Clinical Research Budget Associate

About the Role

The Clinical Research Budget Associate provides specialized financial and budgeting support for industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials. This role focuses on developing, analyzing, and negotiating clinical trial budgets, supporting strategic and long-range planning for the clinical trials program, and ensuring accurate and efficient financial management. The position contributes directly to operational efficiency, financial stewardship, and timely activation of studies within a large, oncology-focused research environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Prepare detailed budgets for industry-sponsored clinical trials in collaboration with research planning and development leadership.
• Manage and create budgets for all alliance clinical trials coming into the department's clinical trials portfolio.
• Complete advance setup requests to establish funding accounts for clinical trials and ensure accurate account configuration.
• Review clinical trial protocols, amendments, and ancillary documents to identify discrepancies or unclear information and work with principal investigator teams and sponsors to resolve issues.
• Collaborate with regulatory, budget, principal investigator teams, and clinical research finance to review preliminary and final coverage analyses, accurately report discrepancies, and incorporate recommended changes.
• Assist with strategic and long-range planning for the department's clinical trials program, including participation in weekly clinical research review meetings and ad hoc protocol review meetings.
• Work collaboratively with all department clinical faculty to support clinical trial goals and ensure alignment with financial and operational objectives.
• Conduct quality assurance reviews of budgets created by pre-award staff to confirm that all relevant budgetary items are captured accurately.
• Train new employees on pre-award budgeting duties and provide ongoing training to existing staff on changes to budget processes implemented by clinical research finance and the institution.
• Assist with maintaining training manuals and documentation for the budget team to ensure consistent processes and standards.
• Help manage team workload and efficiency by maintaining and updating assignment lists and monitoring progress.
• Collaborate with the protocol processing team to streamline protocol schemas to maximize efficiency of charges and financial workflows.
• Participate in negotiations with industry sponsors and contract research organizations to process new and amended clinical trial budgets.
• Analyze sponsor budget proposals to determine whether proposed funding adequately covers trial costs based on complexity, visit schedules, and reporting requirements.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Experience utilizing OnCore or similar clinical trial management systems for budgeting and tracking.
• Experience in oncology or clinical research environments, particularly with industry-sponsored trials.
• Familiarity with coverage analysis processes and collaboration with regulatory, budget, and clinical research finance teams.
• Experience participating in sponsor and CRO negotiations for new and amended clinical trial budgets.

Work Environment

• 100% Remote - MUST be located in Texas.

Location & Type

• This is a Contract to Hire position based out of Houston, TX.

Pay & Benefits

• Pay range: $35.00 - $45.00/hr.
• Benefits may include: Medical, dental & vision, Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital, 401(k) Retirement Plan, Life Insurance, Short and long-term disability, Health Spending Account (HSA), Transportation benefits, Employee Assistance Program, Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave).

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.