Director, Planning Evaluation & Tracking Job Description
SC CTSI Background
The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) is a $56.8M budget academic-community
enterprise with a base NIH grant through March 2015 to support, promote and accelerate scientific discoveries and their
application in real-life settings to improve human and community health and improve health care. SC CTSI is developing new
ways to advance cutting-edge medical research into technology and methods in many disease areas and conditions to improve
the health of the community and improve delivery of health care.
Established in 2010 among the now 60-member NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) consortium, the
SC CTSI is one of the largest institutes at USC, with scientist leaders at its helm, spanning 8 USC and CHLA schools including
Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Social Work, Law, Cinema, in partnership with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the Los
Angeles County departments of Health Services and Mental Health, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County,
and more than 30 community health organizations in greater Los Angeles to address the specific needs of the urban and diverse
patient populations.
To achieve its goals, SC CTSI provides infrastructure, services and training to support clinical and translational research and
catalyze formation of new translational research teams; and develops broad coalitions and partnerships at the local and
national levels to enable a transformation of the research environment. As a partnership among leading academic, clinical and
community health institutions and organizations in Los Angeles, SC CTSI contains all the intellectual, physical and population
resources needed to conduct high quality research directed at health problems the health problems of urban communities.
Job Summary (Purpose of the Position – please give a brief description of the overall purpose of the position)
Planning, Evaluation & Tracking (PET) activities are an important component of how the SC CTSI programs and the Institute
itself will be assessed. In this initial period a major area of emphasis is providing robust frameworks to enable increased
strategic focus for the Institute and efficient program management. In addition, SC CTSI must introduce and utilize effective
and academically sound approaches to evaluation that will facilitate a superb review and renewal of the $56.8M grant by 2015
(submission by 2014). As part of this, PET efforts must lead the transformation of SC CTSI into a data and metrics-driven
enterprise, coordinating the launch of a formal SC CTSI PET process and implementing the use of industry-standard tools for
planning and management.
Reporting to the SC CTSI Director of Strategic Implementation, and working closely with the SC CTSI Director’s team (Director,
CO-Director and Executive Director), the Director of PET will:
 Create an approach to efficient program management for each of the SC CTSI programs, introducing best practices and
guiding each program to setting key 5-year and annual goals; developing and refining associated metrics for measuring
impact by establishing high level aims; identifying measures of success for these aims; establishing the baseline for
these measures; proposing ambitious annual performance targets; developing activities/projects that will directly
impact the identified measures; tracking progress; and budgeting to these activities
 Implement systems by which programs’ progress toward goals and data on internal SC CTSI metrics can be shared on
public dashboards using a model of transparency to increase accountability, a shared sense of accomplishment, and as
a result increasingly aggressive targets for programs
 Facilitate a coordinated approach to research analytics and metrics across the SC CTSI
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Manage the Institute’s approach to using data to measure success and establish competitive benchmarks across the
range of SC CTSI functions
Participate with the national level consortium of CTSA’s both representing the SC CTSI as well as bringing back other
successful models and approaches to planning evaluation and tracking
Key Responsibilities Indicate key functions and the estimated percentage of time spent performing each function. If there are
more than 10 key responsibilities, some of the similar functions may be grouped together and an estimated % applied.
%
Essential
of
Function
Key Responsibilities
time (Yes/No)
(To be completed by Supervisor)
20
Manages Annual Performance Review and Goal Planning Processes:
 PROGRAM PERFORMANCE REVIEW:
o Plans and coordinates annual program planning and reviews with the SC CTSI Director’s
team to create a data-driven, performance-based review and budget allocation process.
o Incorporates quality improvement focus into Annual Performance review process.
o Prepares and manages Program Portfolio and identifies and monitors overlaps,
dependencies, and adherence to overall SC CTSI goals.
o Assesses performance of SC CTSI overall activities to provide rigorous evidence of the value
of services SC CTSI provides to investigators and the impact to improving the research
environment and infrastructure at USC, with our partners and within the community
o Collaborates with program leaders annually to prepare a detailed Performance Review that
includes established goals annotated to state whether milestones have been met on time,
program performance metrics, a brief written assessment of overall program performance,
program budget, and budget justification.
o Presents comprehensive performance data to CTSI leaders at Performance Reviews, used
to recommend changes to the program goals, activities, personnel or budget.
o Maps budgets to specific program activities for rigorous analysis of efficiency and costeffectiveness
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20
PROGRAM GOAL PLANNING:
o Leads the development of annual program plans for all the SC CTSI programs and is an
integral part of the planning and implementation process.
o Works with Program leaders in setting annual goals; developing and refining associated
metrics for measuring impact by establishing high level aims; identifying measures of
success for these aims; establishing the baseline for these measures; proposing ambitious
annual performance targets; developing activities/projects that will directly impact the
identified measures; tracking progress; and budgeting to these activities
o Works with each program and CTSI financial manager to estimate funding for each
individual program goal and major activity.
o Educates program leaders of costs of specific activities in order to motivate programs to
carefully consider the distribution of staff and funding dedicated to each program activity
and improve the cost-effectiveness of the activities; and provides SC CTSI leadership the
ability to assess the cost-effectiveness of activities and revise budgets accordingly.
Enables Program Management:
 Uses evaluation and tracking systems and other tools, as well as industry and academic best
practices to improve program self-management, tracking and reporting
 Implements a novel public dashboards approach to improving transparency and accountability.
 Educates program teams in program planning/management
 Through program plans, delineates resources needed to pursue the programs stated goals and
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determines and informs program directors whether changes in scope, time, or resources are
necessary.
Creates timely working documents (e.g., goals, milestones, timelines, GANTT charts) for
ongoing project planning, evaluation and tracking.
Ensures proper governance structures, processes, and procedures to monitor and control
changes to program goals.
Explores solutions to delays in meeting established goals or timelines with program staff and SC
CTSI leadership, Works with SC CTSI leaders to identify and implement solutions.
Provides guidance and advice to SC CTSI program leaders on operational activities of the
programs.
Addresses culture change issues in initiating new programs and influences program staff and
faculty in understanding the scope and impact of change.
20
Assesses New Approaches and Best Practices to Measure Impact:
 Assess and implement evaluation and tracking approaches and systems for the SC CTSI as a
whole and for individual programs to measure SC CTSI’s impact
 Facilitate the identification of benchmarks and metrics for the organization as a whole and its
programs.
 Working with leadership assess and select new approaches to evaluate the impact of SC CTSI
efforts including: Return-on-Investment and leveraging best practices from industry, social
venture organizations and nonprofit approaches
20
Facilitates Data capture and Electronic Tracking:
 Facilitates the development of a database solution for SC CTSI’s evaluation and reporting needs
coordinating with additional campus data sources
 Continually expands and refines data sources that can be leveraged to measure SC CTSI’s
progress and impact on research at USC and partner institutions
 Leads development of the process of aggregating data from key USC administrative units that
operate independently and uses distinct data systems to accurately gauge SC CTSI impact.
 Implements APR automated program data collection solutions to increase the efficiency and
utility of reporting to the NIH
 Deploys complex evaluation and tracking system solutions and tools to represent SC CTSI
progress, assessing and integrating data that will enhance the utility of these tools
15
Manages Progress and Outcomes Reporting to NIH and Stakeholders:
 Using goals and performance metrics, evaluates SC CTSI overall and each program at least
quarterly, proactively reporting issues, challenges ad potential solutions to leadership.
 Coordinates the submission of the Annual Progress Report (APR) for the NIH.
 Develops detailed and summary reports of program progress against metrics and status for SC
CTSI Leadership, NIH and other stakeholders.
5
Other duties as assigned: e.g., serve as representative/facilitator at CTSI and NIH meetings and
committees (Evaluation Key Function Committee (KFC) and other KFC workgroups of the national
consortium); prepares professional abstracts, publications and other related products.
(To update total %, enter the amount of time in whole numbers (without the % symbol - e.g., 15, 20)
then highlight the total sum (e.g., 1%) at the bottom of the column and press F9. The total sum should
add up to 100%.)
100%
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities – Please list the knowledge, skills and abilities associated with success in this position and
indicate whether they are required or preferred. Items marked as required must be possessed by any candidate to be
considered for the position. Required qualifications will be included in the job posting and will be used to screen applicants.
Preferred qualifications may be used to enhance success in the search of the candidate but do not disqualify candidates
without them from consideration
Experience with planning, evaluation and tracking at a comparable organization, ideally
in academia or in the biomedical arena
Experience with one or more planning and evaluation approaches, such as SMART
goals, Logic Models, Balanced Scorecards, ROI for Social Venture firms, process
modeling, etc.
High degree of sophistication in managing expectations, demonstrated excellence in
communication (both written and oral) and proven track record of facilitating
conversations with senior leaders
Able to handle a fast-paced environment, ensuring focus while maintaining flexible,
open attitude to opportunities for improvement or change
Proven track record of effectively managing a project portfolio in a complex, highly
distributed research environment (academic or business) with a high degree of
independent judgment and authority
Experience managing complex technology and data-driven projects to achieve businesscritical goals
Understanding of sponsored-research project budgeting and ability to successfully
perform complex budget management
Required
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Preferred
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x
Education, Training and Experience – Please list the education, training, and/or years of experience associated with success in
this position and indicate whether these are required or preferred. Items marked as required must be possessed by any
candidate to be considered for the position. Required items will be included in the job posting and will be used to screen
applicants.
Advanced degree in business/management, evaluation or health sciences (Master’s and
above) or equivalent experience and training
5+ years of experience in program leadership and management specifically working
with diverse stakeholders in academia and business community; or related-field
Graduate level (PhD, MS or equivalent) health or social science background or
equivalent experience in biomedical or relevant quantitative or qualitative research
environment (academic or industry)
Proven track record in disseminating successes in academic environment (e.g. peer
reviewed publications, invited presentations, etc)
10+ years experience in a relevant research, biomedical, pharmaceutical or clinical
setting practicing program/project management for complex, interdisciplinary programs
or projects; showing increasing seniority in related fields in any capacity
Experience in leading change in policies and processes across complex, matrix
organizations.
Required
x
Preferred
x
x
x
x
x
List required licenses or certifications, if any: NONE REQUIRED
Problem Solving – Please provide 2-3 examples of problem solving for this position as described below (please be brief: 1-3
sentences for each example).
Common problems solved by the employee:
 Taking a high level mandate (e.g. use a clinical trials approach to assess the impact of the work SC CTSI does in
process engineering) and convert to a project, with explicit goals, timeline, identified resources (e.g. academic
advisors), and high level scope definition.
 Working with program directors (faculty and senior staff) to help them translate their vision into actionable,
measurable goals.
 Evaluating requests for changes to goals
 Mapping budgets to specific program activities
Less frequent and more complex problems solved by the employee:
 Designing a new review process that follows more of an NIH study section format, fitting that into the SC CTSI
leadership portfolio for the year, and customizing based on iterative feedback.
 Rolling out all aspects of a new evaluation methodology to all leaders, explaining and advocating the new
assessment approach, and ensuring buy-in and adoption.
 Development and implementation of public dashboards, displaying program and SC CTSI metrics information
publically
Problems/situations that are referred to this employee's supervisor:
 Program review processes needing to be reworked and requiring definition of new roles or functions for SC CTSI
leadership
 Major disagreements or challenges arising between major cross-USC, external partners, and community entities
 Policy and/or strategic issues that require the attention of SC CTSI leadership
 Issues that impact broader USC policies