Site Contracts & Budget Manager

About this role

Description
The Site Contracts & Budget Manager provides operational leadership for site contracting and budget
negotiation activities across awarded clinical trials. The role is primarily accountable for contracting strategy,
Clinical Trial Agreement negotiation and execution, site budget negotiations, amendments, and resolution of
complex contractual and financial issues.
Working in close partnership with the Site Budget & Proposal Manager, the role translates proposal-stage
budget assumptions into effective study- and site-level contracting and negotiation strategies. Together, the
roles provide complementary leadership across the site budget and contracting lifecycle, with distinct primary
areas of accountability.
The Site Contracts & Budget Manager serves as a key contact and escalation point for sponsors, sites, and
internal stakeholders and provides functional guidance, training, and support to Site Budget & Contracting
personnel
Requirements
More specifically, the Site Contracts and Budget Manager must:
· Lead and manage Site Budget & Contracting staff, providing direction, coaching, development,
workload oversight, and support to ensure consistent quality and delivery across assigned studies.
· Oversee site contracting and budget negotiation activities across the portfolio, ensuring appropriate
resourcing, prioritization, quality, timelines, and escalation of risks or issues.
· Provide oversight of site contracting for awarded clinical trials, including Clinical Trial Agreements,
associated financial exhibits, amendments, negotiation parameters, and country-specific requirements.
· Establish and maintain contracting strategies, standards, and negotiation approaches that support
timely site activation while balancing sponsor requirements, organizational standards, site
expectations, and contractual risk.
· Serve as functional escalation point for complex or high-risk contract and budget negotiations,
providing guidance to team members and facilitating decisions with sponsors, sites, Legal Affairs, and
other stakeholders.
· Oversee the operational implementation of study-specific site budgets, including negotiation
parameters, approval pathways, exceptions, and escalation requirements.
· Translate proposal-stage budget assumptions into executable study- and site-level budget and contracting strategies. · Collaborate with Legal Affairs, Project Management, Study Start-Up, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Operations, Finance, and other stakeholders to ensure contracting and budget activities align with study requirements and operational plans. · Provide site contracting expertise during proposal development, including input on country-specific contracting requirements, anticipated timelines, institutional considerations, negotiation trends, risks, and resource needs. · Participate and/or support bid defence meetings, client presentations, and sponsor strategy discussions when site contracting, budget negotiation, timelines, or associated risks are relevant. · Monitor portfolio-level contracting and budget performance, identifying emerging risks, delays, capacity constraints, quality concerns, and opportunities for improvement. · Own and oversee the business assets supporting Site Budget & Contracting, including contract and budget templates, negotiation tools, country intelligence, guidance documents, trackers, reference materials, and other functional resources. · Ensure business assets remain current, fit for purpose, consistently applied, appropriately governed, and aligned with evolving operational and business needs. · Oversee the integrity, consistency, and usability of Site Budget & Contracting data across applicable tools, trackers, and systems. · Use contracting and negotiation outcomes to strengthen institutional and country intelligence and, in partnership with the Site Budget & Proposal Manager, inform future budget assumptions and benchmarks. · Lead functional process improvement initiatives to improve contracting and budget negotiation quality, efficiency, consistency, scalability, and stakeholder experience. · Support digital transformation and automation opportunities that reduce manual activities, strengthen controls, and improve the availability and quality of contracting and budget data. · Establish and monitor relevant performance indicators and use operational data to identify trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities for corrective action or continuous improvement. · Ensure Site Budget & Contracting staff are appropriately trained and consistently apply relevant SOPs, processes, templates, tools, and quality standards. · Partner with senior leadership on resource and capacity planning, functional priorities, process maturity, systems and tools, quality, and continuous improvement. · Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, proactive risk management, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement within the Site Budget & Contracting team. Employee may be assigned to other responsibilities that do not pertain to their former description, if they have the required experience, are qualified and/or have received adequate training.
PROFILE
· B.Sc. or in a relevant field of study. · 5+ years of experience in clinical research, clinical trial budgeting, or related financial management roles within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or CRO industry. · Strong negotiation and communication skills to engage with sponsors, external budget contacts, and internal stakeholders, serving as the escalation point to secure optimal study budgets. · Experience creating and maintaining budget templates tailored to global regions and therapeutic areas, ensuring scalability and consistency. · Collaborative mindset to partner with operational leads and ensure financial assumptions align with study design, operational strategies, and delivery plans. · Experience representing the organization in bid defense meetings and client calls, with the confidence to explain budget rationale and defend…