Description

Job Description - Operations Manager, Contract & Delivery Operations

About The Position:

Department: Data Operations - RWD Delivery & Contract Operations | Manager: Senior Director, RWD Operations | Location: United States (Remote) or India - US ET Hours (Remote) | Level: Mid-Level (Individual Contributor).

Every dataset Norstella delivers helps life-sciences teams make faster, better-informed decisions about patient care. The RWD Contract & Delivery Operations Manager is the person who makes sure those datasets arrive on time, accurately, and without interruption - from the moment a contract is signed through years of ongoing delivery. If you thrive on turning complex, cross-functional processes into repeatable, reliable systems, this role will let you do that at scale.

You will own the full lifecycle of data deliverables - contract setup, platform configuration, delivery execution, and contract close-out. Sitting at the intersection of client engagement, data engineering, quality assurance, and delivery infrastructure, you'll be the operational backbone that keeps dozens of concurrent workstreams moving on schedule. This is not a "monitor dashboards" role; you'll actively drive process, solve problems across teams, and build the operational rigor that lets the company scale.

The ideal candidate for this position will have a strong interest in healthcare and technology, excellent organizational skills, and experience enhancing processes. The candidate must also possess excellent written and verbal communication skills so as to work effectively in cross-functional internal teams across the Real World Data team and beyond. An ability to work in a fast-paced environment, sometimes under pressure, remaining flexible, proactive, resourceful and efficient, with a high level of professionalism is crucial to this role.

Key Responsibilities:
• Own end-to-end contract-to-delivery setup by creating and maintaining Jira epics/deliverable records and governing deliverable metadata (dates, specs, cadence, security/encryption, delivery location, and client technical contacts) across first deliveries, ongoing deliveries, and redeliveries.
• Drive post-sale delivery operations and contract governance by progressing deliverables through lifecycle stages, enforcing SharePoint folder standards, proactively managing renewals/terminations, and ensuring deliveries do not occur past contract end dates.
• Configure deliverables and feeds in the delivery platform: link scripts, set quality checks, and build delivery schedules.
• Serve as configuration gatekeeper to ensure project tracking and code changes are reflected in the delivery platform.
• Monitor active-state deliverables daily to keep the delivery tracking board accurate, complete, and current.
• Execute clean handoff from active state to steady state, including delivery team assignments and ownership transitions.
• Serve as the operational liaison across Engagement, Technical Operations, QA, and Business Operations during active-state delivery - maintaining project records, aligning delivery/provisioning needs, and ensuring contract and tracking-system accuracy.
• Own team-facing delivery communications by managing inbound questions and operational notifications, escalating risks as needed to support on-time, compliant deliverables.
• All other duties, as assigned.

Required Qualifications
• 3-5 years in operations management, delivery operations, or project management - ideally in data, analytics, life sciences, or healthcare.
• Jira power-user skills: epics, subtasks, custom workflows, filters, board management, and dashboard reporting. You treat the tracking system as a delivery tool, not an afterthought.
• Proven cross-functional execution: you've run complex, multi-step workflows across teams that don't report to you, and you've kept everything on track.
• Familiarity with data delivery pipelines: you understand ETL concepts, scheduling, secure file transfer, and what can go wrong between "data is ready" and "client has it."
• Exceptional attention to detail across dozens of concurrent deliverables - you catch the missed date or wrong encryption flag before it becomes an incident.
• Clear, direct communication - written and verbal - with the confidence to drive accountability without positional authority.

Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with real-world data (RWD) delivery in life sciences or healthcare.
• Hands-on exposure to Azure DevOps, Redshift, or Airflow (or similar orchestration/infrastructure tools).
• Familiarity with automated data quality frameworks, data dictionaries, and/or codebooks.
• Experience documenting processes in Confluence or similar collaboration platforms.

How You'll Know You're Succeeding

These are the outcomes we'll measure together in your first year:
• The tracking system is trustworthy - anyone can open Jira and see the true state of every contract, deliverable, and delivery record without asking you.
• Delivery system stays up to date - platform configurations are accurate, validated, and decommissioned on schedule.
• Handoffs are seamless - no information gaps between teams; new team members can pick up context from your documentation alone.
• Risks surface early - operational issues are identified and mitigated before they impact clients or data quality.
• Delivery SLAs are consistently met - work advances on schedule with minimal escalations.

Our guiding principles for success at Norstella:
• Bold, Passionate, Mission-First - We have a lofty mission to Smooth Access to Life Saving Therapies, and we will get there by being bold and passionate about the mission and our clients. Our clients and the mission in what we are trying to accomplish must be in the forefront of our minds in everything we do.
• Integrity, Truth, Reality - We make promises that we can keep, and goals that push us to new heights. Our integrity offers us the opportunity to learn and improve by being honest about what works and what doesn't. By being true to the data and producing realistic metrics, we are able to create plans and resources to achieve our goals.
• Kindness, Empathy, Grace - We will empathize with everyone's situation, provide positive and constructive feedback with kindness, and accept opportunities for improvement with grace and gratitude. We use this principle across the organization to collaborate and build lines of open communication.
• Resilience, Mettle, Perseverance - We will persevere - even in difficult and challenging situations. Our ability to recover from missteps and failures in a positive way will help us to be successful in our mission.
• Humility, Gratitude, Learning - We will be true learners by showing humility and gratitude in our work. We recognize that the smartest person in the room is the one who is always listening, learning, and willing to shift their thinking.