Clinical Trial Budget / Contract Manager

Clinical Trial Budget and Contract Manager

The Clinical Trial Contract Manager prepares, negotiates, and executes a wide range of clinical trial agreements while ensuring budgets, contracts, and payment structures align with fair market value and organizational standards. This role collaborates closely with Clinical Operations, Legal, Ethics & Compliance, and Clinical Development & Medical Affairs to build high-quality site budgets, maintain robust contract systems, and support effective financial and operational oversight of clinical trials. The position requires strong clinical and budgeting acumen, excellent negotiation skills, and the ability to drive continuous improvement in contract and budget processes.

Responsibilities

• Prepare, negotiate, and execute a variety of clinical trial agreements in alignment with organizational policies and objectives.
• Review contract language and develop clear, persuasive responses to negotiate contract modifications.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date contract files and systems to ensure traceability and compliance.
• Build high-quality clinical trial site budgets, ensuring allocations are within fair market values and supported by appropriate benchmarks.
• Analyze protocol flowcharts to create detailed costing, payment strategies, budget estimates, and negotiation parameters within fair market value.
• Drive the development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of the Site Fee Framework.
• Set up, close, re-open, and submit payments within all grants, ensuring timely and accurate processing.
• Use budget-specific and trial metrics and tools to report on performance, provide visibility into deliverables, and support data-driven decision making.
• Maintain a culture of continuous improvement by identifying and executing strategies that enhance the Budget group’s value and operational effectiveness.
• Stay current with industry standards, trends, and competitive intelligence related to clinical trial budgeting best practices.
• Interface effectively with Medical, all therapeutic areas, Finance, Legal, and external parties such as investigators, site personnel, and third-party vendors.
• Liaise with the Clinical Trial Manager and Therapeutic Area Lead for review and approval of site budgets.
• Collaborate with Clinical Finance/Accounting, Legal (as needed), and Clinical Operations leadership to obtain approvals for payment-related decisions and maintain proper documentation.
• Represent Contract/Budget group processes on local and global working groups and contribute to cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrate a strong commitment to customer-centric behaviors in all internal and external interactions.
• Maintain a high degree of responsiveness to both internal and external requests related to contracts, budgets, and payments.

Essential Skills

• Strong clinical background with a solid understanding of cost drivers and benchmarks for clinical site budgets.
• Proven ability to negotiate and manage clinical trial contracts and budgets.
• Ability to think strategically and present strong, persuasive contractual arguments that support business policies and objectives.
• Demonstrated organization, prioritization, and problem-solving skills that enable sound decision making.
• Excellent customer service orientation with high attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong analytical skills and critical thinking to resolve issues in complex and evolving situations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly and concisely in various settings.
• Experience working with systems and applications related to clinical and/or project management planning and reporting.
• Excellent knowledge of computer applications, including Microsoft Excel, Word, and Access.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience in contracts management and negotiation within a clinical or life sciences environment.
• Knowledge of Veeva systems is a plus.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across Clinical Operations, Medical, Finance, Legal, and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement and adoption of industry best practices in clinical trial budgeting.
• Strong interpersonal skills to manage relationships with investigators, site personnel, and third-party vendors.

This is a Contract position based out of Ridgefield, CT.

The pay range for this position is $60.00 - $69.17/hr.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits available for this temporary role may include the following:
• Medical, dental & vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Short and long-term disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

This is a fully remote position.

This position is anticipated to close on May 29, 2026.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 30,000 consultants and more than 4,500 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email actalentaccommodation@actalentservices.com for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.

Salary : $60 - $69