Scientific Advisor

**Status**: Full time, permanent

**Location**: Ottawa or Toronto, Ontario (hybrid)

**Closing date**: July 18, 2023

**Salary range**: $ 97,000 to $121,000 per year as of August 7, 2023

CADTH is Canada’s drug and health technology agency. We’re a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Ottawa, with a satellite office in Toronto. We’re funded by Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments, with the exception of Quebec, to provide independent information and advice to the country’s publicly funded health care systems. Health administrators and policy experts rely on CADTH to inform their decisions about the funding and appropriate use of the drugs, devices, and services used to prevent, diagnose, and treat medical conditions.

Primary Focus
Under the direction of the Director, Drug Data Services and Analytics, the Scientific Advisor provides scientific and clinical advice to pharmaceutical companies from a health technology assessment perspective on their proposed plans for early drug development. In addition, as a member of the Scientific Affairs team, you will promote methodological rigour and quality standards by supporting research staff and through reviews of CADTH protocols and reports.
This position is specifically being filled to enable CADTH to respond to emerging opportunities in health and health policy, including federal priorities such as the National Framework for Drugs for Rare Diseases.

**On any given day, the Scientific Advisor will**:

- critically appraise material including gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting relevant evidence in order to prepare responses to questions posed by the company regarding drug development plans
- support identifying issues for discussing and evaluating the validity and relevance of complex and potentially conflicting data
- participate in high-level scientific advice meetings and strategic and relationship-building initiatives with pharmaceutical companies, clinical and academic experts, patient communities, and internal teams
- ensure adherence to all established internal processes, methodologies, and quality standards
- provide advice to research staff on methods including protocol development, data analysis, statistical analysis, and guidance in the interpretation of statistical analyses
- liaise with experts and representatives of academia and external organizations or agencies (local, provincial, and national) to promote and align CADTH’s methods, processes, approaches, and tools with current best practices to ensure scientific credibility and continuous quality improvement, and to reduce duplication
- prepare CADTH methodology reports and peer-reviewed manuscripts, as required.

Is this the right role for you?

**The Scientific Advisor will likely have**:

- a Ph.D. or MSc in a health-related research methods discipline (e.g., clinical epidemiology, health outcomes research, health research methods) and a strong research background. Consideration will be given to those currently working towards their Doctoral degree.
- 5 years of progressive experience in health-related research
- extensive knowledge of and experience in the research methods used in the assessment of health technologies for reimbursement, appropriate use, and other health technology decisions (e.g., systematic review methodology, network meta-analyses, observational study design methods)
- a broad knowledge and expertise in traditional and complex clinical trial designs and related research methods combined with extensive experience with critical appraisal of clinical trials for pharmaceuticals, particularly with complex clinical trial designs (e.g., adaptive trial designs, sequential methods, enrichment designs)
- experience in the peer review process used for scientific reports and consulting with clinical and academic experts
- an understanding of the Canadian health care system and knowledge of the health technology-related decision-making processes within the federal, provincial, and territorial bodies
- strong communication skills, including writing, negotiation, facilitation, and the ability to effectively present to and communicate with a large and diverse group of stakeholders
- ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with a variety of internal and external audiences
- strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to independently problem-solve and determine the best course of action using research, logic, and evaluative judgment
- strong organizational and attention to detail skills; proactive and resilient in the context of tight deadlines, multiple tasks, and conflicting priorities
- a collaborative approach; tactful, respectful, and diplomatic.

What will set you apart?
- knowledge of the health technology-related decision-making processes within the federal, provincial, and territorial bodies
- clinical experience in a health care setting
- knowledge of, and experience in, health economics