Participants and Recruitment and Engagement Lead

JOB SUMMARY
The Brussels Pfizer Clinical Research Unit, Participants and Recruitment and Engagement Lead (BR PCRU Participants and Recruitment and Engagement Lead) provides strategic and operational leadership for participants recruitment at the Brussels Pfizer Clinical Research Unit, ensuring high-quality service delivery. The Lead ensures ethical, inclusive, and participant-centred identification, engagement, pre-screening, and enrolment of healthy volunteers and special populations while safeguarding participants’ rights, safety and privacy. The role supports timely, compliant study delivery and translates site and portfolio priorities into data driven recruitment strategies aligned with R&D goals. The Lead builds high-performing teams that responsibly use approved AI, automation, risk based strategy and analytics to improve targeting, forecasting, database management, and decision-making while maintaining human oversight, ethics, and participants data privacy.

Key accountabilities include:

• local recruitment strategy and delivery;
• study feasibility and portfolio forecasting;
• enrolment-risk management;
• participant experience and ethical recruitment;
• team, capacity and budget leadership;
• recruitment data quality and privacy compliance;
• vendor/channel performance;
• digital enablement and continuous improvement;
• local cross-functional coordination; and
• cross-site sharing of practice through PCRU governance

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Recruitment Governance and Resource Oversight:

• Capacity and resource planning
• Colleague and contractor allocation
• Recruitment channel and vendor management
• Advertising, outreach and budget management
• Workload, training and competency oversight
• Team Performance management
• Inspection and audit readiness
• Business continuity to sustain critical recruitment activities during operational disruption or resource constraints.
• Database health and participant-contact quality supporting privacy, data quality and positive participant engagement.

Strategic Participant Recruitment & Portfolio Delivery

• Recruitment strategy: Lead the development and delivery of the Brussels PCRU participant recruitment strategy in line with site priorities and the resource parameters established by the Brussels Site Head.
• Predictive planning and protocol feasibility: Shape early study strategy by assessing recruitment feasibility, developing evidence-based plans aligned with timelines, quality and budget, and proactively mitigating or escalating risks.
• Compliance, ethics and process improvement: Develop, implement and continuously improve applicable local procedures, ensuring team compliance with relevant Pfizer policies, SOPs and work instructions.
• Participant data stewardship: Ensure recruitment data are collected, maintained, accessed and used in accordance with privacy requirements, consent provisions, Pfizer standards and defined data-owner and data-steward accountabilities.
  

 Digital Innovation, Automation & Responsible Adoption

• Digitalization and automation opportunities: Identify high-value opportunities to simplify processes, increase efficiency and improve operational outcomes through appropriate digital tools and automation.
• Cross-functional solution delivery: Partner with Digital and Data Science teams to assess, pilot and implement approved solutions that address defined operational needs.
• Responsible adoption and oversight: Maintain appropriate human oversight and ensure that all solutions meet applicable privacy, compliance and governance requirements.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in life science, health-related, data science, or healthcare administration discipline is required.
• Clinical Experience: Minimum of 15 years of experience in clinical trial operations or participant recruitment, with at least 7 years within a pharmaceutical company or a Contract Research Organization (CRO) environment.
• Digital & Analytics Literacy: Demonstrated experience evaluating, adopting, or implementing advanced digital systems, automated databases, or AI-enabled tools to optimize operations, analyze datasets, and support executive-level business decisions.
• Leadership Track Record: Minimum of 5 years of experience leading teams, managing personnel, directing complex operational processes, and navigating organizational change management. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Strategic & Systems Thinking: Outstanding capability to translate complex operational data, digital dashboards, and AI-generated models into clear, actionable recruitment strategies and executive-level recommendations.
• Regulatory Mastery: Thorough and deep understanding of Phase I clinical operations, ICH-GCP, European and Belgian clinical trial regulations, and data privacy laws (GDPR).
• Stakeholder Influence: Exceptional communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to lead and align cross-functional, multi-disciplinary stakeholder groups behind strategic goals.
• Problem-Solving: Strong, proactive risk-management capability, with expertise in scenario modeling, continuous operational improvement methodologies, and structured root-cause analysis.
  

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Reporting line: Reports to Head, Global PCRU Pharmaceutical Operations - Site Lead

RESOURCES MANAGED

Manage the BR PCRU Participants Recruitment department with approximately 12 Headcounts: 8 direct reports and 4 indirect reports

Work Location Assignment: Hybrid (some office presence is required)


The closing deadline for applications is November 17th 2026.

Pfizer's aim is to provide equality of opportunity in the recruitment process by avoiding any bias or potential discrimination on any grounds including (but not limited to): sex, age, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability. At Pfizer we are creating an organization and promoting a culture that respects each individual's unique character and life experiences and reflects the diversity of our society, customers and markets. We will achieve this through fostering and sustaining an environment in which every colleague feels valued and supported.

Disability Inclusion

Our mission is unleashing the power of all our people and we are proud to be a disability inclusive employer, ensuring equal employment opportunities for all candidates. We encourage you to put your best self forward with the knowledge and trust that we will make any reasonable adjustments to support your application and future career. Your journey with Pfizer starts here!

Handicap & Inclusion

Notre mission est de libérer le potentiel de nos collaborateurs et nous sommes fiers d'être un employeur inclusif pour les personnes handicapées, garantissant ainsi l'égalité des chances en matière d'emploi pour tous les candidats. Nous vous encourageons à donner le meilleur de vous-même en sachant que nous apporterons tous les ajustements raisonnables pour soutenir votre candidature et votre carrière future. Votre expérience avec Pfizer commence ici !


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To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on Pfizer Careers.

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