Scientific Reviewer Engagement Lead

Position: Scientific Reviewer Engagement Lead

Location: MD, USA

Work Environment: Remote; occasional travel may be required

Clearance Required: Public Trust

Status: Contingent upon contract award

Salary Range: $110,000 – $130,000

Knowesis is currently seeking an exceptional Scientific Reviewer Engagement Lead to join our team and provide invaluable support to the Biomedical Research Application Evaluation and Support (BRAES) program. The Lead leads the centralized capability for identifying, sourcing, recruiting, and engaging qualified scientific, clinical, and technical experts for biomedical research peer review, and oversees enterprise reviewer sourcing and pipeline development across multiple research programs so Scientific Review Officers (SROs) have access to robust pools of qualified prospective reviewers with the expertise needed for current and anticipated peer review requirements.

This position leads Scientific Reviewer Sourcing Specialists and owns sourcing strategy, workload prioritization, reviewer pipeline development, difficult-to-source expertise, recruitment metrics, reviewer engagement and retention, and continuous improvement. The Lead works closely with Scientific Review Managers (SRMs) and SROs to understand expertise requirements. Final evaluation of reviewer suitability, panel fit, selection, and assignment remains with scientific review leadership and SROs.

• Develop and implement state-of-the-art reviewer identification and recruitment strategies, including artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted expertise discovery and semantic matching, multi-source scientific database searches, structured expertise profiling, professional society and institutional partnerships, proactive pipeline development, and data-driven sourcing and engagement strategies.
• Lead the centralized scientific reviewer sourcing and engagement capability supporting multiple biomedical research programs and peer review activities.
• Supervise, mentor, and coordinate Scientific Reviewer Sourcing Specialists.
• Translate expertise requirements provided by SRMs and SROs into targeted sourcing strategies and recruitment priorities.
• Manage sourcing workload and priorities across concurrent programs and panels based on schedules, reviewer demand, specialty requirements, and recruitment difficulty.
• Build and continuously refresh pipelines before immediate needs arise, using anticipated program, mechanism, disease-area, methodology, clinical, and technical requirements to identify thin pipelines early.
• Oversee multi-source expert discovery using scientific literature and bibliographic databases, funded-investigator information, professional societies, academic and research institutions, clinical networks, conferences, investigator networks, and other appropriate sources.
• Develop structured reviewer expertise profiles that capture relevant disease or condition, scientific domain, research focus, methodology, technology, clinical specialty, population expertise, career stage, and prior review experience as appropriate.
• Develop relationships and referral networks with scientific and professional societies, research institutions, academic medical centers, clinical organizations, and other sources of qualified experts.
• Expand and refresh reviewer pools by identifying qualified new and underutilized experts while maintaining access to experienced, high-performing reviewers.
• Oversee professional outreach and engagement that communicates peer review expectations, timelines, participation requirements, and the value of contributing to the biomedical research mission.
• Coordinate rapid sourcing of replacement or additional reviewers when selected…