Summary

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine is seeking to hire a Vice Chair for Research (VC-R) who is a dynamic and visionary academic scientist or physician-scientist with proven experience in women's health-related research with strong leadership ability and exceptional communication skills.

The ideal candidate for VC-R has past and ongoing success with externally funded impactful research in one or several areas of women's health research. The VC-R will be a visionary leader who is enthusiastic about growing our existing strong and well-supported research program and expanding it with novel new clinical, translational, and basic research initiatives. The VC-R will be an exceptional communicator who aims to broadly engage and support departmental faculty, trainees, and research staff in their research goals and ambitions and who will recruit, support, mentor, and retain new research talent. The VC-R will foster an environment that supports high-quality research conducted according to the highest standards of research rigor and compliance and which will result in impactful publications and external funding. The VC-R will join a vibrant, innovative research community within the Texas Medical Center that is well supported by many academic specialty research centers, top-quality and well-equipped core facilities, and a strong clinical research environment and infrastructure and will integrate and promote our departmental research program institutionally, nationally, and internationally.

Job Duties

• Develop and implement strategic and operational plans related to the research mission in the Department.
• Enable a culture of professionalism, teamwork, and research reporting safety for all faculty, staff, and trainees. 
• Ensure the financial health of the research mission by evaluating revenue and expenses and identifying opportunities for improvement. 
• Work with the Department Administrator and the Chair on developing and maintaining annual operating budgets for all Departmental research programs.  
• Monitor metrics and productivity related to the department faculty grant submissions, funding success rates, extramural dollars, indirect cost recovery, publication numbers, and impact factors. 
• Report directly to and meet regularly with the Department Chairman to review overall departmental research events and contributions and anticipated or planned initiatives/goals for the upcoming strategic planning interval.
• Communicate regularly with other Vice Chairs and Division leaders about research priorities, needs, and strategies and how to integrate these with other departmental missions.
• Communicate regularly with TCH and BCM leadership about research infrastructure needs for clinical, translational, and basic research. Be the chief Departmental advocate for investment and improvement in existing research programs.
• Communicate strategic planning goals Department-wide to enable research's collective and individual success among faculty, learners, and staff.
• Ensure the quality of all research programs and their compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Identify and design innovative activities that will enhance the research experience of the members of the Department aligned with the strategic plan and vision.
• Advise the Chair on research priorities, funding needs, recruitment, and infrastructure support for department-wide and individual investigator programs. 
• Liaise with the Medical School and other Departmental and institutional leaders to support research programs and initiatives.
• Identify new opportunities and initiatives and develop offerings to enable investigators and learners to reach independence.
• Provide (or identify others who can provide) support and mentorship to enable independent research contributions of individual faculty members and learners.  
• Ensure faculty members and learners know institutional and national opportunities for developing research leadership and expertise.  
• Encourage interested faculty members to engage in research and seek federal funding for research.

At a minimum, the Vice Chair for Research will participate in the following committees/meetings:

• Departmental Executive Committee
• Research Leadership Council
• Applicable Educational and Mentorship Committees
• IRB, IACUC, or other ad hoc committees

Minimum Qualifications

• Hold an MD, DO, DVM, and/or PhD degree.
• Demonstrate career experiences relevant to the position, including experience in strategic planning in research.
• Demonstrate operational understanding in the conduct and regulation of research.
• Be a faculty member in the Department at the rank of Associate Professor or above.
• Be able to demonstrate a record of funding and excellence in at least one or multiple domains of research (for example, basic and clinical science, or educational and qualitative research, or biostatistics or bioinformatics).
• Demonstrate interest, commitment, and leadership in research with excellent communication skills.
• Be willing to function at a high managerial level in a complex healthcare organization.