In this series, we profile the career journeys of some of our team and highlight the unique paths and opportunities available to statisticians and programmers within the organisation.
This profile focuses on Ingrid Franklin, a Senior Statistician at Veramed. We caught up with Ingrid to discuss her career, her typical working day, and her aspirations for the future.
When did you start working at Veramed?
I started six years ago immediately after an MSc in medical statistics, which is required to become a biostatistician. I’m now a Senior Statistician working with one of Veramed’s major Functional Service Provider clients as well as a portfolio of emerging biopharma companies. I also manage an internal systems project to help enhance our efficiency and productivity as a business.
What are your areas of interest?
I’ve worked principally on early phase trials, which I enjoy because the studies tend to be smaller and provide greater opportunity for variety, as well as offering the chance to learn about different therapeutic areas. Exploratory development is typically a fast-paced cadence of work by comparison with longer, later phase trials that allow you to gain in-depth knowledge in a particular area.
In terms of therapeutic areas, I’ve worked extensively on both immunology and neurology trials and find the experience of building up my knowledge in these areas extremely rewarding. As a Senior Statistician, I often work in an oversight role where I’m checking that we’re hitting milestones to achieve our deadlines.
What is your typical day as a Statistician?
During the lockdown, we started doing “stand -up” calls every morning with our project team to run through our activities and priorities. This initiative has been beneficial and helps me to focus on my targets for a given day. Today, right after the stand-up call, I had a meeting with one of my clients to round off some outstanding issues for a statistical analysis plan, then updated both the plan and the associated outputs. After that, I had a one to one meeting with a direct report. There’s never a dull moment!
What kind of person do you think suits the role of a Senior Statistician?
I’m able to manage different competing deadlines, and I’m interested in learning new skills. I love variety rather than focusing on one specific discipline. Like all statisticians, I have a keen eye for detail which is essential for the review work I do. I have to be on the ball in terms of making sure that the numbers calculate correctly, and also make sense at a high level.
What were your motivations for joining Veramed?
I studied quite a specific master’s degree and was always going to join the clinical trials industry in some way. I wasn’t sure initially whether to join a pharmaceutical company or join a clinical research organisation like Veramed. After attending various career talks while at university, it became clear that working for a CRO would give me more variety through work with different clients.
Veramed particularly caught my eye because of its friendly culture and it appealed to me to be part of a smaller, but expanding company where I could make a real impact.
What are your career aspirations?
At Veramed I have had a lot of different opportunities, including line management at a relatively early stage in my career. In the future, I’d like to start focusing more deeply in some specific areas and consolidate my knowledge. I want to be able to keep doing what I’m doing but at a more senior level and being able to guide other people to build up their confidence and grow in their roles.
