Purpose of the post
The postholder will be responsible for project management for one or more individual projects within a diverse portfolio of Brain Health Data Science-related activities. This role will support a senior Programme Manager and work alongside a newly appointed Brain Health Research Director as part of a small team delivering programmatic support, tactical delivery, strategic oversight and stakeholder management for HDR UK’s portfolio of brain health related advanced data infrastructure and research activities. They will be responsible for ensuring that individual projects are well-managed and operate in a controlled, efficient manner to underpin the Institute’s activities in brain health.
We are looking for an established Project Manager who has relevant experience within the health data clinical and research communities in the UK and internationally. They will have an excellent track record in managing multi-stakeholder research projects, experience of working strategically with partners and a strong commitment to developing linked health data-enabled approaches to enhance understanding of the causes and progression of neurodegenerative and broader neurological conditions to improve strategies for diagnosis and treatment.
Main responsibilities
- Guide the project management of individual project(s) in the brain health portfolio.
- Provide a single co-ordination point for a small number of key projects and in doing so support the Brain Health senior team in driving synergy across projects and partners, including Dementia Platform UK, Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative and UK Dementia Research Institute.
- Lead on stakeholder relationships within a defined project scope, report on progress and devise solutions to roadblocks and issues as they arise.
- Work with internal partners to support coordination of cross-project activities, identifying and tracking interdependencies.
- Facilitating project management and implementation meetings, ensuring relevant stakeholder contributions and feedback are incorporated.
- Tracking and maintaining key deliverables throughout the projects.
- Proactively managing project risks.
- Work with partner communications and engagement teams and commission suppliers to develop and implement high-quality channels and content for communication and collaboration.
- Support financial and contractual commitments, liaising with the HDR UK Finance and Contracts teams.
- Coordination of key stakeholders’ involvement at appropriate stages throughout the programmes of work, noting the broader context across the brain health landscape, including the UK Government Dementia Mission.
Other Responsibilities
- Use of appropriate team communications and project management tools.
- Support development of reference communication materials such as standard presentation and comms decks.
- Be prepared and able to work flexibly to support colleagues as needed, adapting to a rapidly evolving environment and emerging priorities.
Experience
- Strong project management experience in an agile delivery setting, ideally also within Higher Education context.
- Demonstrable success in delivering complex projects with multiple components and many collaborating organisations in a fast-paced environment.
- At least two years working in the biomedical / health research data sector leading project delivery.
- Facilitating meetings and delivering presentations.
- Organising and managing workshops and events.
- Communicating effectively with range of stakeholders, including written communications (e.g. news stories, case studies).
- Collaborating across teams and/or organisations to help create and deliver shared goals, with particular awareness of enabling delivery via distributed team working.
- Awareness of health data research landscape, the needs of research data users and data custodians and appreciation of public sensitivities of using sensitive data for research.
- Ability to identify technical needs and deliver workable solutions.
- Networking, negotiating, and influencing stakeholders and teams.
- Experience of working directly within programme delivery teams, working effectively with humility and confidence.
Skills
- Ability to build and maintain momentum within a distributed project team of multi-skilled professionals.
- Excellent communication skills, written and verbal, including the ability to explain concepts without technical jargon and communicate confidently with people at all levels.
- Ability to build relationships, negotiate and influence effectively.
- Organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Ability to work accurately with attention to detail.
- Ability to work as part of a team.
- Ability to work autonomously and make decisions without supervision.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
We politely request no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.
