Senior Manager, Clinical Trial Budgets & Contracts

Summary

Join Natera as a Senior Manager, Clinical Budgets & Contracts, providing strategic oversight and execution of clinical contract and budget operations. Lead a team supporting clinical trial start-up and lifecycle management, ensuring timely, compliant, and cost-effective contracting. Partner with study teams, Legal, Finance, and AP to drive process excellence and scale operations. Collaborate with leadership to define strategies and process improvements for NDA turnaround, budget harmonization, and contract execution timelines. All work must adhere to company policies, SOPs, legal and regulatory requirements, and fair market valuation. This role requires strong leadership, financial acumen, and experience in clinical trial contracting.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field required; Master’s degree or MBA preferred
• Minimum 12 years of experience in clinical trial contracting, with deep expertise in either site or vendor-facing functions
• Minimum 3 years of direct team leadership experience
• Experience with FMV-based budgeting and regulated contract operations
• Proficient in relevant systems (CTMS, ERP, eTMF, contract lifecycle management)
• Demonstrated success managing relationships with clinical sites and/or vendors
• Strong strategic thinking and operational execution capabilities
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills; able to influence across functions and externally
• Experienced in managing competing priorities across large portfolios
• Adept at leading teams and developing staff
• Skilled at identifying and implementing process improvements
• Strong financial and contractual acumen
• Able and willing to support the alternate functional area to ensure team coverage and business continuity

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational leadership over assigned functional stream(s)
• Lead and mentor a team of contract managers, analysts, and/or associates
• Ensure documentation and tracking: agreements, budgets, purchase requests, and payments in applicable systems (CTMS, ERP, legal tools)
• Partner with Finance and Legal to ensure accurate forecasting, alignment with fair market value, and adherence to contracting policies and payment terms
• Monitor metrics such as turnaround time, contract status, budget accuracy, and invoice backlog; identify and implement process improvements
• Serve as an escalation point for internal and external stakeholders in assigned area
• Build and maintain collaborative relationships with sites, vendors, and internal partners to ensure alignment and timely execution
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to scale operations and reduce cycle times
• Ensure audit-readiness and inspection compliance in all assigned areas
• Cross-train and provide functional support across the alternate focus area as needed
• Deliver performance reporting, issue summaries, and status updates to senior leadership
• Performs other duties as assigned

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans for eligible employees and their dependents
• Free testing in addition to fertility care benefits
• Pregnancy and baby bonding leave
• 401k benefits
• Commuter benefits
• Generous employee referral program