Sr. Director, Clinical Operations

Job description

Company Summary

Metaphore Biotechnologies, Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company building the next generation of biological therapeutics. Inspired by nature, our mission is to transform patient lives by unlocking the power of biological therapeutics with a new proprietary discovery platform. Metaphore’s platform brings together live-cell experimentation and AI/ML to understand how biological mechanisms drive functional outcomes in living systems. By capturing these mechanism-function relationships, Metaphore aims to design antibody medicines with intended activity from the start.

Position Summary

Metaphore Biotechnologies is seeking a Senior Director of Clinical Operations to lead the hands-on execution of early clinical development activities for the company’s first-in-human program. Reporting to the Chief Medical Officer, this is a senior individual-contributor role with broad ownership and visibility across the organization.

This individual will own clinical operational planning and study execution encompassing CROs and vendor management, site strategy, protocol feasibility, regulatory coordination, and global study start-up, with particular focus on Phase 1 readiness and execution. The successful candidate will be highly operational, able to ramp quickly, and comfortable establishing fit-for-purpose capabilities while working across internal teams, external partners, and consultants to move studies forward with urgency and rigor.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead clinical operations planning and execution for early development programs, with primary accountability for first-in-human study readiness, global start-up, and delivery against key milestones.

• Develop and maintain integrated study plans, timelines, budgets, forecasts, resource requirements, and risk-mitigation strategies aligned with clinical and corporate objectives.

• Lead CRO and vendor selection and oversight, including requests for proposals, bid evaluations, scope-of-work development, budget negotiations, change-order management, performance monitoring, and issue escalation.

• Partner with Clinical Development and Medical leadership to evaluate protocols, study designs, operational feasibility, and start-up requirements.

• Represent Clinical Operations on cross-functional study and program teams, partnering with other relevant functions internally and externally (e.g., Clinical Development, Regulatory, Safety, Clinical Pharmacology, Data Management, Biostatistics, Bioanalytical, CMC, Quality, and clinical supply colleagues).

• Develop and execute the Phase 1 site strategy, including the identification, qualification, activation, and ongoing management of sites with appropriate participant access, clinical pharmacology capabilities, bioanalytical infrastructure, and operational experience.

• Lead global clinical operations activities across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and other ex-U.S. regions, accounting for applicable regulatory, ethics, site, laboratory, vendor, and country-specific start-up requirements.

• Contribute to operational planning for potential studies in China and coordinate with internal and external experts to support regional requirements.

• Establish an effective operating cadence with CROs, sites, vendors, consultants, and functional partners to track deliverables, timelines, budgets, quality metrics, risks, and escalation paths.

• Oversee the development and maintenance of study-level operational documentation, including monitoring, communication, enrollment, vendor-oversight, and risk-management plans.

• Partner with CMC and clinical supply stakeholders to support investigational product packaging, labeling, distribution, accountability, and site readiness.

• Ensure clinical studies are conducted in accordance with the protocol, ICH-GCP, applicable regulatory requirements, internal procedures, and established quality standards.

• Maintain inspection-ready clinical trial documentation and oversee the completeness, quality, and timeliness of the Trial Master File.

• Identify operational risks early and implement mitigation and contingency plans related to timelines, sites, enrollment, vendors, clinical supply, and data delivery.

• Establish scalable, fit-for-purpose clinical operations processes, systems, SOPs, and governance practices appropriate for a growing biotechnology company.

• Provide clear and timely updates on study status, timelines, budgets, risks, and mitigation plans to the CMO, clinical leadership, and other key stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD degree in a scientific, healthcare, or related discipline; an advanced degree is preferred.

• 10+ years of progressive clinical operations experience in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry.

• Direct experience leading first-in-human or Phase 1 studies from operational planning and vendor selection through regulatory and ethics submissions, site activation, first-participant-in, and ongoing execution.

• Stro

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