Clinical Operations Manager at Desmond Tutu Health Foundation

• The main purpose of the Clinical Operations Manager is to oversee day-to-day operations for a large-scale HIV prevention project, supporting the Site Lead and managing the Project Manager. This role ensures high-quality service delivery, compliance with protocols and smooth site operations. Key responsibilities include managing clinical research, financial activities and the rollout of PrEP and integrated HIV/SRH services for adolescents across multiple sites. The manager acts as a bridge between the Site Lead and Project Manager, ensuring seamless execution, monitoring timelines and addressing challenges proactively.

Job Requirements

• Master’s degree in public health, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, or a related field OR
• Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a focus on health systems, project operations, or non-profit management.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in clinical research, HIV prevention programmes or implementation science.
• Working knowledge of GCP, ethics processes, and clinical trial operations.
• Experience working in NGOs or donor-funded programmes.
• Use of Project Management software to coordinate and track project deliverables and analyze performance metrics
• Experience supporting or supervising large teams.
• Experience with PrEP, SRH services, adolescent/youth programmes.
• Knowledge of Project budget and financial literacy
• Familiarity with regulatory submissions (HREC, SAHPRA, NHRD).
• Strong organizational skills and ability to handle multiple concurrent deadlines
• Strong administration, coordination, and communication skills. 

Advantageous:

• Additional training in clinical research operations, implementation science, quality management, or health systems strengthening

Responsibilities:

Clinical Operations & Site Support

• Coordinate daily clinical and non-clinical operations at site.
• Support Site Lead with project implementation, workflow optimization, scheduling and staffing needs.
• Manage logistics for project activities, including supplies, equipment, bookings, and site readiness.
• Ensure timely completion of site-level study documentation, forms, CRFs, logs, and filing.
• Track and follow up on ethics submissions, amendments, reports, and approvals as delegated.
• Support operational setup tasks such as lab processes, BARC setup, pharmacy arrangements, NHRD/CoCT submissions.
• Ensure project deliverables are on track
• Lead the development of the quarterly, semi-annual and annual progress narratives
• Ensure compliance to the budgets and implementation standards
• Routinely review performance data, generate insights, and lead course correction or acceleration plans.
• Develop a project risk matrix  

Clinical Research Processes & Quality

• Ensure adherence to study protocols, GCP, SOPs and regulatory requirements.
• Support development or revision of SOPs under guidance of Site Lead.
• Monitor data entry, documentation quality, and follow-up on data queries with data management teams.
• Coordinate with clinical staff to ensure accurate visit documentation, safety reporting and specimen workflows.
• Assist with preparation of accreditation reports, monitoring visits, audits and quality checks.
• Convene progress meetings with implementation and technical teams on an ongoing basis
• Routinely review performance data, generate insights, and lead course correction or acceleration plans.
• Support development of annual work plans, timelines, staff structures, and resource requirements. 

Stakeholder & Team Coordination

• Act as a key point of communication between Site Lead, Project Manager, and multidisciplinary teams.
• Support management of youth engagement, community partners, and operational stakeholders.
• Facilitate communication around funder visits, external partner requests and site-level presentations.
• Maintain productive working relationships with NDoH, provincial/district partners, partner NGOs, community structures, and referral networks.
• Coordinate communications and alignment between internal stakeholders (sites, IS teams, data, clinical leads, HR, Operations).
• Document and disseminate best practices, learnings, and innovations emerging from project implementation 

Finance & Project Support

• Support preparation of reports for ethics committees, funders, and internal leadership.
• Assist with updating project trackers, procurement lists, training logs, and reporting templates.
• Co-ordinate drafting of technical inputs (abstracts, operational reports, admin sections of proposals) when required.
• Track project expenditure against deliverables and adapt spending as necessary
• Regularly scrutinize financial reports and liaise with GFO for input
• Approval of financial expenditure
• Oversight of procurement and compliance with procurement policy 

Team Support & Supervisory Functions

• Provide day-to-day support to clinical and operational staff to ensure smooth functioning.
• Support onboarding, training scheduling, and competency tracking.
• Promote a positive, accountable, and solution-driven team environment.
• Manage staffing structures required for implementation (clinical, community, IS support, data staff where relevant).
• Conduct bi-annual performance reviews and support professional development.
• Oversee recruitment, onboarding, and training processes.
• Identify performance issues and intervene promptly with coaching or corrective actions.
• Build a high-performing, collaborative, and learning-oriented team culture.