Patient Recruitment Partnerships and Strategy Lead

PicnicHealth is simplifying clinical research with AI, making it faster and cheaper to get new treatments to patients. We’re bringing a patient-centered, AI-first approach to a $100b market otherwise dominated by old-school, services-driven incumbents.  We’re creating a streamlined operating system for clinical research, built on top of our AI for medical record data in trials and a personal health assistant that keeps patients engaged (NPS 66). 

Founded in 2014, PicnicHealth has raised over $100 million from investors including YC, Amplify Partners, Felicis Ventures and B Capital Group. Our business running observational studies more than doubled last year and we expect to grow even faster this year.  We've gained real traction in a conservative industry: 12 of the top 20 pharma companies use PicnicHealth, we've got 60+ publications across 40 disease areas, and we just had our first FDA approval that included our data in the submission.

The Opportunity

In this role you’ll own and drive PicnicHealth's overall strategy for recruiting patients to the observational studies we’re running for our Life Sciences partners  This role combines strategic vision with hands-on execution, requiring expertise in building partnerships, developing innovative recruitment strategies, and engaging with both internal teams and external stakeholders.  We’re looking for someone who can think strategically about the big picture while also rolling up their sleeves to get things done. You should have a deep understanding of the nuances of recruiting patients for clinical studies— through both traditional, sites-based channels and innovative, tech enabled approaches—and be excited about building something new at the intersection of healthcare and technology.

As the Patient Recruitment and Strategy Lead, your team will be responsible for: 

• Setting Strategy: Develop and own the overarching strategy for patient recruitment across all of PicnicHealth’s observational studies.
• Developing and Managing Partnerships: Develop, negotiate, and manage the partnerships that will improve our overall ability to quickly and efficiently reach and recruit the right patients for future observational research studies.  This includes working with existing trial recruitment vendors and thinking creatively about new types of partnerships.  
• Improving Recruitment Capabilities: Beyond just partnerships, identify and drive execution on opportunities to improve our overall recruitment capabilities, including collaborating with product, delivery, marketing, and design functions, as well as outside vendors.  
• Creating Study-Specific Recruitment Plans: Lead the feasibility and cost assessments for new study opportunities, spinning up new partnerships and tactics when needed. Work cross functionally with clinical/scientific/epi and product teams to understand patient populations and funnel conversion numbers, taking into account study inclusion/exclusion criteria.  
• Representing Picnichealth with Biopharma Customers: Build customer’s confidence and trust in our recruitment capabilities and specific study recruitment plans as well as empowering the sales team to play this role when appropriate.  

You are a great fit if you have:

• Proven track record in developing recruitment strategies for clinical studies within CROs, pharma companies, and/or health-tech startups.
• Strong ability to negotiate partnerships across diverse healthcare stakeholders (e.g., vendors, advocacy groups).
• Experience working cross-functionally with sales teams, product managers, and clinical operations teams.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills: ability to influence stakeholders, present confidently to customers, and build trust across diverse audiences.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to use data to inform decisions and optimize recruitment efforts.
• Ability to zoom out to see the big picture and strategic opportunities and then zoom into the details and operations, and back again. 

Bonus Points for:

• Hands-on experience running patient enrollment campaigns or managing a team responsible for execution.
• Familiarity with digital marketing tools or social media platforms for patient outreach (e.g., TikTok campaigns).
• Product instinct or experience collaborating on tech-enabled solutions for patient engagement.

We expect all team members to be motivated to be amazing in their roles and, ultimately, to move the PicnicHealth mission forward.

What is clinical research and why will PicnicHealth win?

Clinical research is the industry that runs studies to evaluate how drugs & treatments work. It's hugely impactful — better trials mean faster, cheaper drug development, which means more and better treatments reaching patients. Unfortunately, the process is very inefficient. Trials are one of the biggest bottlenecks in drug development, and all the exciting advances in biotech won't translate into real impact if clinical research doesn't work better.

The industry runs on outdated technology and manual processes. Research sites (hospitals, academic centers, doctors' offices) are a major bottleneck, and contract research organizations (CROs) spend most of their time wrangling sites and cobbling together vendor software. 

PicnicHealth has built technology that uniquely positions us to run faster, cheaper, and more flexible studies without requiring sites:

• PicnicAI (trained on 350M+ clinician annotations over 100k+ patient records) is the only system that can effectively access and structure all participant EMR data trials need
• Our AI health assistant (NPS of 66 in 2024) guides participants through study activities and enables most to be done at home
• We're an integrated solution — virtual site, CRO, and software platform — with AI built in from the ground up, initially focusing on observational research.  

The other perks & benefits you get when you work at PicnicHealth   

We pay competitive salaries. Everyone on the team is an owner: all full time employees get competitive equity.

Target Base Salary Range: $140K-$200K 

The base salary PicnicHealth offers may vary depending upon the scope, complexity, and autonomy of the position and on the candidate’s job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We’re a remote first company, with teammates spread across the US. We support in-person gatherings, including co-working spaces and multi-day onsites, to build connections and move forward strategic initiatives. Expect to travel 2-4 times a year.  For our team members in the Bay Area, who prefer to work in person we can offer a hybrid set up to work from the SF office on a flexible schedule.

You also get:

• Comprehensive benefits including above market Health, Dental, Vision
• Family friendly environment 
• Flexible time off
• 401k plan
• Free PicnicHealth account
• Equipment and internet funds for home office set up 
• Wellness Stipend

PicnicHealth is committed to promoting an inclusive work environment free of discrimination and harassment. We value a diverse and balanced team where everyone can belong.