Health IT with a focus on Clinical Research?

Hey there! I’m a Clinical Research Billing Analyst with a nursing background, 6 years using Epic and 5 years working in clinical research. In my current role I do clinical research billing, both using epic and other applications. My manager is trying to open a new team that me and my coworker will head - a Research Applications team, with a focus on helping our clinical teams have the tools and reports they need in Epic (and possibly a future CTMS) to conduct clinical trials. I am also Epic certified in Research Billing.

I LOVE clinical research and assumed I would build my whole career here - either moving up to project management or trial management, or something similar. But now that I am dabbling more in Epic I am finding myself more and more drawn to the technical side of my job.

Is there anyone in here who focuses on clinical research, who could share a little about their role and experience? Doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of jobs out there currently (I’m not looking to apply, just trying to feel out the market), but I may be searching the wrong thing. Curious how lucrative this focus would be or if it would be too niche.

I also understand that in the USA clinical research has an unclear future, with so much funding being cut. That’s another reason I’m considering focusing more on the IT side of things - hopefully I could pivot to something more generic if research tanks.