Fractional Director of Engagement Operations

Fractional Director of Engagement Operations

Own the authoritative view of project status, responsibilities, deadlines, dependencies, budgets, risks, and information access across our concurrent client engagements.

~10–20 hours per week, variable around research launches

Location

Remote; all services performed from within the United States

Target compensation

$125–$175 per hour, depending on experience

Reports to the Founder and President.

About Sigla Sciences

Sigla Sciences is a senior-led life sciences consulting firm supporting biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical-device, and healthcare clients. Our work may involve market access, health economics and outcomes research, evidence strategy, commercialization, qualitative research, competitive intelligence, scientific communications, and related strategic consulting.

Our delivery model is intentionally flexible. Engagement teams may include internal leaders, independent subject-matter experts, boutique consulting firms, solo consultants, analysts, creative partners, vendors, and 30–50 external experts or interview participants working across different organizations, systems, time zones, and contractual arrangements.

The Role

The Fractional Director of Engagement Operations will maintain operational command across multiple concurrent client engagements. This is not a project-software implementation or project-coordinator position. The successful contractor will personally establish and maintain the authoritative view of project status, responsibilities, deadlines, dependencies, budgets, risks, and information-access requirements.

The role requires judgment, discretion, persistence, and the ability to coordinate senior professionals who do not report to the project manager and may participate only briefly in an engagement. Project-management software may be used internally, but the operating model must not depend on universal adoption by consultants, subcontractors, or external experts.

Primary Responsibilities

Portfolio and project delivery

• Maintain an accurate portfolio-level view of all active and upcoming engagements.
• Translate statements of work into practical workplans, milestones, dependencies, review sequences, acceptance criteria, and individual responsibilities.
• Establish internal production deadlines that preserve time for scientific, strategic, editorial, quality, and client review.
• Confirm that every material activity and deliverable has one accountable owner.
• Identify schedule, resource, budget, scope, quality, and compliance risks before they become client-facing problems.
• Follow up directly with contributors and resolve unclear, missed, or conflicting commitments.
• Maintain concise risk, decision, action, issue, and dependency logs, and exception-based status updates.
• Escalate issues with a recommended course of action rather than merely reporting a problem.
• Coordinate final-deliverable production, review, approval, submission, and closeout.

SME, subcontractor, and vendor management

• Coordinate work across independent SMEs, boutique consulting firms, solo consultants, and specialist vendors.
• Convert broader project requirements into defined work packages, deliverables, deadlines, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Manage handoffs between firms and individuals that may not communicate directly with one another.
• Ensure each contributor receives the information necessary to complete their work, but no broader access than required.
• Track subcontractor scopes, hours, budgets, invoices, deliverables, and change-order triggers.
• Identify duplicated work, analytical gaps, inconsistent assumptions, and conflicting instructions; maintain version control.
• Support onboarding and closeout of external consultants, including documentation, access, and return or destruction of confidential materials.

Expert interview and research operations

• Manage operational workflows for projects involving approximately 30–50 external experts or interview participants.
• Maintain controlled expert universes, contact records, and outreach-status trackers; prevent duplicate or inappropriate outreach.
• Coordinate invitations, eligibility checks, scheduling, time zones, interviewer assignments, and follow-up.
• Confirm experts receive the correct project description, briefing materials, disclosures, confidentiality language, and instructions.
• Track consent, recording permissions, completion, notes, transcripts, honoraria, and payment status.
• Preserve required anonymity or blinding, and separate raw expert information from synthesized findings when required.
• Maintain complete, controlled, and audit-ready records of research activity.

Confidentiality and information governance

• Create and maintain need-to-know access rules for each engagement.
• Track who may access client identities, product information, expert identities, raw transcripts, draft findings, financials, and final deliverables.
• Segment communications and documents across clients, firms, consultants, experts, and vendors.
• Identify when materials must be anonymized, blinded, redacted, or distributed through a restricted channel.
• Maintain orderly document-control, retention, archival, and destruction practices.

Compliance coordination

• Track execution and status of contracts, statements of work, work orders, confidentiality agreements, and compliance documentation.
• Identify possible conflicts of interest, employer restrictions, disclosure requirements, or limits on expert participation.
• Coordinate client-specific compliance requirements and subcontractor flow-down provisions.
• Recognize and escaltee potential adverse events, product complaints, off-label issues, privacy concerns, or recording-consent issues.
• Support documentation of honoraria and fair-market-value arrangements; pause activity when authorization is missing.

Budget and scope management

• Track project budgets, subcontractor costs, expert honoraria, vendor expenses, and hours against scope.
• Identify emerging budget overruns and unplanned work; distinguish execution questions from material scope changes.
• Document client requests that may require reprioritization, additional budget, or a change order.
• Support invoice preparation by confirming milestone completion, approved expenses, and subcontractor charges.

Working Approach

The Director will operate a lightweight, service-oriented project-management model. The project manager owns the operating system; consultants, experts, and subcontractors should not be expected to maintain the central tracker or adopt a common platform.

• Gather updates directly rather than waiting for individuals to update software.
• Communicate specific requests, owners, deadlines, and dependencies.
• Maintain the authoritative project record personally.
• Use meetings selectively, focused on decisions, risks, and handoffs.
• Reduce administrative demands on senior SMEs and keep sensitive information compartmentalized.
• Provide concise, exception-based reporting rather than lengthy status recitations.

Required Qualifications

• At least 8–12 years of progressively responsible project, program, delivery, engagement-operations, or professional-services management experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent client engagements.
• Experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare, life sciences consulting, medical communications, market research, HEOR, market access, CRO services, expert networks, or a closely related regulated environment.
• Experience coordinating senior SMEs, independent consultants, subcontractors, and external partners who do not report to the project manager.
• Experience managing client-facing deadlines, deliverables, budgets, scopes, and change control.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively without universal adoption of a project-management platform.
• Strong written communication and concise, decision-oriented status reporting.
• Strong judgment regarding confidentiality, document distribution, participant access, and sensitive communications.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and maintain audit-ready documentation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience managing expert interviews, qualitative research, advisory boards, healthcare professional engagement, or expert-network projects.
• Familiarity with adverse-event and product-complaint escalation processes.
• Experience with client or expert anonymity, blinded research, or restricted-access information.
• Experience coordinating several boutique consulting firms within a single engagement.
• Familiarity with pharmaceutical compliance, medical affairs, market access, HEOR, or commercialization projects.
• Experience tracking subcontractor budgets, utilization, and professional-services profitability.
• PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, or comparable formal training; certification is helpful but not required.
• Experience in a small, founder-led, or rapidly scaling consulting organization.

What This Role Is Not

• Implementing a new project-management platform as the primary solution.
• Training every consultant or expert to use the same software.
• Asking team members to maintain the central project plan.
• Taking meeting minutes without driving subsequent action.
• Scheduling meetings without understanding project dependencies.
• Producing dashboards that do not lead to decisions.
• Applying rigid Scrum, Agile, or PMO processes to every engagement.
• Waiting for complete information before creating a workable plan.

Contracting, Location, and Work Authorization

This engagement is limited to individuals who are physically located in the United States, will perform all services from within the United States, and are legally authorized to provide services in the United States without current or future sponsorship.

• Ability to provide a completed Form W-9 and enter into a written independent-contractor agreement.
• Preference for candidates operating through an established US business entity (LLC, corporation, partnership, or established sole proprietorship) who can provide an EIN.
• Ability to provide evidence of appropriate professional liability, E&O, cyber-liability, or other insurance if requested.
• No subcontracting, delegation, offshore support, or access by another person without prior written authorization.
• No performance of services from outside the United States without prior written authorization.
• Ability to comply with client-specific confidentiality, information-security, conflict-of-interest, data-handling, privacy, and compliance requirements.
• Responsibility for the contractor's business operations, taxes, insurance, equipment, and business expenses, subject to the final agreement and applicable law.

The engagement structure and final terms will be documented in a written agreement and are subject to applicable federal, state, and local law.

Background, Identity, and Compliance Screening

Final selection will be contingent upon satisfactory completion of identity verification, professional-reference checks, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and a background check appropriate to the responsibilities of the engagement. Any third-party screening will be conducted with the candidate's authorization and in accordance with applicable law.

Depending on client and project requirements, screening may also include verification of education and prior work history, professional licenses or certifications, healthcare exclusion or sanctions screening, and review of disclosed conflicts of interest. The selected contractor must be willing to sign and comply with confidentiality, intellectual-property, data-security, conflict-of-interest, outside-engagement, client-specific compliance, information-retention, and non-subcontracting requirements.

Confidential Use of Technology

• Client, expert, project, subcontractor, and applicant information may not be entered into public generative-AI systems or other unapproved platforms.
• Any use of AI-assisted tools in connection with client work must be specifically authorized and must comply with confidentiality, privacy, security, data-residency, and client requirements.
• Credentials, documents, recordings, transcripts, contact lists, or restricted project information may not be shared with another person or system without authorization.

Selection Process

• Initial review of résumé, eligibility responses, and substantive written answers.
• Structured interview focused on examples of personally performed work.
• Reference and identity verification for finalists.
• Compensated work simulation using anonymized project materials (approximately three to five hours, paid).
• Conditional selection, required disclosures and authorizations, background screening, and contract finalization.

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