Associate Director of Research Agreements-Office of Research

University of Tennessee • Memphis, TN

9h • $6,123 - $8,572

About The Position

The Associate Director, Research Agreements, leads negotiation and execution of incoming and outgoing research agreements, including sponsored research agreements, clinical trial agreements, subawards, data use agreements, material transfer agreements, and confidentiality agreements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Research Administration Science, or a related field.
• Seven (7) years of related responsible experience negotiating research agreements; OR Master’s Degree and five (5) years of related responsible experience negotiating research agreements; OR a combination of related education and work experience to equal eleven (11) years.
• Expert knowledge of research agreement negotiation, including clinical trial agreements and subawards.
• Knowledge of intellectual property, publication rights, indemnification, and data use terms as applied by a public institution.
• Knowledge of the flow-down requirements applicable to federally funded subawards.
• Skill in supervising professional negotiators and in allocating work by complexity.
• Ability to distinguish a business decision from a legal determination and to route the latter to counsel.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s Degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Leads negotiation and execution of complex, high-value, and non-standard research agreements.
• Exercises delegated authority to determine institutional acceptability of terms including intellectual property, publication, indemnification, liability, data rights, and governing law.
• Allocates agreements by complexity tier and maintains backup coverage across officers.
• Conducts quality review of negotiated terms and feeds results in training and template revision.
• Coordinates with clinical operations on trial startup timelines.
• Owns agreement turnaround standards by agreement type and reports performance against them.
• Coordinates with the Research Security and Compliance Officer on agreements involving foreign entities, restricted data, or controlled technology.
• Coordinates with research compliance on human subjects, animal care, and biosafety conditions attached to agreements.
• Confirms financial terms, invoice schedules, and reporting obligations are captured in the award abstract handed to Sponsored Award Financial Services.
• Identifies and implements opportunities to automate routine agreement types and improve overall contracting efficiency.
• Maintains working relationships with recurring industry sponsors, contract research organizations, and partner institutions to shorten negotiation.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager