Clinical Research Budget Associate

The Clinical Research Budget Associate plays a key role in supporting clinical research by developing, analyzing, and negotiating budgets for industry-sponsored and alliance clinical trials. This position provides financial and accounting support for clinical trial programs, contributes to strategic and long-range planning, and ensures that budgets accurately reflect the complexity and operational requirements of oncology studies. The role helps drive efficient financial stewardship, workflow management, and informed business decision-making in a mission-driven environment focused on advancing cancer research and patient care.

• Provide financial administrative support for clinical research programs, focusing on the development and management of budgets for industry-sponsored clinical trials and alliance studies.
• Collaborate with the Director of Research Planning and Development to prepare detailed budgets for clinical trials, ensuring all trial-related costs are accurately captured.
• Manage and create budgets for all alliances coming into the clinical trials portfolio, aligning funding with protocol requirements and institutional standards.
• Complete Advance Set Up requests to establish funding accounts for clinical trials and ensure accounts are configured correctly for timely study activation and financial tracking.
• Review protocols, amendments, and ancillary documents to identify discrepancies or lack of clarity and work closely with principal investigator teams and sponsors to resolve issues.
• Work collaboratively with regulatory, budget, principal investigator teams, and clinical research finance (CRF) staff to review preliminary and final coverage analyses, report discrepancies, and incorporate recommended changes.
• Assist with strategic and long-range planning for the clinical trials program by attending weekly clinical research review meetings and ad hoc meetings to evaluate new protocols for potential participation.
• Partner with department clinical faculty to support clinical trial goals, providing financial insight and budgetary guidance to help optimize trial feasibility and sustainability.
• Conduct quality assurance reviews on budgets created by pre-award staff to ensure all budgetary items are captured accurately and consistently.
• Train new employees on pre-award budgeting duties and provide ongoing training to existing staff on updates and changes to budget processes implemented by CRF and the institution.
• Assist in maintaining training manuals and documentation for the budget team to ensure processes are clearly defined and up to date.
• Help manage team workload and efficiency by overseeing assignment lists and supporting equitable distribution of tasks.
• Collaborate with the protocol processing team to streamline protocol schema and maximize efficiency of charges and billing workflows.
• Participate in negotiations with industry sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) to process new and amended clinical trial budgets.
• Analyze sponsor budget proposals to determine whether proposed funding adequately covers trial-related costs, considering trial complexity, visit schedules, and reporting requirements.
• Prepare and present counter proposals when needed, and finalize study budgets and payment terms with sponsors in a timely manner.
• Ensure quick turnaround times for budget completion and study activation to support timely initiation of industry-sponsored trials.
• Create, update, and maintain pre-award files that include all pertinent correspondence and information related to clinical trial budgeting activities.
• Assist in maintaining the timelines database to verify and update pre-award information, enabling accurate tracking of…