Purpose of the post
As Strategy Advisor, you will be a core member of the Institute’s Strategy team. You will work alongside the Institute Director and Director of Strategy, in an exciting and multifaceted role providing scientific and technical insights, alongside project management skills to support the strategic alignment of emerging opportunities across broad range of academic, NHS, government and industry stakeholders.
You will support the development of a range of partnerships and other strategic development opportunities across the breadth of the Institute’s activities to enable the use of data to generate new insights to improve people’s lives. Working with the Director of Strategy, you will ensure that all new opportunities align and augment the existing work of the Institute, working with HDR UK’s expert community across the UK and internationally. A particular focus for 2025 will be refreshing HDR UK’s AI strategy and approach.
You will be required to work alongside the Institute Director to engage with a range of senior stakeholders, providing a professional and efficient relationship building and delivery role.
Main responsibilities
Stakeholder Management
- Build and manage relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders, including key HDR UK funders and partners with professionalism, consistently and demonstrating HDR UK’s values of transparency, optimism, respect, courage and humility.
- Lead and coordinate new concept creation for research and data infrastructure programmes, for example through the drafting of partnership concept notes and other materials to progress stakeholder discussions.
- Developing briefings for the Institute Director to inform a wide range of stakeholder discussions across academic, NHS, government and commercial partners, nationally and internationally.
- Engagement with relevant HDR UK team members, to guide alignment of stakeholder discussions to existing Institute activities.
- Establishing a robust understanding of HDR UK’s research and infrastructure portfolio, to inform where specific stakeholder discussions might best align.
Project Management of Collaborative Opportunities
- Lead and align stakeholder discussions, enabling a streamlined and effective approach to delivery management.
- Draft and develop scientific journal articles, based on input from multidisciplinary expert teams.
- Lead the drafting of new funding applications, with a focus on building a coherent and compelling strategic case for investment
- Coordinate the input of expert HDR UK community members to progress stakeholder discussions into actionable new partnerships.
- Plan and deliver workshops and other community-led meetings, required to progress partnership discussions.
- Ensure that all actions are delivered in a timely and professional manner, with the effective management of risks and dependencies.
Institute Director & Strategy Development Support
- Working closely with the Institute Director’s Private Secretary respond with agility and pace to broad range of emerging requirements to support the Institute Director and wider Senior Leadership Team.
- With the Director’s Private Secretary support preparations for HDR UK’s fortnightly Strategy & Integration leadership online meetings and in-person retreats.
- Support preparation of HDR UK Board Science and Infrastructure showcase sessions and contribute to strategic papers as necessary.
- Build close and effective working relationships with colleagues at all levels of the Institute, to ensure that all new partnerships are delivered effectively and in collaboration with national and international partners.
- Manage and contribute to HDR UK’s annual strategy development cycle in partnership with colleagues across the Institute
Knowledge, skills and experience
- PhD degree or equivalent experience
- Several years’ experience of working in an organisation related to health data research, be that within academia, public or commercial sector
- Ability to manage complex multi-stakeholder projects in parallel with similar timeframes and conflicting priorities whilst meeting deadlines
- An understanding of health data science and the needs of diverse stakeholders across the sector
- Ability to co-develop a strategic approach to deliver mutual benefits to a range of stakeholders
- Project management experience
- Experience of report and scientific writing and presenting complex information simply and clearly
- Ability to distill complex information into clear summaries, including slide presentations
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively and confidently with people at all levels
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to handle sensitive issues with respect and positivity
- Excellent relationship building and networking skills and expertise in maintaining relationships with multiple stakeholders and partners
- Ability to work accurately and independently with attention to detail in a fast-paced environment
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Well-developed influencing and negotiating skills
- Ability to work autonomously and make decisions without supervision
Please note, as we are a UK-based organisation, applicants must be living in, and eligible to work in, the UK. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
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.
