Senior Investigator Grant Specialist

Job Summary

The Senior Investigator Grant Specialist is responsible for the development, negotiation, and management of investigator grants and site payments for global clinical trials. This role serves as a subject matter expert (SME) within the Investigator Grants & Payments function, liaising with Clinical Operations, Contracts, Finance, and Investigative Sites to ensure budgets and payments are accurate, compliant, and delivered within agreed timelines.

The role also supports process improvements, operational excellence initiatives, and mentoring of junior team members.

Minimum Qualifications & Experience

Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences or a related field.
5+ years of experience within a CRO, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or related clinical research environment.
Experience in investigator budget development. Experience working on a budget development tool such as GrantPlan is highly desired.
Experience in investigator payments and site reimbursement processes. Must have experience working in CTMS/Veeva.
Must have analytical, problem solving skills.
Excellent verbal and written communication and negotiation skills.
Excellent interpersonal and relationship building skills.
Extremely well organized and detailed oriented.

Roles and Responsibilities

Investigator Grants & Budget Management

Develop and negotiate investigator site budgets based on study protocols, Schedule of Assessments (SOA), and sponsor requirements.
Conduct protocol reviews to identify billable procedures, budget drivers, and payment milestones.
Perform budget benchmarking and Fair Market Value (FMV) assessments.
Develop country-specific and site-specific budget templates, where applicable.
Manage budget-related queries, escalations, and stakeholder communications.
Ensure budget assumptions are documented, justified, and aligned with sponsor expectations.

Investigator Payment Management

Manage the end-to-end investigator payment lifecycle for assigned studies.
Review and maintain payment schedules in accordance with executed agreements and approved budgets.
Generate, validate, reconcile, and process investigator payments within established timelines and SLAs.
Reconcile payment data across CTMS, EDC, contracts, study trackers, and related systems.
Monitor held, overdue, or disputed payments and drive timely resolution.
Investigate and resolve payment discrepancies, missing data, and system-related issues.
Support payment forecasting and reporting activities.
Collaborate with Clinical Operations, Project Management, Contracts, Finance, CRAs, and investigative sites to resolve issues and support study delivery.

Additional Responsibilities

Act as an SME for investigator grants and payment processes.
Serve as the primary point of contact for complex investigator grant and payment-related matters.
Identify opportunities to improve processes, controls, templates, systems, and automation initiatives.
Contribute to SOPs, work instructions, training materials, and departmental continuous improvement activities.
Provide guidance, mentoring, and training to junior team members.
Support onboarding and knowledge-sharing initiatives across the team.
Ensure compliance with company SOPs, study agreements, regulatory requirements, and client expectations.
Maintain audit-ready documentation and support audits, inspections, and quality reviews.
Ensure adherence to departmental KPIs, quality standards, and service-level agreements.