Specialist, Country Study Start Up

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. 

Job Description

The Specialist, Country Study Start Up proactively drives and executes all start-up and maintenance-related activities and deliverables for assigned studies and sites in their assigned country or countries. For studies that only involve one country, the Specialist, Country Study Start Up is responsible and accountable for one time, budget and quality delivery and execution of the start-up and maintenance activities (i.e.: the United States only trials). Acts as a site start-up expert and provides Subject Matter Expert (SME) support.

Key responsibilities

• Ensure successful and on time and quality execution of start-up and maintenance activities for assigned sites and studies; site assignment scope inclusive of central and local Institutional Review Board (IRB)/ Ethics Committee (EC) sites.
• Establish the country/site activation plans and priorities including risk assessment and mitigation plans with Country Clinical Operations Manager (CCOM) / Clinical Operations Manager (COM), ASUL and Clinical Site Management (CSM) Lead, Contract Manager, Contract Management Specialist (CMS) /Regulatory Affairs.
• Proactively identify and communicate issues impacting delivery and providing proposed solutions. 
• Attend regional/area start up calls and providing input for assigned sites/studies. 
• Collect essential documents from sites and completing quality check Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original, and Accurate. (ALCOA).
• Compile and submit ethics and other required local submissions including customization of Informed Consent Forms (ICFs), patient facing materials and safety reporting.
• Coordinate with Regulatory and CMS on Competent Authorities (CA) submission and approval status to assure alignment with other site activation requirements.
• Collaborate with contract manager, Clinical Research Associate (CRA), Area CSM Lead as required to assure timely site activation.
• Review site and IRB/EC comments on ICFs and routing for approval by required functional areas.
• Facilitate clinical supply shipments.
• Complete Investigational Product (IP) release activities and triggering IP shipment.
• Issue site green light letter and activating sites in Interactive Voice/Web Response System (IXRS).
• Track all start-ups and maintenance-related activities in Vault Study Start-Up (SSU) as appropriate.
• Maintain local country and site intelligence database and Expected Document Lists (EDLs) in Vault. 
• Maintain SSU performance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for assigned sites/studies.  
• Provide start up updates and metrics to CCOM/COM and Area SSU and CSM Leads.
• Ensure audit/inspection readiness.
• Ensure compliance with corporate and divisional policies and procedures in alignment with worldwide regulations and guidelines.
• Drive to improve site start-up efficiency, which includes leading process improvement initiatives. 
• Function as an SME in the SSU community and leads training and mentoring of Country Start Up Specialists, drive change management in the adoption of new technologies and processes.
• Act as an area lead for studies that only involve one country (i.e.: the US only trials).

Experience / Education required

• Bachelor's degree in Health Care or Science highly preferred.
• A minimum of three years of clinical research experience and preferably more than two years of study start up management experience for the designated region.
• Must have hands on experience in interpreting regional clinical research regulations and processes.
• Experience working with central and local IRB/EC sites, inclusive of reviewing site and IRB/EC comments on ICFs and routing for approval by required functional areas.
• Adept and experienced working with Vault SSU in the capacity of essential document processing, IP release, and ICF IRB/EC review.
• Experience working with remote/virtual teams.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills and the ability to evaluate complex issues from multiple perspectives and drive smart decision-making. 
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build trust and communicate with clarity, flexibility and adaptability to changing requirements.
• Demonstration of a successful start-up execution and aptitude for managing multiple priorities in a fast‐paced environment.
• Demonstration of driving and leading successful initiatives, special projects and activities that support the business.
• Working knowledge of International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines and operational understanding of the country's regulatory environment. 

• English language proficiency (oral and written).

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

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