Lead Specialist, Practice Experience & Clinical Education

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Posting Reason:

New Position

Job Type:

Employee

Anticipated Duration in Months (for contracts and temporary assignments):

24

Job Family:

Academic Program Management

# of Open Positions:

1

Faculty/Service - Department:

Undergraduate Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Science Education / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

Campus:

Roger Guindon Hall

Union Affiliation:

N/A

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/10/01

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/10/12

Hours per week:

35

Salary Grade:

Non-Union Grade NM1

Salary Range:

$107,503.00 - $134,379.00

About the Faculty of Medicine
Welcome to the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, the first and largest bilingual medical faculty in Canada. Our learners have access to state-of-the art facilities and specialized institutions as they learn alongside world-class physicians and scientists. Consistently ranked among the top 10 medical schools in Canada, our faculty is among the top faculties of medicine in the world for research impact in biomedical and health sciences.

Position Purpose:

In collaboration with the School Director, and with the program leadership team, the Lead Specialist is responsible for the implementation, coordination, administration and ongoing support of the PharmD experiential education program. The incumbent oversees the day-to-day operations of practice experiences across all years of the PharmD curriculum and ensures the implementation of strategic priorities established by School leadership.  They ensure that experiential learning opportunities are aligned with curricular outcomes, accreditation requirements, professional competencies, regulatory expectations, and evolving pharmacy practice standards.

The Lead Specialist liaises with practice sites, preceptors and healthcare organizations; supports placement planning, operational quality assurance activities, and accreditation alignment; and provides operational expertise and recommendations to School leadership regarding experiential education, accreditation readiness, risk management, and program delivery. They provide support to teaching activities, curriculum and policy implementation, and institutional initiatives that contribute to preparing competent, practice-ready pharmacists.

Specific Accountabilities:

• Experiential Education Coordination & Program Administration: Oversees the day-to-day implementation and administration of the experiential education program. Implements operational procedures, guidelines, and workflows established by School and Program leadership to ensure efficient program delivery and compliance with accreditation standards, regulatory requirements, university policies, and professional expectations. Coordinates operational planning activities, identifies emerging issues, and provides recommendations regarding program operations, capacity, and continuous improvement. Supports the implementation of risk management processes related to immunization, screening, learner safety, and placement readiness. Collaborates on risk management requirements such as immunization, screening, and safety compliance, and ensure a safe, inclusive, and high-quality experiential learning environment.
• Preceptor Recruitment, Engagement, Training & Development: Responsible for the recruitment, onboarding, communication, recognition, and professional development activities for preceptors and experiential education partners. Implements engagement initiatives developed in collaboration with the Associate Directors. Identifies training needs through feedback and program evaluation. Develops and delivers educational resources, orientation sessions, workshops, and training activities that support effective student supervision and assessment. Maintains regular communication with preceptors and practice sites to promote engagement and retention.
• Student & Preceptor Support: Coordinates student accommodations in collaboration with the Faculty and Learner Hub for Wellness, Inclusion and Professionalism and serves as an escalation point for complex student, preceptors and placement-related issues. Provides guidance, mediation, coaching, conflict resolution, and remediation support to students and preceptors. Participates in developing individualized learning and remediation plans for students experiencing academic, professional, or placement-related difficulties.  Coordinates responses to situations involving learner wellness, professionalism concerns, patient safety issues, placement disruptions, accommodation requirements, and risk management considerations, escalating issues requiring strategic or academic decisions to the appropriate Associate Director or Program Director.
• Placement Planning & Management:  Responsible for the planning, scheduling, allocation, and monitoring of experiential placements across all practice settings, including community and hospital pharmacy. Ensures students meet eligibility requirements and that placements are appropriately assigned to support program outcomes and competency frameworks. Oversees the maintenance of placement databases, monitors placement capacity, coordinates communications with practice sites, and supports the implementation of new placement models developed by School leadership.
• Accreditation, Program Evaluation & Continuous Quality Improvement: Coordinates data collection, documentation, reporting, and operational quality assurance activities supporting experiential education. Collects and analyzes feedback from students and preceptors, identifies areas for improvement, implements program enhancements, and prepares reports and recommendations for the Associate Directors and School leadership..  Supports accreditation activities by coordinating documentation, maintaining records, preparing evidence, and assisting with accreditation site visits and self-study reports. Works closely with the Director, Accreditation and Continuous Quality Improvement to implement continuous quality improvement initiatives and monitor compliance with CCAPP standards. Ensure that practice sites and preceptors meet relevant regulatory requirements, meets or exceed meets or exceed Standards of Pharmacy Practice. Site visits might be required.
• Liaison, Partnerships & Representation: Acts as the primary pharmacist contact for practice sites,  Maintains collaborative relationships and coordinates ongoing communications with partners in support of the strategic direction established by the Associate Directors. Coordinates affiliation agreements, placement documentation, and partnership records. Supports the development and monitoring of elective placements and assists in identifying new placement opportunities. Represents the School at operational meetings and committees, as delegated.
• Teaching & Academic Contribution: Delivers limited teaching related to the portfolio within the PharmD program as required. Supports alignment between experiential learning and curriculum outcomes. Contributes to curriculum development and review.

Knowledge, Experience, Competencies, and Skills:

Essential Qualifications:

• Pharmacist with an active Part A license in Canada (flexible scheduling available to meet professional practice obligations)
• Advance pharmacy practice training (including pharmacy residency) is an asset
• Minimum of 3 years of experience as a licensed pharmacist, along with experience as a preceptor or in experiential education.
• Experience as a pharmacy preceptor with any Canadian pharmacy program
• Experience in an academic or post-secondary setting is an asset, and experience with program evaluation and data analysis is considered an asset.

 

Other Qualifications

• Knowledge of university academic programs and structures an asset

• Knowledge of CCAPP accreditation standards and experiential education best practices an asset

• Experience working with affiliated health science centres and partner institutions an asset

• Strong problem solving and conflict resolution skills
• Experience in long-term strategic planning, organizational development and change management.
• Ability to work autonomously with little to no direction, ability to conduct research to make effective decisions based on facts.

• Experience in managing projects and priorities in high pressure environments with tight deadlines

• Proven negotiation, critical thinking and analytical skills

• Strong communication, interpersonal, team building and influencing skills

• Experience in writing, interpreting and applying policies and procedures.

• Knowledge of accreditation processes of relevant governing bodies is an asset

• Experience in budget management and budget control.
• Bilingualism – French and English (spoken and written).

#LI-Hybrid

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact [email protected] to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.