Role Description We are seeking a strategic, highly collaborative, and execution-oriented Associate Director, Clinical Business Operations, to support and optimize the operational infrastructure of our clinical development organization. Reporting to the VP of Clinical Operations, this individual will serve as a key business partner across Clinical Operations, Clinical Data Management, and Biometrics to drive operational excellence, financial oversight, and portfolio execution. The Associate Director will be responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of vendor outsourcing, from strategic selection through contract execution, active change order management, and financial oversight. This role is ideal for an experienced leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys balancing hands-on clinical contracting with long-range financial modeling and planning. Key Responsibilities - Partner with clinical operations, data management, and biometrics teams to author Request for Proposals (RFPs) and define vendor scopes of work. - Lead cross-functional bid defense meetings, analyze commercial proposals, perform cost benchmarking, and provide data-driven recommendations to leadership. - Drive the strategic selection of CROs and specialized clinical vendors, optimizing the vendor portfolio for quality, scalability, and cost-efficiency. - Partner with Legal and the clinical development team in the drafting, negotiation, and final execution of Master Services Agreements (MSAs), Statements of Work (SOWs), Change Orders and confidentiality agreements across clinical functions. - Design, author, and standardize SOW templates to streamline vendor onboarding, establish baseline metrics, and reduce execution cycle times. - Manage the negotiation and execution of Clinical Trial Agreements (CTAs) and investigator budgets for sponsor-managed sites, ensuring rapid study startup. - Manage an active change order management pipeline to rigorously track contract amendments, budget shifts, and vendor performance. - Partner closely with study teams to proactively identify operational deviations from the original SOW, mitigating scope creep before it impacts the budget. - Liaise between Clinical Operations and Corporate Finance to ensure financial alignment across all programs. - Partner with the Head of Clinical Operations to build robust, multi-year clinical trial budget forecasts, lifecycle cost models, and annual operational plans. - Support quarterly Budget vs. Actual (BVA) reviews; track investigator grant accruals and vendor pass-through costs, and accurately explain financial variances to leadership. - Identify operational gaps and implement scalable business processes, tools, templates, and governance mechanisms to improve efficiency, transparency, compliance, and organizational effectiveness. - Support due diligence, alliance management, and business development activities as needed. - Champion a culture of accountability, operational rigor, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the Clinical organization. Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, business, healthcare administration, finance, or related discipline required. - 7-9+ years of biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or life sciences experience with a heavy emphasis leading clinical outsourcing, clinical finance, or clinical business operations. - Demonstrated experience in clinical budgeting, forecasting (LRP) and vendor financial management. - Experience supporting clinical programs in rare disease, neurology, oncology, cell therapy, gene therapy, or advanced therapeutics strongly preferred. - Strong understanding of clinical development processes, CRO/vendor management models, portfolio planning, and GxP-regulated environments. - Proven ability to influence across functions and operate effectively with senior leadership in a dynamic, matrixed organization. - Excellent analytical, financial, organizational, project management, and problem-solving capabilities. - Exceptional communication and executive presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex operational and financial information into actionable insights. Requirements - For candidates based in the SFBA area, the salary range for this position is: $170,000 to $200,000. - For candidates based outside the SFBA area, the salary range is $150,000 to $180,000. - Encoded considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation, including experience, qualifications, internal equity and geographic location. - This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives, paid time off, and a benefits package. Benefits - Comprehensive benefits package, including competitive employer premium contributions. - Meaningful stock option grants. - PTO, sick time and holiday pay. - Generous Parental Leave program. - Pre-tax medical and dependent care programs. - STD, LTD, Life and AD&D. - Professional development opportunities. - Team-building events. - Fully stocked micro-kitchen. - Fitness center at South San Francisco location.

• Drive the development of end-to-end Plan to Fulfill process • Define requirements and ensure improvements align with business needs • Collaborate with stakeholders and evaluate solution options • Document solution proposals and support implementation

• Own Aurora’s operating cadence, including annual planning, QBRs, and weekly business cadences, ensuring leadership has the right information at the right time while keeping processes efficient and actionable. • Partner across Sales, Marketing, Services, Finance, Product, and Engineering to launch new strategic initiatives and optimize operational effectiveness through process, systems, and structural changes. • Proactively identify operational bottlenecks and business opportunities, develop data-driven recommendations and lead implementation alongside cross-functional stakeholders. • Build executive-ready analysis and recommendations by synthesizing quantitative data and qualitative insights into clear, actionable narratives for the COO and CEO. • Independently analyze data, building models, and generating insights that inform strategic decisions. • Design and build lightweight internal tools, dashboards, and AI-enabled workflows that automate manual processes, improve visibility, and eliminate recurring operational work.

• Lead the NAM Major Correctives Scheduling organization responsible for workforce and project deployment planning • Establish and maintain operating rhythms, governance processes, and business controls supporting major corrective execution • Drive continuous improvement initiatives that improve productivity, customer responsiveness, and operational efficiency • Develop scalable processes supporting business growth and evolving execution models • Oversee scheduling teams responsible for technician, contractor, and project resource deployment • Ensure alignment between customer availability, project readiness, workforce capacity, and execution priorities • Manage prioritization processes for emergent outages, customer escalations, and critical corrective campaigns • Develop forecasting models to optimize labor utilization and minimize downtime • Own customer availability tracking processes across all major corrective programs • Maintain visibility to future execution windows and customer readiness • Partner with Project Management and Customer Support teams to maximize execution opportunities • Identify schedule risks and develop mitigation plans to protect revenue and backlog conversion • Lead the operational response process for customer escalations • Drive rapid issue resolution through cross-functional coordination • Establish escalation governance, reporting, and root cause analysis processes • Provide executive-level updates on critical customer concerns and recovery actions • Oversee invoicing processes ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with contractual requirements • Partner closely with Finance and Project Management teams to improve cash collection performance • Monitor revenue recognition readiness and identify billing risks • Drive process improvements that reduce invoice cycle time and improve working capital performance • Own Major Correctives operational performance reporting • Develop and maintain executive dashboards, KPI reporting, forecasting tools, and business reviews • Analyze trends in backlog, utilization, productivity, revenue, customer availability, invoicing, and execution performance • Deliver actionable insights that support strategic decision making • Serve as business owner for operational systems supporting Major Correctives execution • Partner with Digital, IT, Finance, and Operations teams to improve system functionality and reporting capabilities • Lead requirements gathering and implementation of new tools, workflows, and automation opportunities • Drive standardization and simplification of business processes across the region