VP, Patient Engagement & Recruitment

As we continue to grow, we are looking for a senior leader to own and scale our patient engagement and recruitment function across our national site network. This leader will shape the strategy, team, processes, and operating model that help connect the right patients to the right trials faster while preserving the personal, trusted experience that defines Profound.  

Today, most of our patient recruiters are embedded within site teams, with a smaller centralized team providing additional support. This role will help evolve how those models work together as we scale, bringing clinical research experience, strong people leadership, and creative problem solving to how we recruit, engage, and support patients.  

This is a hands-on builder role for someone who is energized by growth, comfortable with ambiguity, and excited to create a patient recruitment function that is both highly effective and deeply patient-centered.  

What You’ll Own 

Patient Recruitment Strategy & Operating Model 

• Own Profound’s patient engagement and recruitment strategy across sites, studies, and therapeutic areas 

• Lead the continued evolution of Profound’s recruitment operating model, including embedded, centralized, and hybrid support, to improve enrollment performance and patient experience as we scale 

• Build scalable approaches to patient identification, outreach, engagement, pre-screening, scheduling, and retention in partnership with Clinical Operations 

• Establish clear priorities, goals, and accountability structures for the patient recruitment function 

• Translate organizational growth goals, study needs, and site realities into practical recruitment strategies 

• Partner with Clinical Operations, Commercial, Study Startup, Quality, Clinical Systems, Finance, and People to ensure recruitment strategies are aligned, compliant, and executable 

Enrollment Performance & Functional Execution 

• Own recruitment performance across the patient funnel, including lead quality, outreach effectiveness, pre-screening, scheduling, show rates, screening conversion, enrollment outcomes, and retention support 

• Establish the KPIs, dashboards, reporting rhythms, and forecasting needed to create visibility into recruitment performance 

• Use data to identify trends, risks, opportunities, and resourcing needs across the function 

• Lead study- and site-level recruitment planning for priority trials, ensuring the right strategies and resources are in place to support enrollment goals 

• Bring structure and urgency to recruitment execution while maintaining flexibility for the needs of different studies, sites, and patient populations 

Patient Engagement & Experience 

• Ensure Profound’s recruitment practices reflect a compassionate, service-oriented, and patient-centered experience 

• Strengthen the patient journey from initial engagement through screening and enrollment in partnership with Clinical Operations 

• Develop approaches that expand access to clinical research for diverse patient populations and support community-based recruitment 

• Identify opportunities to improve patient communication, follow-up, and retention without creating unnecessary complexity for sites or patients 

Team Leadership & Function Building 

• Lead and develop Profound’s patient recruitment team, including embedded and centralized team members 

• Build a high-performing culture rooted in accountability, urgency, collaboration, compassion, and continuous improvement 

• Clarify roles, responsibilities, performance expectations, and career pathways within the patient recruitment function 

• Build the team structure, leadership capabilities, staffing plans, and ways of working needed to support continued growth 

• Coach and develop leaders and team members to strengthen recruitment execution, patient communication, problem solving, and cross-functional partnership 

Process, Technology, & Continuous Improvement 

• Own the recruitment process and technology roadmap in partnership with Clinical Systems, IT, and operational leaders 

• Identify opportunities to improve consistency, visibility, efficiency, and scalability across recruitment workflows 

• Evaluate and implement tools, systems, vendor partnerships, and digital engagement strategies that improve recruitment performance and patient experience 

• Ensure recruitment processes remain compliant with clinical research, privacy, IRB, and patient communication requirements 

• Lead change management related to recruitment processes, technology, operating model, and performance expectations 

Requirements 

Essential Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, healthcare administration, public health, business, or a related field; equivalent experience may also be considered 

• Meaningful experience in clinical research, patient recruitment, clinical operations, healthcare operations, or a closely related environment 

• Experience supporting or leading patient recruitment, enrollment, patient engagement, pre-screening, or site-level clinical research operations 

• Practical understanding of how patients move through the clinical trial recruitment process, including outreach, pre-screening, scheduling, screening, enrollment, and retention 

• Experience leading teams, projects, or cross-functional initiatives in a growing, multi-site, remote, or geographically dispersed environment 

• Strong people leadership skills, including the ability to coach, develop, motivate, and hold teams accountable 

• Ability to use data, site feedback, and operational insights to identify opportunities and improve performance 

• Strong cross-functional partnership skills, with the ability to build trust across clinical, operational, commercial, technology, finance, and people teams 

• Working knowledge of clinical research compliance considerations, including patient privacy, IRB-approved recruitment materials, GCP principles, and ethical patient engagement 

• Strong communication skills, sound judgment, initiative, and comfort working in a fast-paced, evolving environment 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience in a clinical research site network, SMO, CRO, sponsor, healthcare services organization, or community-based research environment 

• Experience with embedded, centralized, or hybrid patient recruitment models 

• Prior experience working directly with patients or in a patient-facing clinical research, healthcare, or recruitment capacity 

• Experience leading patient recruiters, patient engagement specialists, call center teams, clinical research staff, or other patient-facing operational teams 

• Experience with recruitment technology, CRM platforms, contact center tools, scheduling systems, patient engagement platforms, or clinical trial recruitment vendors 

• Experience developing or using KPIs, dashboards, productivity expectations, or capacity planning tools 

• Knowledge of digital recruitment, community outreach, physician referral workflows, patient databases, or other patient acquisition strategies 

• Experience supporting growth, change, or function-building in a startup or high-growth environment