COO Jobs at Columbia University with Visa Sponsorship
COO jobs at Columbia University sit at the intersection of academic mission and operational scale, spanning research administration, campus services, and institutional strategy. Columbia has a consistent record of sponsoring work visas for senior operational leaders, making it a realistic target for internationally qualified executives.
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Get Access To All JobsJob Type: Officer of Administration
Bargaining Unit:
Regular/Temporary: Regular
End Date if Temporary:
Hours Per Week:
Standard Work Schedule:
Building:
Salary Range: $175,000-$225,000
The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.
Position Summary
The Senior Director, Clinical Trials Strategy and Operations will provide operational and programmatic leadership to advance a high-performing, institution-wide clinical trials strategy; support development and scaling of clinical trial services; improve study activation and execution; expand access to impactful trials; optimize the clinical trial portfolio and accrual, especially industry and/or foundation supported studies.
Working in close partnership with institutional leaders, the Senior Director/Director will lead cross-functional initiatives that reduce barriers for investigators, standardize best practices and support emerging and existing trials hubs. The Senior Director/Director work with a multidisciplinary team responsible for coordinating clinical trials initiatives. The ideal candidate will have significant clinical trials and industry/pharmaceutical/biotech/CRO experience.
Reporting: The Senior Director/Director will report to the VP&S Vice Dean for Clinical Trials and will work closely with the Irving Institute and VP&S research leadership, department chairs, principal investigators, and leaders across research administration, regulatory and contracting (including Columbia Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR) and its Clinical Trials Office (CTO)), informatics, communications, and finance.
Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Working with the Vice Dean for Clinical Trials, develop and execute a multi-year strategy to strengthen clinical trials infrastructure, accelerate trial activation, increase accrual and expand non-federal and federal funding.
- Translate clinical trials priorities into actionable operating plans, timelines, staffing models and measurable outcomes.
- Help establish and operationalize a governance structure for clinical trials that engages faculty, staff and institutional stakeholders in shared planning, prioritization and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate with research leadership to identify and expand/launch new multidisciplinary and cross-departmental clinical trial units.
- Support the Vice Dean for Clinical Trials as a senior institutional representative on committees overseeing clinical research strategy, ethics, and operations.
Operational Excellence & Team Management
- Work with clinical research leadership to develop and oversee a multidisciplinary team providing clinical informatics, operations, and regulatory support. Oversee the recruitment, mentoring, and development of clinical research professionals, fostering collaboration, accountability, and professional growth.
- Establish performance metrics, dashboards, and continuous improvement initiatives to simplify, evaluate and monitor study start-up, workflows, trial feasibility, protocol support, and study coordination models. Identify pain points across the clinical trial lifecycle and lead solutions in collaboration with research offices, IRB/regulatory partners, contracting, and clinical operations teams.
- Develop standardized tools, templates, guidance, and service models to support trial quality, prioritization, and operational consistency.
- Evaluate and operationalize innovative tools and technologies that improve trial matching, recruitment, workflow integration, metrics reporting, and investigator experience.
- Support expansion of services such as protocol writing, PI concierge support, research staffing models, and shared resource approaches, in collaboration with Irving Institute and Cancer Center Research Navigation.
Clinical Trials Infrastructure
- Build and scale shared services that support departments and clinical trial hubs.
- Partner with clinical and research leaders to expand trial activity across priority areas and new care settings.
- Support development of a “float pool” or other flexible staffing models for coordinators, research nurses, and specialized support staff.
- Foster collaboration across departments to adapt successful practices from established hubs and spread them across the enterprise.
- Lead initiatives to increase enrollment to scientifically impactful and medically meaningful trials.
- Collaborate with investigators, informatics, communications, and operational leaders to improve patient identification, outreach, recruitment, and retention.
- Support portfolio management approaches that assess trial performance, accrual, activation timelines, and operational burden.
- Help expand access to trials through innovative care models, including virtual and regionalized approaches where appropriate.
Partnerships & External Engagement
- Build and maintain strategic relationships with industry partners (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device sponsors), government agencies, and academic collaborators to advance research opportunities and institutional visibility.
- Serve as a point of contact for the Vice Dean of Clinical Trials with the Columbia Clinical Trials Office in the facilitating efficient contract and budget negotiations with sponsors, and revenue collection.
- Contribute to recharge, margin, and sustainability planning for centralized clinical trial services.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent in and experience, plus 5 years of related experience
- Leadership experience in clinical trials, including in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, or CRO industry, and/or large academic research environment.
- Expertise in navigating FDA and EMA-regulated research as well as Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines, HIPAA, IRB and other regulatory and compliance activities.
- Demonstrated success designing and implementing clinical research strategies that drive innovation, operational improvements, and portfolio diversification.
- Proven track record in fostering cross-functional collaboration among research, clinical, and operational teams.
- Must possess a customer-service orientation, with the ability to interact and collaborate positively, constructively and effectively with multiple executive level stakeholders.
- Strong commitment to fostering diversity and equity.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree (e.g., PhD, MD, PharmD, MBA, or equivalent) in a relevant scientific, clinical, or research discipline.
- Established network within industry, regulatory bodies, and academic clinical research leaders.
- Strong business acumen with experience in contract and budget negotiation, and external partnership development.
- Experience with commercial E-Systems supporting clinical trial operations including Clinical Trial Management Systems (CTMS), Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Data Capturing systems (EDCs), Velos, REDCap, LabArchives, and/or others
- Supervisory experience and strong interpersonal and team-building skills.
- Bilingual (English, Spanish).
Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.
Job Type: Officer of Administration
Bargaining Unit:
Regular/Temporary: Regular
End Date if Temporary:
Hours Per Week:
Standard Work Schedule:
Building:
Salary Range: $175,000-$225,000
The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.
Position Summary
The Senior Director, Clinical Trials Strategy and Operations will provide operational and programmatic leadership to advance a high-performing, institution-wide clinical trials strategy; support development and scaling of clinical trial services; improve study activation and execution; expand access to impactful trials; optimize the clinical trial portfolio and accrual, especially industry and/or foundation supported studies.
Working in close partnership with institutional leaders, the Senior Director/Director will lead cross-functional initiatives that reduce barriers for investigators, standardize best practices and support emerging and existing trials hubs. The Senior Director/Director work with a multidisciplinary team responsible for coordinating clinical trials initiatives. The ideal candidate will have significant clinical trials and industry/pharmaceutical/biotech/CRO experience.
Reporting: The Senior Director/Director will report to the VP&S Vice Dean for Clinical Trials and will work closely with the Irving Institute and VP&S research leadership, department chairs, principal investigators, and leaders across research administration, regulatory and contracting (including Columbia Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR) and its Clinical Trials Office (CTO)), informatics, communications, and finance.
Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Working with the Vice Dean for Clinical Trials, develop and execute a multi-year strategy to strengthen clinical trials infrastructure, accelerate trial activation, increase accrual and expand non-federal and federal funding.
- Translate clinical trials priorities into actionable operating plans, timelines, staffing models and measurable outcomes.
- Help establish and operationalize a governance structure for clinical trials that engages faculty, staff and institutional stakeholders in shared planning, prioritization and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate with research leadership to identify and expand/launch new multidisciplinary and cross-departmental clinical trial units.
- Support the Vice Dean for Clinical Trials as a senior institutional representative on committees overseeing clinical research strategy, ethics, and operations.
Operational Excellence & Team Management
- Work with clinical research leadership to develop and oversee a multidisciplinary team providing clinical informatics, operations, and regulatory support. Oversee the recruitment, mentoring, and development of clinical research professionals, fostering collaboration, accountability, and professional growth.
- Establish performance metrics, dashboards, and continuous improvement initiatives to simplify, evaluate and monitor study start-up, workflows, trial feasibility, protocol support, and study coordination models. Identify pain points across the clinical trial lifecycle and lead solutions in collaboration with research offices, IRB/regulatory partners, contracting, and clinical operations teams.
- Develop standardized tools, templates, guidance, and service models to support trial quality, prioritization, and operational consistency.
- Evaluate and operationalize innovative tools and technologies that improve trial matching, recruitment, workflow integration, metrics reporting, and investigator experience.
- Support expansion of services such as protocol writing, PI concierge support, research staffing models, and shared resource approaches, in collaboration with Irving Institute and Cancer Center Research Navigation.
Clinical Trials Infrastructure
- Build and scale shared services that support departments and clinical trial hubs.
- Partner with clinical and research leaders to expand trial activity across priority areas and new care settings.
- Support development of a “float pool” or other flexible staffing models for coordinators, research nurses, and specialized support staff.
- Foster collaboration across departments to adapt successful practices from established hubs and spread them across the enterprise.
- Lead initiatives to increase enrollment to scientifically impactful and medically meaningful trials.
- Collaborate with investigators, informatics, communications, and operational leaders to improve patient identification, outreach, recruitment, and retention.
- Support portfolio management approaches that assess trial performance, accrual, activation timelines, and operational burden.
- Help expand access to trials through innovative care models, including virtual and regionalized approaches where appropriate.
Partnerships & External Engagement
- Build and maintain strategic relationships with industry partners (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device sponsors), government agencies, and academic collaborators to advance research opportunities and institutional visibility.
- Serve as a point of contact for the Vice Dean of Clinical Trials with the Columbia Clinical Trials Office in the facilitating efficient contract and budget negotiations with sponsors, and revenue collection.
- Contribute to recharge, margin, and sustainability planning for centralized clinical trial services.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent in and experience, plus 5 years of related experience
- Leadership experience in clinical trials, including in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, or CRO industry, and/or large academic research environment.
- Expertise in navigating FDA and EMA-regulated research as well as Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines, HIPAA, IRB and other regulatory and compliance activities.
- Demonstrated success designing and implementing clinical research strategies that drive innovation, operational improvements, and portfolio diversification.
- Proven track record in fostering cross-functional collaboration among research, clinical, and operational teams.
- Must possess a customer-service orientation, with the ability to interact and collaborate positively, constructively and effectively with multiple executive level stakeholders.
- Strong commitment to fostering diversity and equity.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree (e.g., PhD, MD, PharmD, MBA, or equivalent) in a relevant scientific, clinical, or research discipline.
- Established network within industry, regulatory bodies, and academic clinical research leaders.
- Strong business acumen with experience in contract and budget negotiation, and external partnership development.
- Experience with commercial E-Systems supporting clinical trial operations including Clinical Trial Management Systems (CTMS), Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Data Capturing systems (EDCs), Velos, REDCap, LabArchives, and/or others
- Supervisory experience and strong interpersonal and team-building skills.
- Bilingual (English, Spanish).
Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.
Tips for Finding COO Jobs at Columbia University
Frame your credentials for U.S. equivalency
Columbia's HR team evaluates foreign degrees against U.S. standards during visa petitions. Get a credential evaluation from a NACES-accredited body before applying so your qualifications are documented in terms USCIS reviewers and hiring managers recognize immediately.
Target Columbia's decentralized school structure
Columbia operates schools and divisions with significant operational autonomy. COO openings often live under specific faculties like Columbia Business School or SEAS, not just central administration, so search each school's careers portal directly rather than relying on the main jobs board.
Understand how Columbia files H-1B cap-exempt petitions
As a nonprofit university, Columbia qualifies for H-1B cap exemption, meaning petitions can be filed any time of year without waiting for the April lottery. You can start and accept a COO offer on a realistic timeline rather than planning around a single annual filing window.
Prepare for a structured internal approval process
Columbia routes senior leadership hires through provost-level sign-off before extending offers. Build extra lead time into your timeline so visa filing with USCIS isn't compressed by internal approvals that routinely extend the pre-offer stage beyond a standard corporate process.
Align your application to Columbia's compliance expectations
COO candidates at a research university must demonstrate familiarity with federal research compliance, Title IX administration, and sponsored funding regulations. Highlight direct experience with DOL or federally audited programs, as these signal operational credibility to Columbia search committees.
Use Migrate Mate to surface active COO openings
Columbia posts senior operational roles across multiple internal portals and they close quickly. Use Migrate Mate to track and browse COO positions at Columbia that are open to visa sponsorship, so you're applying to current listings rather than chasing postings that have already been filled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Columbia University sponsor H-1B visas for COOs?
Yes. Columbia University sponsors H-1B visas for COO roles and benefits from nonprofit cap-exempt status, which means petitions can be filed at any point in the year rather than through the annual lottery. This makes the H-1B a practical option for senior operational hires, with processing timelines determined by USCIS workload rather than a fixed registration window.
Which visa types are commonly used for COO roles at Columbia University?
H-1B is the primary pathway for most international candidates in COO roles at Columbia. Australians may use the E-3 visa, and Canadians or Mexicans may qualify for TN visa status depending on the specific job duties. Candidates already in the U.S. on F-1 OPT can also be sponsored by Columbia while transitioning to an H-1B. For longer-term pathways, Columbia has sponsored EB-2 and EB-3 Green Card petitions for senior staff.
What qualifications and experience does Columbia University expect for COO candidates?
Columbia typically looks for candidates with graduate-level education in business, public administration, or a related field, combined with significant senior leadership experience in complex institutional or research-driven environments. Familiarity with academic governance, sponsored research compliance, and large-scale budget oversight is treated as substantive experience rather than a bonus, particularly for school-level COO roles.
How do I apply for COO jobs at Columbia University?
Applications go through Columbia's central HR platform, though senior roles are often posted at the school or division level as well. Use Migrate Mate to find active COO openings at Columbia that include visa sponsorship, then apply directly through Columbia's official careers portal. Tailoring your application to the specific school's operational context, rather than submitting a generic CV, significantly improves your chances at this stage.
How do I plan my timeline when targeting a sponsored COO role at Columbia?
Because Columbia is cap-exempt for H-1B purposes, you're not constrained by the April 1 filing deadline that applies to cap-subject employers. However, internal approval for senior roles can take several weeks before an official offer is extended. Build at least three to four months between your first interview and your intended start date to accommodate Columbia's internal process and USCIS adjudication time.