Associate Director, Clinical Data Translation

Job Title: Associate Director, Clinical Data Translation
Location: London
Job Type: Permanent with hybrid working (3 days in the office required)

Closing date: 2 October 2026

Agencies: We will only work with recruitment partners on our preferred supplier list and will not engage with speculative CVs submitted.

Are you passionate about making life science life changing and delivering impact for patients? We want to hear from you.

About the role:

As Associate Director, Clinical Data Translation you will be in a key strategic delivery role that will lead on the delivery of LifeArc's new Health Data Strategy towards tangible patient benefit for those affected by a rare disease and resistant infections.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the evolving health data function at LifeArc as a senior leader to provide senior health professionals and scientific leadership to connect our Health Data Strategy with the UK NHS and wider international health data ecosystem, ensuring that large-scale data assets are translated into high-impact translational programmes.

In this role, you will shape and deliver data-enabled programmes, partnerships and roadmaps, using the deep understanding of healthcare systems and health data to enable clinical trials, evidence generation, and progression of diagnostics, therapeutics and digital health tools. The role operates at the interface between clinical insight, data science and strategy, translating complex technical considerations into executable programmes and senior-level decisions.

Through clinical credibility and external influence, you will build trusted relationships across national health data initiatives, secure access to priority data assets, and ensure data-enabled programmes are clinically robust, patient-centred, and deliver impact.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead strategic engagement across the health data ecosystem, building senior-level partnerships and influencing data infrastructure priorities to ensure opportunities in rare diseases and resistant infections are visible, investable, and actionable.

• Drive the strategic development and mobilisation of health data programmes, translating opportunities into prioritised business cases, delivery roadmaps, and partnership initiatives that align with organisational priorities and are ready for implementation.

• Identify and shape strategic opportunities to leverage routinely collected health data and real-world evidence, informing the development and evaluation of interventions, diagnostics, therapeutics and digital health solutions.

• Work with LifeArc science and clinical teams, Translational Centres and strategic programmes to unlock secure data access, strengthen evidence generation and accelerate translation.

• Partner closely with Health Data Science teams on moving practical opportunities into project delivery.

• Provide matrix leadership and strategic oversight across complex health data initiatives, integrating technical, clinical, governance and delivery considerations to inform organisational decision-making and due diligence.

• Provide programme leadership through development and mobilisation, defining delivery models, governance, risks and dependencies, while monitoring programme progress, impact and performance against strategic objectives.

Essential experience required:

• Deep understanding of health data programmes, including SDEs, governance frameworks, interoperability standards, clinical coding, and national initiatives. 

• Demonstrable experience operating independently in complex environments, providing senior level advice and recommendations within an agreed strategic framework. 

• Established credibility and professional network within the health data ecosystems, with experience engaging senior stakeholders and influencing roadmaps. 

• Experience shaping multi‑party programmes and partnerships, aligning opportunities to organisational strategy. 

• Familiarity with the development and deployment of AI and digital health tools in healthcare settings sufficient to engage credibly with technical and regulatory colleagues.

• Significant understanding of clinical workflows (e.g., Trusts, ICBs, national bodies). 

Desirable:

• Postgraduate qualification or formal training in a relevant field such as clinical research, population health, digital health, health informatics, epidemiology, or translational science.

• Formal training or certification relevant to clinical research, health data governance, or digital health regulation (e.g. clinical safety, health informatics, or research governance).

Education:

• Qualification and experience as a registered healthcare professional (e.g. a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist).

Skills & abilities:

• Enterprise leadership and matrix management

• Strategic delivery of complex opportunities into deliverable programmes with clear routes to patient impact.

• Sound judgement across scientific, clinical, technical, governance, operational and commercial considerations.

About us:

LifeArc is a not-for-profit life science organisation, leading the way for change in rare diseases in the UK and supporting promising initiatives in global health. We seek out research in areas of unmet need that has great potential, providing support to help it become breakthroughs that change lives.

What we can offer you:

Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, and supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of ‘putting patients at the centre of everything we do’.

LifeArc is committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and developing a culture that values differences. As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term health condition who meet the essential criteria for the role.

Please note that in certain situations, such as high volumes of applications, it may not be practical to interview all eligible candidates. In these cases, we may need to select those who best meet the essential criteria. (At LifeArc, the Disability Confident Scheme’s ‘minimum criteria’ is referred to as ‘essential criteria’).

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate, and you may be just right for this or other roles.

We all have potential. At LifeArc, you’ll discover what you can really do with it.