Senior Clinical Lead, Clinical Partnerships and Collaborations

Join to apply for the Senior Clinical Lead, Clinical Partnerships and Collaborations role at LifeArc.

Location: London or Edinburgh

Job Type: Permanent

Are you passionate about making life science life changing and delivering impact for patients? We want to hear from you.

About the role

As Senior Clinical Lead, you will drive delivery of complex clinical projects and programmes through high-impact partnerships and collaborations. You will shape clinical strategy, establish robust governance frameworks, integrate and manage multifaceted projects and influence senior stakeholders across organisations to drive operational excellence. This role demands the ability to forge and sustain strategic relationships with external organisations, academic institutions, industry partners, and senior internal colleagues to maximise the value and impact of our funded initiatives.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and oversee clinical partnership and collaboration programmes, ensuring strategic alignment with organisational objectives.
• Develop and implement clinical strategies, frameworks, and governance across internal and collaborative projects.
• Provide leadership and line management, influencing cross-functional and multi-project teams to deliver results.
• Advise senior management and stakeholders on clinical strategy, risk management, and innovation.
• Ensure effective reporting and communication of programme progress to senior stakeholders and partners.
• Represent the organisation externally as a subject matter expert and ambassador in high-level forums and collaborations.

Essential experience required

• Experience in establishing and sustaining high-impact clinical collaboration relationships with external organisations, academic institutions, industry partners and senior internal colleagues.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver clinical strategy for multi-partner initiatives.
• Significant experience in clinical development in the pharmaceutical/biotech or life sciences industry.
• In-depth knowledge of clinical trial phases, designs and regulatory requirements particularly in rare diseases and/or global health.
• Proven track record in managing and delivering clinical projects from concept to implementation.
• Experience in line management and leading cross-functional matrix teams.

Education

• PhD or equivalent in a relevant life sciences discipline; alternatively, BSc/MSc with substantial additional experience in clinical development.
• Leading or contributing to large-scale clinical partnerships or consortia.
• Experience with joint governance, shared risk management, and collaborative strategy development for clinical programmes.
• Familiarity with regulatory requirements and operational delivery in clinical partnership contexts.
• Experience with international clinical development, cross-border collaborations and regulatory submissions is highly desirable.

Skills & abilities

• Strategic leadership and influencing skills, with the ability to shape clinical direction at organisational and partnership levels.
• Advanced project and programme management skills, ensuring delivery of complex clinical initiatives.
• Exceptional verbal and communication skills, able to facilitate effective collaboration, share insights, and report progress to senior stakeholders and partners.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, with a track record of innovative decision-making.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, fostering collaboration and trust across diverse teams and organisations.
• High level of organisational and analytical capability, with attention to detail and commitment to quality.

About LifeArc

LifeArc is a not-for-profit life science organisation, leading the way for change in rare diseases in the UK and supporting promising initiatives in global health. We seek out research in areas of unmet need that has great potential, providing support to help it become breakthroughs that change lives.

What we can offer you

Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of ‘putting patients at the centre of everything we do’.

LifeArc is committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and developing a culture that values differences. As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term health condition who meet the essential criteria for the role. Please note that in certain situations, such as high volumes of applications, it may not be practical to interview all eligible candidates. In these cases, we may need to select those who best meet the essential criteria.

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days plus bank holidays. Flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate, and you may be just right for this or other roles. We all have potential. At LifeArc, you’ll discover what you can really do with it.