Head of Clinical Standards
About this opportunity
Make your mark for patients
Head of Clinical Standards
You will be working in a team that is shaping the future of modern, digital, data‑driven research and development. We are looking for a Head of Clinical Standards who is strategic, collaborative, and forward‑thinking to join us in our Research and Development team, based in our UCB office in Brussels, Belgium.
About the role
You will lead the global strategy, governance, and evolution of clinical standards across the full clinical development life cycle. Your work will ensure that clinical standards are consistent, high‑quality, and aligned with global regulatory expectations. You will drive digital‑first design, enable advanced analytics, and ensure that data generated across studies is reliable, reusable, and ready for regulatory submission. You will act as the organization’s central voice on clinical standards, bridging science, operations, data, technology, and regulation to enable efficient execution, regulatory confidence, and innovation across the portfolio.
Who you’ll work with
You will be working with a broad network of experts across clinical science, clinical operations, data management, biometrics, regulatory affairs, safety, quality, and digital teams. You will chair the enterprise clinical standards network and collaborate closely with functional leaders to ensure consistent adoption and implementation of standards. You will also represent the organization externally, engaging with industry groups and regulatory bodies to stay aligned with evolving expectations and best practices.
What you’ll do
• Lead the global strategy for clinical standards, ensuring alignment with regulatory expectations and research and development objectives.
• Define, maintain, and evolve clinical standards, templates, terminology, and metadata to ensure consistency, traceability, and interoperability : CDISC standards (SDTM, ADaM, CDASH, Define.xml) and other Open-Source Standards
• Drive digital‑first implementation of standards to enable automation, analytics, and modern research and development capabilities.
• Establish and oversee global governance, including decision rights, change control, deviation management, and quality‑by‑design principles.
• Partner across functions to ensure standards are embedded into systems, processes, vendor ecosystems, and study execution.
• Lead enterprise change management, capability building, and external engagement to strengthen standards maturity and adoption.
Interested? For this role we’re looking for the following education, experience and skills
• Advanced degrees such as a master’s degree, medical degree, or public health qualification are valued.
• 10–15+ years of experience in clinical development, clinical data, biometrics, or regulatory environments, with proven global leadership.
• Deep expertise in clinical standards and regulatory expectations, with experience leading enterprise governance models.
• Strong ability to bridge science, operations, data, technology, and regulation in complex, global environments.
• Demonstrated experience applying quality‑by‑design principles and contributing to digital or data transformation initiatives.
• Excellent stakeholder influence, strategic thinking, and execution skills in matrixed organizations.
Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!
About us
UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.
Why work with us?
At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.
At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office.
UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws.
Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on [email protected]. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 709 comparable Clinical Development roles across 70 biopharma companies.
Salary context
218 of 709 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 709 comparable roles
+ 30 more countries
Seniority mix
577 of 709 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
154 of 709 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
Matched on job function only -- seniority, specialty, and location weren't confirmed as aligned.
Matched on job function only -- seniority, specialty, and location weren't confirmed as aligned.
Matched on job function only -- seniority, specialty, and location weren't confirmed as aligned.
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.