Director of Budgets & Proposals - Clinical Trials

Director, Budgets & Proposals - Clinical Trials

Location: Europe (remote/flexible)
Reporting to: Clinical Operations

Director, Budgets & Proposals - Patient & Healthy Volunteer Programs

Department: Global Proposal Office
Location: Europe (remote)

The Role

We are seeking a Director, Budgets & Proposals to lead QPS’s patient-side proposal and budgeting function and provide oversight of the Healthy Volunteer proposals team through a direct report. This is a senior leadership role focused on setting direction, developing teams, and ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery across a high volume of full-service clinical trial proposals in a global, deadline-driven environment.

While the primary focus is people leadership and functional oversight, the Director will remain personally involved in proposal development, owning selected complex or high-priority bids and serving as a senior escalation and review point. The role requires a strong sense of ownership, responsiveness to business and client needs, and the ability to operate effectively across global time zones and fluctuating proposal demands.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Oversight

• Lead and develop the Patient-Side Budgets & Proposals team, ensuring effective resourcing, prioritisation, and on-time delivery.

• Provide strategic oversight of the Healthy Volunteer proposals team via the Global Proposal Manager reporting into this role.

• Establish clear expectations, governance, and quality standards across teams.

• Act as the senior escalation point for complex proposals, timelines, or resourcing challenges.

• Demonstrate strong personal ownership of outcomes, flexing availability and working patterns as required to meet business needs, global timelines, and client expectations.

Proposal & Budget Accountability

• Oversee the end-to-end development of patient-side proposals and budgets for full-service, multi-site clinical trials.

• Personally lead selected complex or strategic proposals and budgets for patient-side trials, as required.

• Ensure proposals are accurate, competitive, compliant, and aligned with protocol and operational assumptions.

• Conduct final quality and commercial reviews prior to submission.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Business Development on RFP intake, bid strategy, pricing, and risk assessment.

• Collaborate with Clinical Operations, Finance, Contracts, and subject matter experts to align scope and assumptions.

• Participate in, and as needed lead, bid defences and sponsor discussions related to budgets and commercial strategy.

Process & Continuous Improvement

• Drive consistency, efficiency, and scalability across proposal and budgeting processes.

• Apply advanced Excel modelling for pricing, margin analysis, and scenario planning.

• Ensure accurate tracking of proposals and opportunities in Salesforce or related systems.

• Support smooth handover of awarded studies to operational teams.

What You Bring

• Extensive experience in patient-side budgeting and proposals within a CRO or similar clinical research environment.

• Proven leadership of teams delivering high volumes of full-service clinical trial proposals, including multi-site studies.

• Strong commercial judgement and comfort operating at both strategic and delivery levels.

• Advanced Excel skills and strong organisational capabilities.

• Clear communicator and collaborative leader with a focus on quality and continuous improvement.

• Ownership mindset with the flexibility to adjust working hours and availability to support global time zones, proposal deadlines, and periods of high workload.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Business, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• 10+ years of experience in clinical research proposals and budgeting, with significant patient-side exposure.

• Prior senior management or Director-level experience preferred.

• Salesforce or similar CRM experience advantageous.

Why QPS

• Senior leadership role with real influence on commercial execution.

• A leadership culture that values accountability, flexibility, and trust, with autonomy to manage your time in line with business and client needs.

• Opportunity to lead and shape patient and healthy volunteer proposal teams.

• Exposure to complex, global, multi-site clinical trials.

• Collaborative, science-driven culture with flexible, remote working within Europe.

If you want to shape the future of clinical research in Europe, lead a high-performing team, and make a real impact, we want to hear from you. Apply today! 

Vaccination Protocol

At QPS, we care about keeping our workplace healthy and safe. Our vaccination program, including Hepatitis B, helps support that goal. Participation may be required for some roles and is voluntary/encouraged for others. By applying, you acknowledge that you understand this policy as it relates to your role.