Description

Brief Overview:

Cures Within Reach (CWR)’s Director, Clinical Programs supports the organization’s goal of using approved therapies to find treatments for patients with unsolved diseases. The Director, Clinical Programs is an important member of CWR’s small, productive and passionate team, helping the organization to find, select and manage its portfolio of funded clinical trials through its patient-focused approach.

About Cures Within Reach:

CWR leverages the speed, safety and cost-effectiveness of repurposing, testing already approved therapies for new diseases: driving more treatments to more patients more quickly. 

CWR is a US-based philanthropic medical research nonprofit focused on catalyzing research to facilitate and validate already approved therapies for new indications to create fast-track clinical impact. CWR provides grants to clinicians and researchers for pivotal, pilot, Phase I/II clinical studies that, when successful, de-risk follow-on trials and allow a catalytic effect of follow-on funding for trials that build clinical evidence for regulatory approval or for off-label use. 

CWR’s 2026 major initiatives focus on Validating AI drug-disease predictions, impacting Veterans, Pediatric diseases and supporting Early-Stage Investigators. CWR currently has a portfolio of over 50 funded trials at over 35 institutions in more than 35 diseases in 13+ countries.  To date, CWR has provided over $13 million in grants to over 160 repurposing research projects that helped to leverage over $145 million in additional funding - $12 in new clinical trial funding for each $1 that CWR awarded.  Read more about our impact here.

Position Description: 

The CWR Director, Clinical Programs supports CWR’s clinical trial initiatives, working with the Scientific Affairs team. This position may also support other organizational programs, event and initiatives, working with the President & CEO. In addition to working internally, this role actively engages with the organization’s external stakeholders, such as patient/disease groups, researchers/research institutions, industry, government, nonprofits and others. This position is full-time and is hybrid: mostly virtual with up to 2 days each week at CWR’s downtown Chicago office. All full-time employees are eligible for medical and other benefits, including retirement.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Director, Clinical Programs will support and work under direction of CWR leadership in key areas:

• Supporting CWR’s funding opportunity Requests for Proposals (RFPs), including RFP outreach, marketing and researcher engagement resulting in/driving letter of intent (LOI) submissions.
• Supporting CWR’s management of LOI and proposal submissions, Grant Review Committee recruitment and engagement, internal scientific review of submissions and selection of clinical trials for funding.
• Assisting CWR leadership in preparing, negotiating and finalizing legal agreements and related documents for its selected trials.
• Coordinating within the Scientific Affairs team to manage CWR funded clinical trials, including managing and reviewing post-award reports for ongoing projects, conducting follow-on research to track completed projects, etc.
• Supporting CWR’s community-based organization engagement efforts alongside CWR funded clinical trials.
• Researching to support potential areas for new RFPs, CWR Community development, marketing / outreach and building the funding partner pipeline
• Supporting CWR’s various events management needs (virtual, in-person or hybrid), including registration support, marketing/outreach, sponsorship and donation coordination, day-of requirements, and post-event follow up as needed
• Working with CWR leadership as needed on organizational administration and other projects supporting CWR as needed 

How to Apply:

Interested candidates should email a resume and thoughtful cover letter: staff@cureswithinreach.org. 

Requirements

Ideal Candidate Qualifications:

• BA/BS degree or higher in the biomedical sciences and at least 3 years relevant work experience in clinical research, clinical trial management and/or clinical grants management; MS or higher preferred
• Ability to translate scientific concepts, data, etc. into language easily understood by any audience
• Experience with IRB, FDA, etc. clinical trial submissions strongly preferred
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills, with a strong attention to detail
• Ability to work on multiple projects at once with varying timelines and deadlines; project management experience
• Experience at or in partnership with a not-for-profit preferred, including academic institutions
• Self-starter with the ability to work both independently and as part of a team in a small organization, and can be both adaptable and flexible
• Some background in online grants management systems experience (including ProposalCentral), website analytics, website user interface, online content/community management and social media strategies preferred
• Experience using a CRM system (such as Salesforce) and email marketing systems preferred
• Some experience with AI, machine learning or similar in biomedical sciences preferred
• Ability to work remotely as appropriate with little supervision, while still meeting goals and deadlines
• Ability to work in a timely and professional fashion, while in a fast-moving, dynamic, entrepreneurial environment