Vice President, Patient Experience & Recruitment

Velocity is seeking a Vice President of Patient Experience & Recruitment (PER) to lead the strategic vision and operational execution of patient engagement and recruitment across our multi-site clinical research organization.

This executive role will drive innovation in AI-powered patient matching, inclusive marketing, and centralized recruitment operations, while fostering strategic partnerships and cross-functional collaboration. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in clinical research, healthcare marketing, and technology enablement, with a proven track record of scaling recruitment strategies and enhancing the patient journey.

Job Summary

The Vice President of Patient Experience & Recruitment (PER) leads Velocity’s integrated strategy to optimize lead generation, study enrollment, and patient experience across a multi-site clinical research network. This leader drives innovation in patient marketing, channel management, participant recruitment operations, patient-centric engagement, and deployment of technology platforms that support scalable, inclusive, and efficient trial execution.

Strategic Leadership

• Architect and evolve the people, processes, and technology that make up the PER operating model, integrating centralized planning and site-level execution, with global awareness.
• Champion the use of the Velocity’s technology platform to enhance AI-driven patient-matching, scheduling, and retention for a scalable, repeatable, positive participant journey.
• Align recruitment strategies with sponsor expectations, regulatory guidance, and organizational growth goals.
• Prioritize project execution, monitor tactical performance, conduct continuous change management, and direct efficient resource allocation to achieve company revenue and EBITDA targets and support sustainable growth.
• Lead through matrix collaboration across internal stakeholder groups with objective decision-making toward continuous improvement in execution of participant recruitment and engagement.

Operational Excellence

• Oversee centralized recruitment operations including call center operations (PERC), participant marketing, technology, and vendors.
• Monitor KPIs for objective, data-driven decision making across recruitment funnel stages – lead generation, pre-screening, scheduling, consent, randomization, and retention – and channels to achieve favorable operational outcomes and financial efficiency.
• Lead initiatives to promote show rates, lead-to-screen conversion, and participant retention through data-driven engagement and pre-screener optimization.
• Leverage financial insights to evaluate recruitment ROI, manage budgets, and ensure cost-effective execution across centralized and site-level operations.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with Site Operations to maximize use of available organizational capacity and to ensure local execution aligns with centralized strategy.
• Partner with Product and Analytics teams to shape the VISION roadmap, define new AI use cases, and measure technology ROI across recruitment operations.
• Build strategic partnerships with sponsors, CROs, and participant recruitment vendors that drive new awards and best-in-class positioning for Velocity.
• Negotiate vendor contracts, facilitate oversight and governance of vendor performance.
• Integrate data and technologies for comprehensive transparency and understanding of performance and to align financial incentives with external stakeholders.
• Represent Velocity at industry forums, sharing thought leadership on recruitment innovation and patient experience.

Team Development

• Establish roles, team structures, and ways of working necessary to execute PER activities efficiently and effectively.
• Proactively utilize tech-enablement as means to improve PER role performance and satisfaction.
• Lead, mentor, and develop PER team members.
• Challenge the status quo and foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Support succession planning and professional development across recruitment functions.

Required Skills / Abilities

• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Enthusiasm for use of technology and AI as business imperatives.
• Analytical approach toward objective, data-driven decision-making.
• Global leadership of centralized call center operations, patient marketing, CRM systems, and vendor negotiations / oversight.
• Expertise in inclusive engagement strategies for clinical trial participant populations across diverse classifications.
• Ability to navigate complex organizational structures and drive cross-functional collaboration.
• Confident to positively facilitate change and hold stakeholders accountable.
• Demonstrated financial acumen.

Education / Experience

• Bachelor’s degree preferred; Master’s in public health, clinical research, or business preferred.
• 15+ years in clinical research, healthcare operations, patient recruitment and/or patient marketing in life sciences, with 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Proven success in scaling recruitment strategies across diverse geographies, populations, and therapeutic areas.
• Deep understanding of GCP, regulatory compliance, and ethical patient engagement.
• Leading or contributing to healthtech implementation initiatives.