Director, Budgets and Contracts

Job Description

Position Overview

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Lynd Clinical is seeking a Director of Budgets & Contracts to lead study budget development, clinical trial agreement negotiation, and the financial terms that govern every study across our growing network of clinical research sites.

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This leader will build and scale a centralized budgets and contracts function that gets studies to activation faster, protects site margins, and ensures every visit, procedure, and pass-through cost is negotiated, documented, and recoverable, while supporting rapid growth through acquisitions, new site development, and expansion of our clinical trial portfolio.

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The Director will oversee study budget development and negotiation, clinical trial agreements, and the handoff of negotiated terms into study setup, invoicing, and revenue tracking. This individual will work closely with Clinical Operations, Business Development, Regulatory & Quality, Finance, Legal, site leadership, and investigators to ensure Lynd's contracts reflect how studies are actually run and how sites actually get paid.

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The ideal candidate combines deep site-side clinical research budgeting and contracting expertise with strong negotiation skills, financial acumen, and experience scaling standardized processes across a multi-site clinical research organization.

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The Director, Budgets & Contracts will report to the Chief Operating Officer, partner closely with Finance and Legal, and serve as a key member of Lynd's operations leadership team.

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Key Responsibilities:

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Study Budget Development & Negotation

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Lead budget development for all new studies, building site budgets from the protocol schedule of assessments, true site cost, and fair market value, including start-up fees, per-visit and procedure costs, invoiceable items, screen failures, pass-through costs, and closeout.

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Negotiate budgets with sponsors and CROs to cover the full cost of study conduct, including coordinator and investigator effort, overhead, participant stipends and reimbursement, and protect site margins.

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Build and maintain Lynd's standard rate card, fee schedule, and budget templates, and keep them current with labor costs, market benchmarks, and actual site workload.

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Contract Negotiation & Management

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Lead negotiation and execution of confidentiality agreements, clinical trial agreements, master clinical trial agreements, amendments, and work orders with sponsors and CROs.

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Establish and maintain Lynd's contracting playbook, including standard language, fallback positions, and escalation thresholds for payment terms, indemnification, subject injury, confidentiality, publication, intellectual property, insurance, and termination.

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Partner with Legal on non-standard terms and manage outside counsel when needed.

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Study Start-Up & Cycle Time

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Partner with Clinical Operations, Regulatory, and Business Development to run budget and contract negotiation in parallel with regulatory and IRB start-up to accelerate site activation.

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Establish one set of budgets and contracts for KPIs covering CDA, budget, and CTA turnaround, negotiation cycle time, contract backlog, and margin by study, and report them to senior leadership.

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Prioritize the negotiation pipeline based on enrollment opportunities, strategic sponsor relationships, and portfolio fit.

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Financial Handoff & Revenue Protection

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Ensure negotiated terms are accurately built into CTMS and finance systems, including payment schedules, invoiceable items, holdbacks, and payment terms.

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Lead amendment and change-order negotiations when protocol changes affect scope, visits, procedures, or site workload.

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Provide study-level and portfolio-level margin analysis to inform feasibility and study selection decisions.

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Sponsor & CRO Relationships

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Build productive working relationships with sponsor and CRO contracting and site-payment teams.

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Pursue master CTA agreements, preferred-site terms, and network-level rate cards with strategic sponsors and CROs.

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Represent Lynd as a single, consistent negotiating counterpart across all sites in the network.

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M&A Integration & Site Expansion

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Support diligence on acquisitions by reviewing active study contracts and budgets.

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Develop and execute post-close transition plans for active agreements, including assignment, novation, and payee changes, preserving continuity of study payments.

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Bring acquired and de novo sites onto Lynd's standard budgeting, contracting, and rate card processes.

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Technology & Process Improvement

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Embed budget and contract workflows into CTMS and Lynd's other systems, with a central contract repository, version control, and status tracking.

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Use automation and AI-enabled tools to speed budget builds and contract review, while keeping appropriate human review and controls in place.

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Cross-Functional Partnership

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Partner with Site Managers and investigators so budgets reflect real site workload and negotiated terms are understood at the site level.

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Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on contract risk, study financial performance, and negotiation trends.

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Qualifications

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Bachelor's degree in business, finance, healthcare administration, life sciences, or a related field.

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5+ years of clinical research experience, including at least 3 years in site-side budget and contract negotiation.

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Direct experience negotiating study budgets and clinical trial agreements with sponsors and CROs across multiple therapeutic areas and study phases.

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Significant experience within a clinical research site network, SMO, or other multi-site clinical trial environment.

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Deep understanding of protocol schedules of assessments, site cost drivers, fair market value, and how budget terms flow through to invoicing and revenue.

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Working knowledge of key clinical trial agreement terms and sound judgment on when to escalate to Legal.

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Experience with CTMS and contract management systems; CRIO experience a plus.

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Strong financial acumen and budget modeling skills.

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Strong negotiation, communication, and leadership capabilities.

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Ability to protect Lynd's financial and legal interests while moving at the speed required in a high-growth organization.

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Willingness to travel as needed.

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About Lynd Clinical

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Lynd Clinical is building a next-generation clinical research site network focused on expanding access to clinical trials while improving the speed, predictability, and quality of study execution.

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Our model combines high-quality local clinical research operations with centralized capabilities in patient recruitment, regulatory and quality, business development, technology, and clinical operations. Lynd is building an AI-enabled operating platform designed to improve patient identification, feasibility, recruitment, and study execution across the network.

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We are particularly focused on bringing clinical research opportunities to community and underserved markets where large patient populations historically have had limited access to clinical trials. Through acquisitions, new site development, and strategic clinical partnerships, Lynd is building a scalable national research network designed around patients, investigators, sponsors, and operational excellence.