King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About Us

​​​The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC) is based in the heart of central and south London. It includes the Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, the premier Institute for Palliative Care, bringing together clinical, research and education teams. 

The Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation is the world’s first purpose-built institute for palliative care, founded through the vision of Dame Cicely Saunders and the efforts of Cicely Saunders International charity to create a global centre of excellence for research, education, clinical care, and information. The Institute unites academics, healthcare professionals, community organisations, patients, and carers, serving as a hub for international research and is based in our Denmark Hill campus.

King’s applied and allied health research ranks first in the UK for world-leading quality (REF2021), is globally recognised as an international leader in nursing research and education (QS ranking #1 in Nursing), and the Institute a global leader in highly cited palliative care research publications (SciVal rankings).

About the role

We are seeking an experienced and highly organised operations manager to join the Cicely Saunders Institute (CSI), within the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC) at King’s College London. This is an exciting opportunity for anyone looking for a fixed-term role or a developmental secondment within the University.

As Institute Manager, you will oversee the Institute’s operational and research functions, including finance, HR, compliance, data management, and strategic planning, working closely with the Institute Director, Institute Executive Clinical Academic Group and Faculty leadership to ensure resource efficiency and regulatory compliance. You will co-ordinate the Institute’s administrative team and support the integration of the CSI’s clinical and academic teams, as well as its Information and Support Centre, to ensure the administrative systems and structure support the multi-strand activities of the Institute. You will also provide research support across NMPC, liaising with the University’s Research Management & Innovation Directorate (RMID) to enhance impact, manage REF preparations, and analyse trends in outputs and income. 

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract or a secondment until 22 August 2027. 

King’s considers the professional and personal development of our staff a priority and we offer an inspiring range of opportunities for training and career progression. Our Organisational Development team provide in-house and bespoke learning.

Location: Hybrid – minimum of 2 days on campus (Denmark Hill and Waterloo).

 About You

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

Essential criteria

1. Graduate qualification or equivalent
2. Experience of managing budgets and monitoring and acting on financial performance
3. Expert understanding of the Research Grants Application process including highly complex grant applications and the Research Excellence Framework (REF)
4. 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
5. Proven IT proficiency in using spreadsheets, databases and designing PowerBI dashboards to analyse and present information.
6. Experience in managing projects, from inception through to transition to business-as-usual
7. Ability to collect and synthesise complex data from a variety of sources to develop new insights and perspectives, sometimes on short timescales
8. Confident working in multidisciplinary teams, and building strong working relationships to drive effective outcome

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge and experience of regulatory compliance within the higher education sector and applied health and care research
2. Experience within the Higher Education sector or similarly complex organisation and understanding of the strategic context in which the Faculty operates
3. Experience in Higher Education of the knowledge and understanding of what it takes to manage and run effective professional services teams, processes, and procedures across finance, human resources, research management, technical and general operations
4. Demonstrable project management and organisational skills, with proven ability to work to deadlines, manage multiple projects simultaneously and prioritise activities effectively, while ensuring a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
5. Previous experience of line management

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.