Clinical Research Lead

Location: Vancouver, BC (Hybrid). Regular in-person collaboration with our Vancouver team is expected; the office schedule will be discussed during the hiring process.

Employment: Full time

Travel: Approximately 10–20% for site visits and conferences

About MetaOptima

Join MetaOptima to make a difference in the lives of millions as we revolutionize the dermatology industry with software, hardware and AI for faster, more effective, and affordable care. MetaOptima is full of passionate, innovative people who thrive on working together as a team to build smart, life-saving technologies for medical professionals and their patients. Our casual, open-office culture welcomes fresh ideas from the minds of doers. Join us to add your voice to our vision while working with a cool group of people set on making their mark on the world. We take pride in what we’ve accomplished together, and can’t wait to see how you’ll help us grow.

Job Summary

As our Clinical Research Lead, you will take day-to-day ownership of several clinical studies across our dermatology technologies. You will contribute to study questions, endpoints and protocol development, then drive ethics and site preparation, recruitment, study conduct, data quality, analysis coordination, reporting, publication and closeout.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role in a small team. You will personally prepare and review study documents, resolve practical problems, manage competing priorities and keep studies moving to completion. You will work with investigators, company leadership, regulatory colleagues and statistical specialists, while retaining responsibility for connecting the stages and delivering the agreed study outputs.

Responsibilities

• Help turn research objectives into workable study questions, endpoints, methods and protocols. Review relevant literature, identify gaps and contribute to study design and analysis planning with clinical and statistical specialists.
• Build and maintain study plans with clear milestones, responsibilities, budgets and timelines. Prioritize across concurrent studies and communicate progress, risks, decisions and recovery actions.
• Serve as the main day-to-day contact for investigators, clinics, hospitals, universities and other partners. Negotiate site budgets and clinical trial agreements, coordinating internal review and approvals.
• Prepare and coordinate protocols, ethics submissions, informed consent materials, data-access arrangements, case report forms, site training and essential study documentation. Ensure required approvals are in place before study activities begin.
• Drive recruitment, study visits, data collection and partner commitments. Resolve practical barriers, oversee protocol adherence and data-quality checks, and promptly escalate safety concerns and protocol deviations to the appropriate clinical and regulatory owners.
• Review data completeness and quality, resolve queries, and prepare well-documented datasets. Work with analysts to align analyses with the protocol and endpoints, identify limitations and contribute to interpretation of results.
• Personally contribute to study reports, manuscripts, white papers and conference submissions. Assemble evidence, draft and edit content, coordinate investigator and specialist review, and manage approvals and submission deadlines.
• Complete outstanding study actions, site closeout, final documentation and archiving. Capture lessons learned and improve processes for subsequent studies.

Qualifications (must-have)

• Bachelor’s degree in health sciences, life sciences, nursing, clinical research, biomedical engineering or a related field, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• Practical experience across the clinical study lifecycle, gained through one or more studies: planning and protocol development; ethics and startup; recruitment and conduct; data review and analysis; and reporting and closeout. You must be able to explain your personal contribution at each stage and demonstrate ownership of completed study deliverables. Experience concentrated in a single study function does not, by itself, meet this requirement.
• Demonstrated ability to independently move clinical studies forward, make sound decisions, resolve obstacles and deliver agreed outputs. We assess the breadth and substance of your contribution alongside the duration of your experience.
• Experience with medical device, diagnostic or digital health research, and the ability to learn unfamiliar clinical and technical material.
• Practical understanding of clinical study conduct, Good Clinical Practice, ethics submissions, informed consent, privacy and essential study documentation.
• Working understanding of endpoints, data quality, analysis planning and interpretation, including when to seek statistical or other specialist support.
• Experience working with investigators, research sites and external partners, managing commitments and following through on overdue actions.
• Ability and willingness to personally prepare, review and edit study documents and scientific content while managing multiple studies in a small team. Sound scientific reasoning, resourcefulness and clear, proactive communication are essential.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with dermatology and skin cancer care, including clinical terminology and diagnostic workflows.
• Familiarity with ISO 14155 and applicable medical-device study requirements, including FDA and EU MDR clinical evidence and post-market clinical follow-up.
• Experience with reader studies, diagnostic accuracy studies or image-based research.
• Experience in a startup or small research team with broad hands-on responsibilities.
• CCRP or CCRA certification.
• Experience with multicentre or international studies and contributions to manuscripts, white papers, conference abstracts or other scientific publications.

Why Join Us

You’ll help turn promising dermatology technologies into well-executed studies and useful scientific evidence. Working closely with our team and clinical partners, you’ll see the direct impact of your work on the future of skin cancer care.

If you’re excited to bring scientific reasoning, practical ownership and follow-through to clinical research, we’d love to hear from you.