Head of Centre Operations (maternity cover)

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About Us

King's College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King's College London's 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

• Educating the next generation of change-makers
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research
• Giving back to society through meaningful service
• Working with our local communities in London
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective

King's Health Partners brings together research, education and clinical practice across the university and three NHS Foundation Trusts (King's College London, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust).

The Centre for Translational Medicine brings together the organisations of King's Health Partners and generous funding from the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity to work in partnership to improve the health of people locally, nationally, and globally. This is through accelerating research and innovation that improves the detection, prevention, and treatment of disease.

The Centre for Translational Medicine aims to:

• address the major health burdens for local, national and global communities - and to challenge existing health inequalities
• combine our outstanding clinical and scientific expertise to deliver excellent outcomes for patients
• develop the next generation of clinical-academic leaders, skilled in delivering impactful translational biomedical research

About the role

The King's Health Partners (KHP) Centre for Translational Medicine (CTM) is a strategic initiative to enhance translational research capabilities across the partnership, support innovation and accelerate better, more equitable outcomes for patients and communities served by KHP and beyond. The CTM is jointly funded by the King's College London, Guys and St Thomas's NHS foundation trust and Guy's and St Thomas's Charity.

The Head of Centre Operations for the King's Health Partners (KHP) Centre for Translational Medicine (CTM) is a maternity cover role which plays a pivotal role in driving the Centre's mission to accelerate the translation of scientific discovery into improved patient outcomes. Providing both operational and strategic leadership in a complex multi-partner environment, the postholder ensures the smooth, efficient, and forward looking management of all day-to-day activities. This role works across King's College London, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, and wider KHP partners to support translational research infrastructure and integration across partners.

Working closely with the Centre Director, Prof. Phil Newsome, the Head of Centre Operations is responsible for overseeing programme delivery, managing operational frameworks, reporting to funders and stakeholders, and enabling a coherent approach to translational research development. This includes coordinating research initiatives, supporting the set-up and management of flagship programmes, and ensuring that emerging opportunities-particularly in personalised healthcare, experimental medicine, and industry collaboration-are effectively scoped, communicated, and operationalised.

A central function of the role is relationship management. The postholder acts as a key liaison between academic teams, clinical services, funders such as Guy's and St Thomas' Charity, and external research partners. By fostering seamless communication and collaboration, the postholder enables the Centre to maximise its impact and maintain alignment with strategic priorities across the partnership.

The Head of Centre Operations also holds responsibility for governance, financial oversight, reporting, and risk management, ensuring all projects and programmes operate to high standards of accountability and compliance. They contribute to strategic planning by identifying areas for improvement and growth, shaping long-term operational models, and supporting the evolution of the Centre as a hub for translational excellence.

This role is key in establishing and maintaining operational structures and removing barriers to best support translational research and researchers across the KHP ecosystem.

This is a full time (35 hours per week) role, and you will be offered a fixed term maternity cover contract until 30th September 2027.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Hold a minimum Level 6 qualification (or equivalent) and substantial experience leading complex, multi-institutional programmes; ideally complemented by advanced study or professional development in research management or health systems
2. Proven track record of designing and scaling operating models, brokering institutional agreements, and embedding governance frameworks to deliver shared objectives across universities and NHS partners
3. Proven financial management and analytical skills to underpin strategic financial decisions and procedures
4. Experience in monitoring and completing complex projects and demonstrating ability to deliver and problem solve
5. Executive-level communication and influence skills, including negotiation, board reporting, and stakeholder engagement across senior academic, clinical, and professional audiences
6. Experience in leading the operations of large scale research bids, including with multiple internal and external partners
7. Evidence-based decision-making and insight generation, including interpreting complex data and presenting strategic narrative impact to diverse audiences
8. High autonomy and accountability, with ability to prioritise under ambiguity, drive for performance and improvement and flexibility in approach and attitude

Desirable criteria

1. Postgraduate qualification (Master's or Doctorate) in a relevant field such as translational research, health systems, or strategic management
2. Design and commissioning of capacity-building portfolios, with quality assurance, outcomes evaluation, and scaling across partner organisations
3. Ownership of institutional engagement strategies, including reputation management, audience segmentation, KPIs, and crisis/issue response

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.

Interviews are due to be held on Friday 15th May 2026.