Scientific Reviewer Engagement Lead

Title: Scientific Reviewer Engagement Lead

Location: MD, USA

Work Environment: Remote; occasional travel may be required

Clearance Required: Public Trust

Status: Contingent upon contract award

Salary Range: $110,000 – $130,000

Knowesis is currently seeking an exceptional Scientific Reviewer Engagement Lead to join our team and provide invaluable support to the Biomedical Research Application Evaluation and Support (BRAES) program. The Lead leads the centralized capability for identifying, sourcing, recruiting, and engaging qualified scientific, clinical, and technical experts for biomedical research peer review, and oversees enterprise reviewer sourcing and pipeline development across multiple research programs so Scientific Review Officers (SROs) have access to robust pools of qualified prospective reviewers with the expertise needed for current and anticipated peer review requirements. This position leads Scientific Reviewer Sourcing Specialists and owns sourcing strategy, workload prioritization, reviewer pipeline development, difficult-to-source expertise, recruitment metrics, reviewer engagement and retention, and continuous improvement. The Lead works closely with Scientific Review Managers (SRMs) and SROs to understand expertise requirements. Final evaluation of reviewer suitability, panel fit, selection, and assignment remains with scientific review leadership and SROs.

The Job Duties and Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Develop and implement state-of-the-art reviewer identification and recruitment strategies, including artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted expertise discovery and semantic matching, multi-source scientific database searches, structured expertise profiling, professional society and institutional partnerships, proactive pipeline development, and data-driven sourcing and engagement strategies.
• Lead the centralized scientific reviewer sourcing and engagement capability supporting multiple biomedical research programs and peer review activities.
• Supervise, mentor, and coordinate Scientific Reviewer Sourcing Specialists.
• Translate expertise requirements provided by SRMs and SROs into targeted sourcing strategies and recruitment priorities.
• Manage sourcing workload and priorities across concurrent programs and panels based on schedules, reviewer demand, specialty requirements, and recruitment difficulty.
• Build and continuously refresh pipelines before immediate needs arise, using anticipated program, mechanism, disease-area, methodology, clinical, and technical requirements to identify thin pipelines early.
• Oversee multi-source expert discovery using scientific literature and bibliographic databases, funded-investigator information, professional societies, academic and research institutions, clinical networks, conferences, investigator networks, and other appropriate sources.
• Develop structured reviewer expertise profiles that capture relevant disease or condition, scientific domain, research focus, methodology, technology, clinical specialty, population expertise, career stage, and prior review experience as appropriate.
• Develop relationships and referral networks with scientific and professional societies, research institutions, academic medical centers, clinical organizations, and other sources of qualified experts.
• Expand and refresh reviewer pools by identifying qualified new and underutilized experts while maintaining access to experienced, high-performing reviewers.
• Oversee professional outreach and engagement that communicates peer review expectations, timelines, participation requirements, and the value of contributing to the biomedical research mission.
• Coordinate rapid sourcing of replacement or additional reviewers when selected reviewers become unavailable or new expertise needs emerge.
• Maintain visibility into reviewer pipelines and identify difficult-to-source specialties, emerging shortages, capacity constraints, and recruitment risks before they affect panel readiness.
• Establish and monitor sourcing and engagement metrics, including pipeline sufficiency, time-to-source, response and acceptance rates, decline reasons, repeat utilization, difficult-to-fill expertise, replacement needs, and other indicators of sourcing effectiveness.
• Use pipeline analytics to guide workload allocation, sourcing priorities, reviewer-pool development, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee reviewer sourcing and recruitment data quality and applicable tracking systems.
• Develop standardized sourcing procedures, tools, templates, and best practices.
• Coordinate with scientific review, Consumer Reviewer administration, program support, peer review system support, and other functional teams as needed to support integrated peer review operations.
• Support reviewer-demand forecasting by comparing anticipated requirements with available reviewer pipelines.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a biomedical, life science, health science, clinical, or related scientific discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in scientific reviewer recruitment, scientific or clinical talent sourcing, biomedical research, scientific peer review, research administration, or a closely related field.
• Experience leading staff or managing a centralized sourcing, recruitment, research, or comparable operational capability.
• Strong understanding of biomedical research disciplines and ability to interpret scientific credentials, publications, research experience, and areas of expertise.
• Demonstrated ability to develop sourcing strategies for specialized or difficult-to-fill scientific and clinical expertise.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent priorities, resource demands, and time-sensitive recruitment requirements.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using data or metrics to monitor performance, identify gaps, and guide decisions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, relationship-management, leadership, and organizational skills.
• Experience with scientific databases, research tools, customer relationship management (CRM) or recruiting systems, or comparable web-based information-management systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in a biomedical, life science, health science, clinical, or related discipline.
• Experience supporting Federal biomedical research peer review or grant review.
• Experience recruiting scientists, clinicians, researchers, or other highly specialized subject matter experts.
• Familiarity with PubMed, NIH RePORTER, professional society directories, bibliographic databases, and other scientific sourcing resources.
• Experience supporting the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), Department of Defense (DoD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), or another Federal biomedical research organization.
• Experience building or managing large-scale scientific reviewer or expert pipelines.

Benefits:

• Health (PPO & HDHP) Insurance, Dental, Vision, Short-Term Disability (STD) & Long-Term Disability (LTD), Basic Life Insurance, 401(k) Company Match, & Voluntary Products.

Knowesis is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on merit and qualifications. We prohibit discrimination in all aspects of employment as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other applicable federal laws. Our company values all applicants and employees and fosters a work environment where everyone is treated with respect and dignity.