Chief Information Officer — Global Clinical-Development Group

The mandate

A global clinical-development group must reset its technology estate to match available funding. Numerous trial, safety, regulatory and collaboration systems remain essential, but duplicated platforms and supplier contracts consume capital needed for the pipeline. An urgent, unplanned CIO appointment will make evidence-led renewal choices without placing active studies or records at risk.

Approximately 900 employees and material partners use clinical trial management, electronic data capture, safety, document, regulatory, laboratory and analytics services from Boston across global studies. The CIO owns information technology, cyber, enterprise applications, service, data infrastructure, suppliers and investment, reporting to the Group Chief Executive or nominated sponsor. Clinical, safety and regulatory leaders retain authorised decisions.

The first deliverable is an obligation-based estate map. Every system should link to active studies, regulated records, processes, users, interfaces, retention and recovery. Apparent duplicate platforms may support different sponsor commitments or historical records. No decommission decision will rely on licence utilisation alone.

Active-study continuity is the principal gate. Migration of site, patient, safety or trial-master information needs validation, reconciliation and user readiness. The CIO will sequence change around enrolment and data milestones, retaining read access where necessary. Technology savings cannot justify protocol disruption or lost evidence.

Data retention and archive deserve a long view. Products approaching patent expiry may still have safety, regulatory, litigation and scientific obligations. The CIO will establish durable formats, indexed access, integrity verification and vendor exit. Cheap storage without retrievability is not an archive.

Supplier economics will be rebuilt. Contract structures contain per-study, user, data and minimum charges, sometimes across programmes. The CIO will consolidate where service and exit risk permit, negotiate declining-volume bands and expose the true cost of custom integration. A lower unit price that extends lock-in may reduce strategic choice.

Architecture should separate common clinical capabilities from product-specific configuration. Identity, documents, data exchange and audit services can be shared; protocol and regulatory requirements may vary. The target state will reduce point-to-point interfaces and make ownership and version visible.

Cyber resilience must reflect trial and safety consequence. Attacks or containment may make study data, randomisation or reporting unavailable. The CIO will test minimum viable operations, site communication, offline procedures and reconciliation. Recovery time should be set by obligation, not a generic enterprise tier.

Access control is complex across employees, investigators, CROs and partners. Joiner, mover and study-close processes must remove access promptly while retaining necessary records. Privileged activity and emergency access will be monitored. Shared credentials and informal file transfer are unacceptable workarounds.

Validation will be risk-based and complete. Systems affecting regulated data or decisions need intended use, testing, change, audit and release. Cloud or configurable software does not transfer accountability to the vendor. The CIO will simplify documentation while preserving evidence quality.

Portfolio investment will be staged. Modernisation cases must show study benefit, compliance, operating cost, migration risk and option value. The CIO will stop projects whose value depended on the previous revenue envelope or whose adoption owner cannot be named.

Technology teams need clinical-development fluency. Service managers and architects will observe study and safety work, learning why a seemingly minor outage has disproportionate consequence. Clinical technology, cybersecurity and vendor leaders will have successors and documented decision records.

Board reporting will show obligations protected, cost removed, migration exposure and residual technical debt. The CIO must explain where retaining an old platform is prudent and where delay increases risk. Patent-expiry pressure should produce sharper choices, not indiscriminate austerity.

What you will own

• Clinical-development systems estate and target architecture.
• Active-study migration and regulated record continuity.
• Archive, access, validation and audit evidence.
• Cyber resilience and obligation-based recovery.
• Supplier consolidation and declining-volume economics.
• Technology portfolio, benefits and technical debt.
• Board assurance and investment choices.
• Technology capability and succession.

The first 12 months

Within 30 days, map systems to studies and obligations, identify unsupported platforms and secure any fragile continuity or access control. Freeze unsafe decommission actions.

By month five, approve the target estate, renegotiate priority suppliers and complete validated migration pilots. Test cyber continuity with sites and safety teams.

At twelve months, remove 20% of recurring technology cost, retire 25% of redundant applications and achieve 100% reconciliation for migrated regulated records. Critical clinical systems should meet obligation-based recovery standards, with no active-study disruption or material audit finding attributable to estate reduction.

What the sponsor will examine

• Systems linked to real studies and retention duties.
• Migrations protecting active participants and evidence.
• Archives proving retrievability and integrity.
• Supplier savings preserving exit choice.
• Cyber recovery including site and safety work.
• Projects stopped when the funding thesis changed.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in information technology, including CIO authority within pharmaceutical development, biotechnology or another regulated research environment. Your record includes clinical systems, validated migration, cyber resilience, archives and vendor consolidation.

Candidates must demonstrate a system retained despite low use because its obligation remained, and savings achieved without disturbing active studies. This permanent appointment is onsite in Boston with global study and supplier engagement.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is USD 360,000–480,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation tied to study continuity, estate cost, cyber resilience, compliance and technology leadership. The permanent onsite Boston role reports to the Group Chief Executive or nominated executive-committee sponsor. The unplanned appointment is urgent during budget reset.

Confidentiality

The enterprise, studies, patients, systems, records, suppliers, security and budgets remain confidential. Further material follows conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact pharmaceutical companies, trial sites or vendors to identify the client.