The Challenge
A contract research organization (CRO) experiencing rapid growth following several major pharmaceutical partnerships faced an urgent need to establish a new leadership role: Director of Clinical Operations with responsibility for managing decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) across North America. The position presented unique recruitment challenges on multiple fronts. The role required expertise in an emerging trial methodology that few professionals had mastered; candidates needed fluency in both Canadian and American regulatory requirements for remote patient monitoring and direct-to-patient drug delivery; and the position demanded someone who could build and lead geographically dispersed teams across three countries while maintaining protocol compliance and data integrity. Compounding these challenges, Health Canada had recently opened consultations on DCT guidance, meaning the regulatory landscape was actively evolving. The CRO needed someone who could not only execute current best practices but also shape the organization’s approach as new regulations emerged.
The Solution
Lock Search Group deployed a coordinated tri-office search strategy, with consultants from our Toronto, Montreal, and Boston locations working in parallel to canvas the entire North American clinical research talent market. Our approach began with an intensive discovery phase where we interviewed the CRO’s executive leadership, existing clinical operations managers, and key pharmaceutical clients to develop a comprehensive understanding of both current needs and future strategic direction. The search strategy focused on three primary candidate pools: clinical operations leaders from established CROs who had piloted DCT programs; pharmaceutical company professionals who had sponsored decentralized trials and understood sponsor-side requirements; and technology-enabled clinical trial platform executives who brought expertise in the digital infrastructure underlying remote trial conduct. We developed a customized assessment framework that evaluated candidates across technical competencies including GCP compliance, remote monitoring technology proficiency, and multi-site coordination capabilities, as well as leadership dimensions such as change management experience and cross-cultural communication skills essential for managing teams across three countries.
The Outcome
The exhaustive market mapping exercise identified 62 professionals whose backgrounds suggested relevant DCT experience, from which 44 engaged in preliminary discussions with our team. Through our multi-stage assessment process, we developed a shortlist of five candidates who demonstrated the complete skill set required. The final selection was a former Associate Director of Global Clinical Operations from a top-ten pharmaceutical company who had led the design and implementation of their first fully decentralized Phase III trial. This candidate possessed the rare combination of sponsor-side perspective, hands-on DCT execution experience, and the regulatory knowledge spanning both FDA and Health Canada requirements. The successful placement included a structured onboarding program developed in collaboration with our team, ensuring the new Director could immediately begin building relationships with existing site networks and technology partners. Within the first year, she expanded the CRO’s DCT capabilities to support eight concurrent decentralized trials across 200+ sites in Canada and the United States, directly contributing to a 40% increase in clinical operations revenue.