Chief Operating Officer

About the Company: 

LabConnect is a global central laboratory partner supporting clinical trials with technology-enabled, customized, and scalable solutions. Trusted by biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and clinical research organizations, LabConnect has 20+ years of experience and has supported 2,000+ clinical studies across 93 countries. The company operates across North America, Europe, Australia, and China, with key locations including Cleveland, OH; Johnson City, TN; Miami, FL; Cologne, Germany; Swalmen, Netherlands; Melbourne, Australia; and Wuxi, China.

Position Overview:

The COO reports to the CEO and serves on the Executive Leadership Committee. In partnership with the CEO and Executive Leadership Committee, the COO sets operating priorities, clarifies decision rights, drives cross-functional execution, and maintains transparent reporting on performance, risks, and corrective actions across the operating teams.

Key Areas of Responsibilities

• Client First Leadership: Operates with a client-first mindset, intentionally designing every process, workflow, and customer journey with the client experience as the top priority. 
• Operational Excellence & Strategy: Lead day-to-day operations across the assigned scope; translate strategy into annual/quarterly operating plans; establish operating cadence, standard work, and continuous improvement to drive measurable gains in on-time delivery, cycle time, right-first-time quality, and cost-to-serve.
• Financial Management & Planning: Own operational planning inputs to the budget and forecast; manage resources and capacity; identify margin expansion opportunities through productivity, footprint optimization, and improved cost-to-serve.
• Regulatory & Quality Compliance: Reinforce a culture of quality and compliance; maintain a constant state of inspection readiness; ensure deviations are investigated to root cause and CAPAs are implemented and sustained.
• Scaling & Infrastructure: Evolve the operating model, processes, and governance to support growth; strengthen change management and cross-site standardization; ensure smooth launches of new capabilities and service lines.
• Technology & Analytics Enablement: Sponsor adoption of enabling platforms, automation, and analytics to improve throughput, visibility, and decision-making; partner with Technology to prioritize the roadmap based on operational impact and client needs.
• Executive Leadership: Build, coach, and retain high-performing leaders; set clear expectations and accountability; develop succession plans and a strong bench for critical roles.

Core Competencies & Skills

• Client-first operator with a track record of improving performance against contractual commitments.
• Structured, quantitative, and extremely detail-oriented; sets clear goals, measures progress and drives accountability.
• Change leader who has the ‘grit’ to simplify complex workflows, rebuild critical processes, and drive adoption across teams in a short period of time.
• Technology- and automation-minded; partners closely with the CTO to improve visibility, speed, and service quality.
• Comfortable leading in regulated, multi-site environments with a strong quality mindset and bias toward preventative controls.
• Enterprise operating system design: KPIs, operating cadence, governance, escalation, and decision forums
• Financial acumen: P&L management, cost-to-serve, margin expansion, and investment prioritization

Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences or Business required; MBA strongly preferred.
• Experience: 15+ years of progressive leadership in the CRO, pharmaceutical, or biotechnology sectors, including 7-10+ years in a senior executive role (VP or higher).
• Industry Expertise: Deep, hands-on operations experience across clinical trials or lab environments.
• Leadership Track Record: Demonstrated success scaling operations in fast-paced, high-growth and/or private equity-backed environments.

Join our team and discover how your work can impact patients' lives around the world! 

Some of the Perks our LabConnectors Love:

• Financial Security (Base Pay, 401k Match and Possible Annual Bonus Eligibility) 
• Health Benefits beginning on date of hire
• PTO plan, plus 11 Paid Company Holidays, and 1 Day to Volunteer in your community 
• Short and Long-Term Disability, Life Insurance, and AD&D 
• We celebrate our differences, which enriches our culture! 

In addition to great perks and challenging work assignments, we invest in our people with career growth opportunities, globally. We believe in a friendly and collaborative environment with open lines of communication. While living out our values of People First, Quality Focused, Customer Centered, Technology Driven, and Accountability Always.

We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and value the diversity of our workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. To learn more about equal employment opportunity, please view the posters here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/posters

LabConnect also prioritizes the privacy and security of your personal data. All candidate information is handled in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To learn more, please review our Privacy Notice on our website, by navigating to https://www.labconnect.com/

If you need assistance to complete your job application, search for a job opening, or submit an online application at LabConnect, please email talent@labconnect.com or call +1 (423) 722-3155.