Therapeutic Strategy Lead – CNS

Location: United States
Therapeutic Area: CNS
Function: Therapeutic Strategy / Clinical Development / Medical Strategy
Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

We are supporting the appointment of a Therapeutic Strategy Lead – CNS for a senior US-based opportunity within a global clinical research environment.

This is a strategic, client-facing role for an experienced CNS clinical development professional who can provide deep therapeutic and scientific expertise across clinical programme design, study feasibility, site and KOL engagement, and proposal development.

The Therapeutic Strategy Lead will act as a senior subject-matter expert within CNS, partnering closely with business development, clinical operations, medical, regulatory and strategy teams to design scientifically robust, operationally feasible and commercially aligned clinical programmes.

This role would suit someone who combines strong scientific credibility with practical clinical trial delivery understanding and the ability to translate complex therapeutic insight into clear, actionable development strategy.

Key Responsibilities

The Therapeutic Strategy Lead will provide senior scientific and therapeutic leadership across CNS clinical development activities.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Providing CNS therapeutic and scientific input into protocol design, study feasibility, clinical development planning and scientific advisory discussions.
• Supporting client-facing proposals, RFP responses, bid defences and early study concept development.
• Translating CNS therapeutic insight into clear study rationale, risk assessment, mitigation planning and competitive landscape analysis.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with academic KOLs, principal investigators and high-performing clinical sites.
• Supporting investigator identification and site selection strategies to improve enrolment, delivery quality and data integrity.
• Advising cross-functional teams on endpoint selection, regulatory considerations, comparator standards, safety monitoring and operational feasibility.
• Working closely with business development, medical, clinical operations, regulatory, safety and clinical teams to ensure programmes are strategically sound and executable.
• Contributing to budget, timeline, monitoring and vendor considerations from a therapeutic and operational perspective.
• Mentoring and upskilling internal colleagues on CNS clinical development, therapeutic area trends and best practice.
• Supporting thought leadership and capability building across the organisation.

CNS Expertise

The successful candidate will bring strong expertise across CNS clinical development. Relevant experience may include areas such as neurology, psychiatry, neurodegenerative disorders, movement disorders, rare neurological disease, pain, sleep disorders or other CNS-related indications.

They will understand the scientific, regulatory and operational complexity often associated with CNS studies, including patient identification, endpoint selection, study design, site engagement, enrolment challenges and the importance of robust clinical assessment strategies.

Candidate Profile

We are seeking a credible and commercially aware CNS therapeutic expert with strong clinical development experience and the ability to influence both internal and external stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will bring:

• An advanced clinical or scientific degree, such as MD, PhD, PharmD or equivalent.
• Significant industry experience in clinical development, ideally including late-stage programme leadership or therapeutic strategy roles.
• Strong CNS therapeutic area expertise and scientific credibility with clinical, academic and investigator communities.
• Experience contributing to study design, feasibility, proposal development, bid defence or client-facing scientific strategy.
• The ability to balance scientific rigour with operational feasibility, commercial priorities and sponsor expectations.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex science into clear development strategy.
• Experience working cross-functionally with clinical operations, business development, regulatory, medical, safety and commercial teams.
• Strong understanding of global clinical trial delivery, regulatory expectations and current standards of care.
• A collaborative, influential and externally credible style.

Key Attributes

This role will suit someone who is:

• Strategic and scientifically curious.
• Confident in front of clients, investigators and internal senior stakeholders.
• Able to combine therapeutic expertise with practical delivery insight.
• Commercially aware and comfortable supporting business growth.
• Skilled at building trusted relationships with KOLs, sites and cross-functional teams.
• Comfortable working in a global, matrixed clinical research environment.
• Passionate about improving clinical development strategy within CNS.

Why Apply?

This is an excellent opportunity for a senior CNS clinical development professional to take on a highly visible therapeutic strategy role with broad influence across clinical programme design, client engagement and operational delivery.

The role offers the opportunity to shape CNS development strategy, strengthen external KOL and site relationships, support high-quality clinical trial design and contribute directly to business growth within a global clinical research setting.