CRO executive search

Retained search across contract research, from preclinical and bioanalytical work through late phase delivery. Operational, scientific and commercial leadership, from vice president to C‑suite.

Key roles we place ↓

Overview

What we do in CRO

Metric Bio places senior and executive leaders across contract research organizations, covering preclinical and bioanalytical services, clinical delivery, biometrics and the commercial teams that win the work. Searches are retained and run from vice president through C-suite.

CRO hiring lives or dies on delivery. Sponsors stay with a CRO because studies run to time and the data holds up, and both of those sit with a fairly small number of operational and scientific leaders. Commercial leadership is a separate market again, with very little crossover in the people. We run them as separate searches.

Roles

The roles we place in CRO

VP Clinical Operations Portfolio level delivery across studies, sites and vendors.
Head of Biometrics Data management, biostatistics and programming leadership.
VP Business Development Sponsor facing commercial leadership, from proposal through award.
Chief Medical Officer Medical oversight across therapeutic areas and study design.
Head of Clinical Data Management Data quality, systems and standards across a study portfolio.
Director of Project Management Study delivery, timelines and the sponsor relationship.
Head of Quality and Compliance GCP quality, audit readiness and inspection response.
VP Preclinical Services Discovery, in vivo, in vitro and bioanalytical service leadership.
Chief Operating Officer Operational leadership across service lines and sites.

+ many others

Within this sector

What CRO covers

Clinical Operations

Study delivery from first patient in through database lock.

Early Phase & Preclinical

Discovery support, toxicology, bioanalysis and first in human.

Biometrics & Data

Data management, biostatistics and statistical programming leadership.

Commercial & Sponsor Growth

Business development, proposals and the account leadership that keeps sponsors.

Market

Hiring in CRO right now

Sponsors have been consolidating their CRO relationships, and the effect on hiring is uneven. The large full service providers are recruiting for scale. The specialists are recruiting for the one capability a sponsor cannot get anywhere else. Those are different briefs and they do not draw on the same people.

Where it gets hard is operational leadership with a real record of delivery, and biometrics leadership at portfolio scale. Very few people do either well, they are paid accordingly, and they get approached constantly. A CRO that wants either usually has to make the case for the work rather than the package.

Decentralized and hybrid study models have also changed what good looks like at the top of clinical operations. Leaders who have run those models, rather than presented on them, are rare enough that we would start a search early and expect to compete for them.

Insights

CRO leaders, in their own words

Ilya Koltover · Minaris Advanced Testing · CDMO Career Stories Podcast • 33 minutes

All episodes →

Common questions

CRO hiring questions

The questions clients ask most often before briefing a CRO search.

How long does a CRO leadership search take?

We work to seven days to a shortlist on most briefs. How long the search takes after that depends on the role and on notice periods, so we set out a realistic timeline with you at the start.

Do you work retained or contingent?

Retained. Our CRO consultants have spent years building relationships in this market, so most shortlists start from people we already know, and talent mapping, backed by our marketing reach, covers the rest of the market so nobody credible gets missed. Retained is what lets us give that kind of time to one brief.

Do you place below vice president?

Our focus is vice president and above, but we do take on director and senior manager searches where the role is critical, such as a director of project management on a difficult portfolio, or a head of clinical data management. What matters is whether it is a hire you cannot afford to get wrong.

Can you find leaders who have actually run decentralized studies?

Yes, and it is one of the briefs we are asked for most. Few people have run those models end to end, so these searches take mapping rather than advertising. We would rather tell you that at the start than have you find out at week six.