The Reliance Specialist will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, under the auspices of the University of Pittsburgh Human Research Protection Office (HRPO), formerly known as Institutional Review Board (IRB). The employee will serve in the capacity of the initial point of contact pertaining to requests for various types of institutional agreements such as Reliance, Individual Investigator, and IRB Authorization. This position requires the employee to obtain information related to the types of agreements being requested, as well as making an initial determination regarding the viability of the agreement in collaboration with the HRPO Director and Office of General Counsel. The employee will assist in the review of draft agreements as well as serving as the initial point of contact for revisions to such agreements. The Reliance Specialist will serve as the primary liaison for approved Central IRB mechanisms, and will provide appropriate review of projects approved through Central IRBs based on the requirements of institutional agreements. When the University of Pittsburgh is the Central IRB, the employee will serve as a protocol reviewer which may involve either expedited or full board submissions requiring the employee to maintain up-to-date OSIRIS applications when new Central IRB mechanisms are approved, will activate new projects and acknowledge changes to Central IRB applications when appropriate, and will process the completion of local context documents when appropriate while ensuring accuracy and compliance with departmental policies and procedures. The Reliance Specialist will assist members of the Regulatory Division with the development and implementation of a document management hub as well as policies and procedures and guidance documents for the research community regarding Central IRB mechanisms. The employee will assist with programmatic gap analyses and process improvement projects in order to streamline the functions of the HRPO, will monitor the AskIRB mailbox, and may be asked to assist with the workload in the Operations Division on an as needed basis.