Vice President of Clinical Research

👋 Meet knownwell, weight-inclusive healthcare for all. Join a dynamic company that is changing the way obesity care is delivered. We offer weight management, primary care, nutrition counseling, and health coaching. Our care model combines in-clinic and virtual care to bring support to patients where and when they need it.

Backed by $50M in funding—including a $25M round led by CVS Health Ventures with support from a16z Bio + Health, Flare Capital, MassMutual, and Intermountain Ventures—we’re scaling fast and expanding access to evidence-based obesity care nationwide.

The Vice President of Clinical Research is an operational executive and the senior-most leader of knownwell's research service line. This is an assess-modernize-and-scale role: you will inherit a running but under structured trials program and build the infrastructure, systems, and talent needed to take it to the next level

You will report to the CEO and work closely with the Chief Medical Officer, President, Director of Research and our pharmaceutical partners. You will be accountable for the full lifecycle of every trial knownwell hosts - from sponsor relationships and site activation through enrollment, data integrity, regulatory compliance, and closeout. Along with our CMO, you will also serve as the commercial face of our trials program, developing new sponsor relationships and positioning knownwell as a preferred site for trials in metabolic health and related disease areas.

This role is right for someone who thinks in systems, runs tight operations, and has a proven record of delivering trials on time and on budget at the site level.

What You'll Own

Program Infrastructure and Strategy

• Assess the current state of the trials program - people, processes, documentation, and technology - and build a prioritized plan to close gaps while keeping active trials on track

• Design and implement knownwell's end-to-end clinical trials operating model.

• Select, implement, and own the technology stack required to professionalize the program - including CTMS, eTMF, and the transition from paper source to electronic data capture - without disrupting active trials during migration

• Define the sponsor pipeline strategy — which therapeutic areas, which sponsors, which trial phases align with our patient population and care model

• Own the business case and budget for trials as a program, including revenue projections and resource requirements

Sponsor Relationships and Business Development

• Protect and deepen existing sponsor relationships, sponsor retention and repeat business are as important as new pipeline development at this stage of the program

• Identify, cultivate, and close relationships with pharmaceutical and biotech sponsors seeking multi-site primary care and metabolic health sites

• Negotiate site agreements, budgets, and payment milestones

• Represent knownwell at relevant industry forums and with potential sponsor partners alongside our CMO and CEO

Site Operations and Execution

• Hold accountability for the performance of all active trials across knownwell's clinic network — enrollment, data quality, monitoring readiness, and closeout — through the Director of Research and Clinical Trial Manager; the VP sets standards and removes barriers, not day-to-day task management.

• Coordinate across knownwell's clinical, growth, operations, and technology teams to embed trial workflows into existing clinical infrastructure without disrupting care delivery

• Manage relationships with CROs, IRBs, and regulatory bodies; own inspection readiness at all times

• Define the org structure, hiring plan, and growth trajectory for the trials team

Performance and Reporting

• Own a trials P&L and report progress, risks, and financial performance to the CEO and Board

• Establish full visibility into program costs, including staff time, clinical resource utilization, vendor spend, lab and imaging costs, and site-level overhead

• Own the budget for the trials program, including annual operating budget, per-study budget development, and ongoing variance tracking; translate budget decisions into financial projections the CEO and Board can act on

• Build and manage a milestone invoicing system that ensures knownwell invoices sponsors accurately and on time for every earned payment; identify and recover any milestones that have been missed or delayed under the current structure

• Develop revenue forecasting by study and by sponsor, incorporating enrollment projections, milestone schedules, and contract terms; maintain a rolling 12-month revenue outlook

• Establish service line KPIs, site performance metrics, and sponsor satisfaction benchmarks

• Proactively identify risks — enrollment gaps, protocol deviations, sponsor issues — and resolve before they escalate

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years in clinical trials operations, with meaningful time at the site level or in a multi-site site management organization (SMO)

• Demonstrated track record of running concurrent trials across multiple sites — not just managing CROs or sponsors from afar

• Strong working knowledge of GCP, ICH guidelines, FDA regulations, and IRB processes

• Experience negotiating and managing sponsor and CRO relationships, including budgets and contracts

• Proven team builder; you've hired and developed trials staff in resource-constrained environments

• Financial fluency — you can build a budget, manage a P&L, and translate operational decisions into financial implications

• Comfortable operating in an early-stage, high-growth environment where the infrastructure you need doesn't exist yet

Preferred

• Experience in metabolic health, obesity medicine, cardiometabolic disease, or primary care research

• Background in or exposure to health system-embedded research programs

• Prior P&L or program ownership experience at a growing healthcare company or SMO

What This Is Not

This role does not require a clinical degree or licensure. We are not looking for a physician scientist, a medical monitor, or a clinical development strategist whose primary skill is protocol design. We need an operator - someone who has run sites, managed coordinators, closed enrollment gaps, managed sponsor relationships under pressure, and built processes that scale.

Pay & Perks:

🏢/🏡 Hybrid Opportunity

🩺 Medical, dental, and vision insurance

📈 401K retirement plan with company match

🏝️ Up to 20 days of PTO per year + company holidays

👶 Up to 14 weeks of parental leave (12 for non-birthing parents)

knownwell, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. Based on current size of the clinic and HIPAA regulation, providers cannot receive care in clinic and provider’s household members cannot receive primary care in the clinic.