without regard to age, race, color, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, military status, veteran status, handicap or disability or any other protected group or status. 

Benefits

Jefferson offers a comprehensive package of benefits for full-time and part-time colleagues, including medical (including prescription), supplemental insurance, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, short- and long-term disability, flexible spending accounts, retirement plans, tuition assistance, as well as voluntary benefits, which provide colleagues with access to group rates on insurance and discounts. Colleagues have access to tuition discounts at Thomas Jefferson University after one year of full time service or two years of part time service. All colleagues, including those who work less than part-time (including per diem colleagues, adjunct faculty, and Jeff Temps), have access to medical (including prescription) insurance.

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