Purpose:
The Senior Specialist, R&D Procurement is responsible for executing source-to contract procurement processes in alignment with business goals, industry best practices, and applicable procurement policies. The role will support contracting activities for Real World Evidence (RWE), clinical research, and related evidence-generation work, partnering with internal stakeholders – including Clinical, Epidemiology, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Medical Affairs, Legal, Finance, and other business functions – to source, contract with, and manage external suppliers and research partners. This role contributes to supplier selection, proposal and budget evaluation, contract development, negotiation, and execution. The position also supports supplier diversity and sustainability objectives, continuous improvement initiatives, risk mitigation, and day-to-day supplier excellence.
Responsibilities:
- Execute source-to-contract procurement activities for Real World Evidence, clinical research, and related evidence-generation services in alignment with category strategies, business requirements, and procurement policies.
- Support the end-to-end contracting process for RWE engagements, including development and issuance of requests for proposals, supplier identification and evaluation, scope and deliverable review, budget assessment, contract drafting and review, redlining, negotiation, approval routing, execution, and contract closeout.
- Partner with RWE, Clinical, Epidemiology, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Medical Affairs, Legal, Finance, and other stakeholders to translate scientific and business requirements into clear statements of work, appropriate contracting structures, milestones, deliverables, payment terms, and budgets.
- Review and negotiate supplier proposals, budgets, work orders, amendments, and other contracting documents, ensuring alignment between scope, assumptions, timelines, deliverables, pricing, and payment schedules.
- Coordinate with Legal and business stakeholders on contractual terms applicable to RWE and clinical work, including confidentiality, data privacy and security, data ownership and access, publication rights, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, audit rights, indemnification, liability, and termination provisions.
- Support contracting for a range of RWE activities, such as retrospective and prospective observational studies, database and claims analyses, electronic health record studies, patient and provider research, chart reviews, registries, external comparator, and other health data or evidence-generation projects.
- Maintain excellence in contract execution across source-to-contract and requisition-to-pay processes, ensuring accurate documentation, and timely approvals.
- Identify and escalate procurement, contracting, supplier, budget, data, and operational risks, and provide tactical input to risk mitigation plans developed in collaboration with Category Managers and relevant business partners.
- Oversee or provide guidance on the execution of procurement activities by Specialists, sharing expertise in RWE and clinical contracting practices and supporting the development of team capabilities.