Metabolic Research and Dietary Assessment Unit Manager

Tufts University•Boston, MA

10d

About The Position

The Metabolic Research and Dietary Assessment Unit (MRUDAU) is a scientific core within the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (HNRCA). Its mission is to support human clinical research studies by providing infrastructure for participant recruitment and retention, as well as for the collection of clinical data and biological samples from volunteers. The unit's staff offer expertise in nursing, dietary assessment methods, data collection, coding, cleaning, management, and analysis. The MRUDAU manager and staff collaborate with principal investigators (PIs) and study teams on study design and execution, including developing dietary intervention components, advising on data collection methodologies, creating procedural manuals, facilitating Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals, and advancing new dietary data collection methods.

Requirements

Master’s-level degree or equivalent in human subjects research, nutrition, biomedical science, nursing, data analysis, business, or another related field
10 or more years’ experience with human research studies
3 or more years’ experience with fiscal responsibility for complex human studies in a grant-funded environment
Significant experience with clinical study design
Experience with electronic data capture systems (e.g., REDCap)
Experience successfully leading a team and directly managing staff

Nice To Haves

PhD, ScD, MD, or equivalent terminal degree in nutrition, biomedical science, nursing, data analysis, business, or another related field
3 or more years’ experience managing a clinical research facility or team

Responsibilities

Leads a diverse team of experts in nursing, dietetics, dietary data collection and assessment, and human study research management to support HNRCA principal investigators' clinical research.
Assists PIs in developing core unit budgets sufficient to cover proposed research activities.
Provides operational, regulatory, budgetary, and content-based leadership of the unit.
Works closely with PIs, study teams, other HNRCA core unit managers, and MRUDAU staff on study design, implementation, execution, and close-out.
Designs human nutrition research studies with PIs, individual study teams, other core unit managers, and study MDs.
Operationalizes IRB-approved study protocols (creating study budgets, MOPs, SOPs, study visit plans, etc.) via MRUDAU staff.
Ensures successful, safe, on-time, and on-budget completion of protocols while adhering to regulations and best practices for data and biological sample collection.
Plans and executes recruitment strategies for all studies, with a focus on older adults, to increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of participants in the MRUDAU database.
Ensures unit-wide compliance with all federal and other regulations pertaining to human study research and data collection (e.g., CFR, Good Clinical Practice, etc.) and with best practices in clinical research.
Leads and manages a diverse team of 14-16 staff, including four direct reports, who are subject-area experts in the collaborative execution of human studies.
Manages the unit’s staff, budget, instrumentation and equipment, systems, and physical plant in collaboration with HNRCA's budget and fiscal officer, scientific computing core, data management core, research administration core, and facilities management team.
Serves as a resource to PIs throughout all phases of pre-award and post-award research, as well as to MRUDAU and other HNRCA staff.