Research Program Manager – Health Economics Research; CLEAR @ SMH

The Centre for Excellence in Economic Analysis Research (CLEAR) at St. Michael’s Hospital is currently seeking applicants for a Research Program Manager position.

Visit http://bit.ly/2ofvp4A to apply and for full position details.

Closing date:29/03/18

Salary Range:$39.55 – $47.23 per hour

Length of Temporary Assignment:12 months

The Centre for Excellence in Economic Analysis Research (CLEAR) is an academic research organization that provides health economics analysis services to various audiences such as researchers, health care professionals, and decision-makers in Ontario, nationally and internationally. Our mission at CLEAR is to help communicate the value of a health innovation/intervention/program/technology using economic evidence. We are recruiting a determined and well-rounded Research Program Manager who would like to be a part of a team that aims to help create knowledge that facilitate decisions to better society. Our centre regularly collaborates with other research teams at St. Michael’s Hospital such as the Mathematical Modeling for Program Science at the Centre for Urban Health Solutions and the HUB Health Research Solutions. The HUB is composed of three research centres, namely the AHRC (Applied Health Research Centre), CLEAR (health economics), and BREAKTHROUGH (knowledge generation and translation) and provides comprehensive clinical research support spanning a broad range of research methodologies. The work of the CLEAR team involves extensive engagement with partners such as clinicians, researchers, and business leaders.

Reporting to the Director of CLEAR, the Research Program Manager will interact and collaborate with various stakeholders to enable CLEAR to achieve its mission, focused on the conduct of high quality economic evaluations, budget impact assessments, and other heath economic projects. This position requires the individual to have a strong background in health economics and/or health technology assessment (HTA), and have experience writing proposals to acquire funding for projects related to health economics and/or HTA. This position will also support all business and scientific operations functions related to CLEAR for a team of up to seven members. The Research Program Manager is a key role within CLEAR, and is responsible for the overall administration and day-to-day management of CLEAR, including research quality and process, analytical methods, financial operations, legal operations, marketing/communications, reporting, HR management, risk management, privacy, business process (SOPs), business strategy, business modeling, and internal and external stakeholder engagement. The candidate must be flexible to work beyond the job description at times as work demands. This position will offer the successful candidate a challenging and rewarding career in HTA and Health Economics, an opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment with real-world application and impact.

This position requires a willingness and enthusiasm for self-directed learning and to adapt methodological approaches based on relevant research questions, and a willingness to help make analytical approaches a transparent and inclusive process with various knowledge users.

The position involves collaboration with communities (in various sectors), other researchers, health care providers, public health teams, and community members across socio-cultural context including vulnerable populations such as persons living with mental health and addictions.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Research

• Initiate and develop research proposal and protocols in the area of health economics, HTA, and economic evaluations
• Supervise, review, and provide methodological and operational input to proposals, protocols, RFP proposal, and reports generated by team members
• Conduct research and contribute to publications and presentation

Managerial

• Oversight and management for CLEAR projects (e.g., analyses, timelines, budgets)
• Develop and manage team members at CLEAR
• Responsible for training personnel on their roles and compliance with SMH policies
• Coordinate, work closely with, and often lead team meetings involving CLEAR staff, clinicians, researchers, and business leaders
• Day-to-day operations of CLEAR including:
  • Initiate and develop CLEAR budgets and operational plans
  • Budget forecasting and control, accounting, purchasing, and general business functions for CLEAR and CLEAR projects
  • Preparing bids/proposals for grant and industry funding
  • Negotiate terms of financing with outside parties (hospital and industry based)
  • Ensuring compliance with relevant guidelines
  • Responsible for ensuring all staff follow appropriate guidelines for expenses related to CLEAR and CLEAR projects
  • Interface with SMH Finance and others, as needed
  • Oversee CLEAR projects and team
• Participate in strategic and relevant boards and committees, on behalf of Director of CLEAR, as needed
• Report on CLEAR operations, finance, and other aspects of CLEAR work
• Assist in the process of recruiting, hiring, and conducting performance reviews of CLEAR staff
• Coordinate and manage all financial, legal, and contractual agreements and documents for CLEAR and research studies, in collaboration with the SMH Office of Research Administration and/or SMH Legal Counsel
• Be directly involved in developing and negotiating research agreements and strategic alliances with outside parties
• Develop and implement policies, procedures and standards for CLEAR business operations in line with relevant standards and SMH policies
• Liaise with, coordinate, lead and manage internal relationships
• Build and maintain relationships with international academic clinical research organizations, vendors and suppliers, other hospital, institutions, and universities, and research network partners and research sites
• Assist Director with strategic planning for CLEAR, e.g., identify new potential clients and sources of revenue

Administrative/Support

• Coordinate research grant process
• Develop and/or authorize research study budgets and payment schedules
• Associated scheduling functions such that staffing maintained at efficient and optimal levels (including daily, vacation, and sick time coverage)
• Coordinate meetings regarding finances, budgets, business operations, HR, IT, research studies, and others
• Coordinate meetings with clients, vendors, suppliers, and others
• Other duties as necessary

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of a Master’s degree in Health Economics, Health Services Research or Health Technology Assessment
• Strong experience in conducting health economics and/or health technology assessment, which would be essential in supervising and/or reviewing projects
• Solid understanding of health economics approaches including health economics/HTA frameworks (e.g., cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, cost-benefit, and cost-minimization analyses), modeling and validation approaches (e.g., Markov models and probabilistic sensitivity analyses), person-level economic analysis methods (e.g., net benefit regression), and econometric methods (e.g. forecasting and time series analysis)
• Experience in strategic management and day-to-day management of growing organization
• Experience in writing proposals to acquire funding for projects on health economics and/or health technology assessment from various funding agencies
• A minimum of 3 years of experience managing research at an operational level required
• Previous experience in handling and maintaining budgets
• Experience in human resource and financial management
• Experience in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts and agreements
• Experience with directly managing / supervising staff
• Experience in program management an asset
• Value the importance of team
• Able to work independently with demonstrated initiative and self-direction
• Knowledge of statistical and economic analysis, problem solving, and structured approaches to identifying solutions
• Capable of working on multiple projects with various teams and producing quality work under tight timelines
• Effective written and oral communications skills including presentation skills to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Have and recognize the importance of the following skills: problem-solving, organizational, multi-tasking, listening, attention to details, willingness-to-learn, and interpersonal skills (exhibiting professionalism, respect, and cooperation in a team environment)
• Demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment in setting priorities, identify issues, and determine action required
• Knowledge of statistical and quantitative analytical techniques including fundamental understanding of epidemiology principles is an asset
• Technical proficiency in at least one of the following statistical software: SAS, STATA, Microsoft Excel, TreeAge, or R is a great asset
• Experience in project management software (e.g., MS Project), as well as advanced MS Office user is preferred.