Chief Data Officer — Global Clinical-Development Group

The mandate

A global clinical-development group is reprioritising late-stage programmes. Data are scientifically rich but fragmented across studies, laboratories, imaging, safety and external sources. The board has planned a new Chief Data Officer role to create evidence products that support decisions without replacing scientific or clinical judgement.

Approximately 425 employees and material partners work across data management, statistics, biometrics, data science, engineering, standards and governance from Boston across global studies. The CDO owns data strategy, governance, platforms, products, interoperability and responsible analytics, reporting to the Group Chief Executive or nominated sponsor. Clinical, statistical, safety and regulatory leaders retain their authorised conclusions.

The first priority is an asset evidence map. Every consequential portfolio question should connect to datasets, definitions, analysis status, lineage, uncertainty and owner. The CDO will expose where apparently comparable endpoints differ by protocol, time point, censoring or population. Combining data requires a scientific rationale, not merely technical compatibility.

Clinical data provenance must be complete from source through analysis. Transformations, imputation, exclusions and derivations should be versioned and reproducible. Exploratory work can move quickly, but its status must remain distinct from validated analyses suitable for filing or formal decision.

External and real-world data need fitness assessment. Claims, electronic health records, registries and natural-history sources may illuminate population and standard of care, but missingness and selection matter. The CDO will require purpose, provenance, permissions and bias analysis before such evidence influences valuation or development design.

Biomarker and responder strategies create complex linkage. Samples, assays, genomic data, consent and clinical outcomes must connect under controlled identifiers. The data organisation will manage access and re-identification risk, particularly for rare populations. A promising subgroup found after repeated exploration needs independent validation and transparent multiplicity.

Portfolio data products will serve specific decisions: continue, redesign, partner, stop or invest in evidence. Product owners will work with scientists and executives to define user, trigger and outcome. A dashboard that displays study status without changing a decision is not a strategic product.

Metadata and standards enable speed. Consistent concepts, units, controlled terminology and study metadata can reduce reconciliation while preserving protocol-specific meaning. The CDO will prioritise reusable standards in new studies and use pragmatic mappings for legacy work rather than endless retrospective perfection.

Advanced analytics and machine learning require consequence-based governance. Models may support enrolment, signal detection, endpoint prediction or site selection. The CDO will ensure validation, subgroup performance, explainability, human review and monitoring match use. A model should not determine patient inclusion or scientific conclusion beyond its authorised role.

Data sharing with partners needs clear rights. Co-development, licensing and academic work may involve jointly generated evidence. Agreements should cover access, use, publication, derived insight, return and deletion. The CDO will prevent uncontrolled copying while giving authorised teams practical collaboration tools.

Regulatory readiness must remain intact. Submission datasets, programmes, outputs and traceability need controlled environments and archival evidence. New platforms can improve reuse, but they cannot weaken reproducibility. The CDO will work with regulatory and quality functions on inspection-ready lineage.

Data quality will be risk-based. A field influencing eligibility, endpoint or safety deserves more control than low-consequence administrative data. Stewardship will assign source owners and resolution time. Central cleaning cannot permanently compensate for poor collection design or site burden.

The data function will integrate specialised crafts without flattening them. Data engineers, managers, statisticians and scientists need common product accountability while maintaining professional standards. The CDO will create senior technical paths, succession and a culture that reports uncertainty rather than polishing it away.

What you will own

• Clinical-development data strategy and evidence products.
• Provenance, definitions, standards and reproducibility.
• External, real-world and biomarker data governance.
• Responsible analytics and authorised model use.
• Partner data rights and collaboration.
• Regulatory lineage and inspection readiness.
• Risk-based quality and product adoption.
• Data talent and succession.

The first 12 months

Within 60 days, map priority asset decisions to evidence, identify irreconcilable definitions and stop any portfolio report lacking reproducible lineage. Appoint product owners and stewards.

By month six, launch asset evidence products, establish external-data fitness review and implement model governance. Complete partner and submission lineage for priority programmes.

At twelve months, reduce evidence reconciliation time by 60%, achieve 98% lineage completeness for decision-critical data and make all priority portfolio analyses independently reproducible. At least five products should support documented capital or study-design decisions, with no unauthorised secondary use or model deployed beyond its approved purpose.

What the sponsor will examine

• Endpoint differences visible before comparison.
• Exploratory findings labelled and reproducible.
• External data assessed for fitness and bias.
• Subgroups validated beyond attractive retrospection.
• Models bounded by authorised scientific use.
• Data products linked to actual portfolio choices.

The person

You bring 18–22 years in pharmaceutical data, biometrics, data science or clinical informatics, including enterprise or major-development leadership. Your record includes late-stage evidence integration, submissions, external data and advanced analytics used in portfolio decisions.

Candidates must demonstrate a conclusion they narrowed because lineage or bias failed and a product that changed a study or investment decision. The permanent role is onsite in Boston with global development engagement.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is USD 360,000–480,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation linked to evidence quality, portfolio decisions, responsible analytics, compliance and data leadership. The permanent onsite Boston appointment is accountable to the Group Chief Executive or nominated executive-committee sponsor. Planned hiring precedes the next evidence cycle.

Confidentiality

The enterprise, studies, patients, datasets, analyses, biomarkers, partners and portfolio decisions remain confidential. Further detail follows conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact companies, sites or investigators to identify the client.