Research Operations Manager

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About us

The School of Neuroscience is UK's 2nd largest Neuroscience school with over 500 researchers and 200 PhD students. It is one of three schools at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. We are ranked 4th in the world for the total number of publications in neuroscience, 4th for the number of publication outputs in top 5% citations in neuroscience, and 4th for top 5% citations in neurology.

Our academic and research staff are integral to our school. Their work is supported by a group of Professional Services staff members based within the four departments as well as at School level. We support staff members requiring flexible working arrangements and reasonable adjustments. Upon consultation at the points of recruitment and onboarding, we will strive to provide the best adjustments for you.

We strongly encourage our staff to dedicate time to their professional development through training courses and participation in working groups and networks. We also encourage our staff to seek mentoring outside their direct line management. Mentoring, both via formal and informal arrangements, allows individuals to fully explore their career situation and development. Our weekly school circular regularly captures and promotes opportunities open to all staff.

About the role

The Research Operations Manager will work across Denmark Hill and Guys Campus supporting the two departments on each site. The postholder will liaise with key stakeholders to embed research administration best practice and support grants with specialist funding requirements.

The role is responsible for ensuring that policies and processes are working effectively, continuously reviewing them, overseeing service provision, and ensuring all stakeholder needs are met.

The role would suit an experienced research administration professional who can clearly articulate policies and processes, possesses strong problem-solving skills and experience, and can build and maintain effective working relationships across the School, Faculty, and University.

The role will provide individuals with a wide variety of experience and skills in research administration within a large and complex School and Faculty, supporting their career progression in this field across the University.

This is a hybrid role, requiring a minimum of 3 working days per week in the office across the two campuses.

This is a full-time post at 35 hours per week, and will be offered as an 18 month fixed term contract or a secondment opportunity.

About you

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

Essential criteria

1. Significant knowledge and skills of research support acquired through relevant posts, demonstrating development through progressively more demanding work/roles, and the acquisition of appropriate professional and specialist knowledge
2. Good understanding of optimal cost recovery on research grants; full economic costings (FEC); charitable funders and QR; and sub optimal funders
3. Working knowledge of People XD, Unit 4 Business World and Worktribe or other university equivalents
4. Working knowledge of the end-to-end grant lifecycle and experience of supporting large-scale and complex grants using grant management software
5. Working knowledge and experience of applying regulatory policies and procedures in a large organisation
6. Highly numerate and experience in budget management and costings
7. Highly proficient IT skills (including Excel, Word, Power BI) and experience of utilizing digital technology in day-to-day work
8. Effective at working independently, and as part of a team, able to take own initiative and decisions with a proactive approach to complex problem-solving

Desirable criteria

1. Proven strong communication and interpersonal skills in over to receive, understand and relay specialist or professional ideas or information to various groups
2. Excellent task management skills and ability to work under pressure in a busy environment with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail
3. Keen interest in research grant management and an awareness of current context and challenged with in the sector
4. Experience of managing staff, giving feedback on performance level and providing training/coaching

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 fulfill 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.