Participants and Recruitment and Engagement Lead

About the role

The Brussels Pfizer Clinical Research Unit Participants and Recruitment and Engagement Lead provides strategic and operational leadership for participant recruitment at the Brussels site, ensuring high-quality, ethical and participant-centred identification, engagement, pre-screening and enrolment of healthy volunteers and special populations. The role supports timely, compliant study delivery and builds teams that responsibly use approved AI, automation and analytics while protecting participants' rights, safety and data privacy. It reports to the Head, Global PCRU Pharmaceutical Operations - Site Lead.

Key responsibilities

• Recruitment governance: plan capacity and resources, allocate colleagues and contractors, manage channels and vendors, oversee advertising, outreach and budgets, and manage workload, training and performance
• Ensure audit readiness, business continuity during disruptions, and maintain database health and participant-contact quality
• Lead the Brussels PCRU recruitment strategy, assess recruitment feasibility and develop evidence-based plans aligned with timelines, quality and budget
• Develop and improve local procedures so the team complies with Pfizer policies, SOPs and work instructions
• Ensure recruitment data are collected and used in line with privacy requirements, consent provisions and data-steward accountabilities
• Identify digitalisation and automation opportunities, partner with Digital and Data Science teams to pilot approved solutions, and keep human oversight and compliance
• Manage the recruitment department with about 12 headcounts (8 direct reports and 4 indirect reports)

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, health-related, data science or healthcare administration
• Minimum 15 years in clinical trial operations or participant recruitment, with at least 7 years in a pharma company or CRO
• Experience evaluating, adopting or implementing advanced digital systems, automated databases or AI-enabled tools
• At least 5 years leading teams, managing personnel and directing complex operational processes

Preferred qualifications

• Deep understanding of Phase I clinical operations, ICH-GCP, European and Belgian clinical trial regulations and GDPR
• Ability to turn operational data, dashboards and AI models into actionable strategies
• Strong stakeholder influence, risk management and root-cause analysis skills

Work location is hybrid, with some office presence required. Applications close on 17 November 2026.