{"id":794678,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization","title":"Sr. Director, Clinical Trial Optimization","company":{"id":1889154,"name":"Kardigan","domain":"kardigan.bio","url":"https://alion.io/company/kardigan-bio","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":63,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Biotech","role_family":"Biotech","seniority":"head","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Princeton, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":242000,"max":315000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":315000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Good Clinical Practice","optional":true}],"status":"closed","first_seen_at":"2026-09-11T18:49:43Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-02","last_verified_at":"2026-11-05T20:29:10Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":"2026-11-05T20:29:10Z","days_open":55,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":55},"description":"About Us \nKardigan is a heart health company working to make cardiovascular disease preventable, curable and no longer the leading cause of death in the world.\nIt is Kardigan’s mission to develop multiple targeted treatments in parallel that bring people with cardiovascular diseases to the cures they deserve.\nLed by Tassos Gianakakos, Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D.,and Bob McDowell, Ph.D., Kardigan’s co-founders have reunited after leading MyoKardia to discover and develop mavacamten, the first cardiac myosin inhibitor, resulting in an acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020.\nWe have a cutting-edge discovery and translational research platform, a pipeline of late-stage candidates, and an industry-leading team that is driven to improve the lives of patients.\nAt Kardigan, we are motivated by our values which guide how we work, interact, and achieve our goals. Driven by patients and their families, we are deeply committed to improving the lives of patients and prioritizing their needs above all else. We believe in being authentic -leading with truth to bring out the best in others by creating an environment where every person knows they will be fully accepted. With an eagerness to learn, we encourage the highest levels of curiosity and are open to changing our minds. We are committed to winning as a team with urgency, excellence, and intention, and support each other no matter what role we play or where we sit. Lastly, we strive to enable the impossible because patients are counting on us. We are not afraid to take risks to unlock innovation and advance scientific discoveries.\nThese values are the foundation of our work, empowering us to make a real difference, every day.\nPosition Title: Senior Director, Clinical Trial Optimization\nDepartment: Clinical Operations, Global Site Management\nReports To: Executive Director, Global Site Management\nLocation: Princeton, NJ, United States (4 days per week onsite M-Th)\nAbout Us\nKardigan is a heart health company working to make cardiovascular disease preventable, curable and no longer the leading cause of death in the world.\nIt is Kardigan’s mission to develop multiple targeted treatments in parallel that bring people with cardiovascular diseases to the cures they deserve.\nLed by Tassos Giannakakos, Jay Edelberg, M.D. and Bob McDowell, Ph.D., Kardigan’s co-founders have reunited after leading MyoKardia to discover and develop mavacamten, the first cardiac myosin inhibitor, resulting in an acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020.\nWe have a cutting-edge discovery and translational research platform, a pipeline of late-stage candidates, and an industry-leading team that is driven to improve the lives of patients.\nAt Kardigan, we are motivated by our values which guide how we work, interact, and achieve our goals. Driven by patients and their families, we are deeply committed to improving the lives of patients and prioritizing their needs above all else. We believe in being authentic -leading with truth to bring out the best in others by creating an environment where every person knows they will be fully accepted. With an eagerness to learn, we encourage the highest levels of curiosity and are open to changing our minds. We are committed to winning as a team with urgency, excellence, and intention, and support each other no matter what role we play or where we sit. Lastly, we strive to enable the impossible because patients are counting on us. We are not afraid to take risks to unlock innovation and advance scientific discoveries. \nThese values are the foundation of our work, empowering us to make a real difference, every day. \nJob Overview\nKardigan is seeking an experienced Senior Director, Clinical Trial Optimization to establish and lead a new internal capability spanning feasibility and enrollment planning and forecasting, protocol optimization, study start-up, and patient engagement and experience.\nSitting within the Global Site Management pillar of Clinical Operations, this leader will define the operating model, build the team, and ensure enrollment, country, and site assumptions are evidence-based, risk-adjusted, and operationally sound before a study advances through governance.\nThis is the first role of its kind at Kardigan. The successful candidate will set functional strategy while personally delivering early portfolio work, scaling the team in phases as the pipeline grows. Partnering with Digital Health Innovation & AI Enablement, Clinical Trial Management, Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Development Services, and other enterprise stakeholders, this leader will also serve as a Clinical Operations business owner for the trial design, feasibility, and site activation solutions on Kardigan’s AI and digital transformation roadmap.\nEssential Duties and Responsibilities\nDefine the vision, operating model, and phased roadmap for Clinical Trial Optimization, including which capabilities are built internally and how sponsor oversight of outsourced activities is applied.\nBuild the capability across feasibility and enrollment planning and forecasting, protocol optimization, study start-up, and patient engagement and experience, sequencing the build to portfolio needs.\nRecruit, develop, and lead the team, operating hands-on while the function scales, and establish the processes, tools, data sources, and vendor strategy required to support it.\nOwn feasibility and enrollment planning for the portfolio, ensuring enrollment, country, and site assumptions are evidence-based, risk-adjusted, and endorsed before studies advance through governance.\nBring an operational lens to protocol design in partnership with Clinical Trial Management, Clinical Development and other cross enterprise functions, reducing complexity, patient and site burden, and avoidable amendments.\nSet the strategy for study start-up and site activation, partnering with Clinical Trial Management and Development Services to improve predictability and cycle time.\nEstablish the approach to patient engagement and experience, integrating it into study design and feasibility, and oversee the vendors, digital channels, and advocacy partnerships that support it.\nServe as the Clinical Operations business owner for the trial design, feasibility, and site activation solutions on Kardigan’s AI and digital transformation roadmap, partnering with Digital Health Innovation & AI Enablement on design, validation, and adoption.\nDefine the performance measures for the function and use projected versus actual performance to continuously improve assumptions, models, and standards.\nRepresent Clinical Trial Optimization with Clinical Operations, Development, and enterprise stakeholders in governance and stage-gate forums, and monitor industry and regulatory developments to inform strategy.\nRequires approximately up to 20% domestic and international travel.\nQualifications and Preferred Skills\nBachelor’s degree in life sciences or a quantitative discipline; advanced degree (MS, MPH, MBA, PharmD, or PhD) preferred.\n12+ years in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or CRO global clinical development, including significant leadership in feasibility, trial optimization, study start-up, and/or patient recruitment.\nDemonstrated experience building a capability or team from the ground up and creating structure where none exists.\nProven ability to challenge and validate CRO enrollment, start-up, and site assumptions in an outsourced or hybrid delivery model.\nHands-on experience building enrollment forecasting models, feasibility tools, and operational benchmarks; fluency with industry data sources (e.g., Citeline, TriNetx, RWE data) and CTMS systems.\nWorking understanding of predictive modeling, automation, and AI applications sufficient to define use cases and evaluate limitations.\nStrong knowledge of ICH-GCP, global regulatory requirements, and the country start-up landscape; cardiovascular or other competitively enrolling therapeutic area experience preferred.\nExceptional communication and executive presence, translating complex analyses into decision-ready recommendations for senior leadership, and people leadership experience including hiring, performance management, and career development.\nLeadership Competencies\nEnterprise Leadership: Puts enterprise interests above those of the individual or function; builds and inspires high-performing teams.\nInfluence and Informed Challenge: Shapes decisions across functions without direct authority and challenges assumptions with evidence.\nResults-Driven with Urgency: Assumes personal accountability for outcomes, reduces cycle time, and acts decisively.\n Enables the Impossible: Takes considered risks to unlock innovation and champions change in a rapidly scaling organization.\nExact Compensation may vary based on skills, experience and location.\nPay range\n$242,000—$315,000 USD","description_format":"text","description_chars":8853,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Health Care","Drug Discovery","Cardiometabolic Therapeutics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T04:44:34Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-11-05T20:29:10Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":152500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-12T07:36:15+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":null,"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":315000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/kardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/kardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-13T19:39:18Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":39240,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-14T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1889154},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1889154"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fkardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fkardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fkardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/kardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fkardigan-sr-director-clinical-trial-optimization"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":794678}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"kardigan.bio","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":794678},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); 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