Head of Strategic Projects (Maternity Cover)

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About us

The Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine is one of the largest and most successful centres for biomedical research and education in the UK, with an annual turnover of more than £280m. The Faculty, which operates across four main campuses, has internationally-leading expertise in basic, translational and clinical research, and delivers renowned education programmes. The Faculty employs more than 2000 staff and holds an Athena SWAN Silver award. It has a comprehensive programme of initiatives to support an inclusive environment and culture, and to promote diversity across our staff and student communities. The Faculty's activities embody the King's ambition to serve our society - both at a local and global level which underpins the King's Vision 2029 and the university's international strategy .

About the role

The Head of Strategic Projects works alongside the Executive Dean and Director of Operations to lead projects of strategic importance to the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, and to co-ordinate a portfolio of actions and activities on behalf of the faculty leadership. This portfolio of work will often come with complexity, ambiguity, and urgency, as well as being of high value.

The postholder will work across a wide range of stakeholders at all levels, including Faculty senior academic leadership and professional service leads, using their influencing, analytical, problem-solving and communication skills to ensure engagement with the faculty's strategic agenda and to deliver successful outcomes across a variety of short and long-term projects that span education, research and faculty culture. Experience of working in, and detailed understanding of, the university sector (or a similarly large, complex, and collaborative organisation) will be an advantage in the role, enabling the postholder to quickly tackle the associated complexities and navigate projects to their completion.

This is a full time post for maternity leave cover, and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31 January 2026.

About you

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

Essential criteria

1. Minimum level 6 qualification in a relevant subject, plus substantial work experience in relevant posts with management responsibilities OR extensive work experience in relevant operational and strategic management posts with progression to increasingly demanding jobs with management responsibilities.
2. Outstanding analytical skills, including: drawing on a variety of perspectives and own expertise to frame questions effectively, structured problem solving, breaking down issues, and communicating actions and outcomes clearly.
3. Ability to collect and synthesise complex data from a variety of sources to develop new insights and perspectives, sometimes on short timescales.
4. Confident working within matrix management structures, including co-ordinating the work of senior staff and peers who you do not line manage, through building strong working relationships to drive effective outcomes.
5. Emotionally intelligent, with ability to identify different perspectives, establish trust and use influencing skills to build consensus even on ambiguous, complex and contentious questions with the goal of reaching successful outcomes.
6. Excellent communication skills, and adept at engaging with sponsors, stakeholders and wider audiences, including with senior colleagues and externals, adapting message, style and manner as appropriate.
7. Flexible approach, comfortable with ambiguity and complexity, and able to prioritise work effectively within a broad portfolio.
8. Experience in managing projects, from inception through to transition to business-as-usual.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience within the Higher Education sector or similarly complex organisation and understanding of the strategic context in which the Faculty operates.
2. A recognised qualification relevant to strategy development, project management, business planning and/or risk management.
3. Postgraduate science qualification.
4. Experience engaging with financial data.

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 next page after you click "Apply Now". This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

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 advert. 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 in mid-November 2024.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.