King's College London

About us:

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

•       Educating the next generation of change-makers

•       Challenging ideas and driving change through research

•       Giving back to society through meaningful service

•       Working with our local communities in London

•       Fostering global citizens with an international perspective

The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a Faculty of King's College London and the largest academic community in Europe devoted to the study and prevention of mental illness and brain disease.

The School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences (MHaPS) is one of three schools under the IoPPN, comprised of the four departments of Psychology; Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP); Health Service & Population Research (HSPR); and Biostatistics & Health Informatics (BHI). With over 100 Principal Investigators, our research spans development from childhood to old age, encompassing basic research through to the development and implementation of treatments, services and policy.

About the role:

The School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences (MHAPS) is seeking to appoint a Senior Research Operations Officer to join our dynamic team and support the Research Managers, Principal Investigators (PI), and researchers within The School. This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly motivated, ambitious, and experienced individual with a sound understanding of the higher education research funding landscape.

The successful candidate will be capable of working autonomously and liaising directly with various stakeholders, including PIs, researchers, department/school leadership and central support services.

This role's primary purpose is to manage the end-to-end grant lifecycle activities for the researcher's community within the Departments of Psychology and Biostatistics & Health Informatics (BHI).

The post holder must be highly organised and have a demonstrable ability to plan, prioritise, and work to deadlines. The successful candidate will have an excellent attention-to-detail skill set and should be flexible, proactive, and strive for continuous improvement.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

We work a hybrid pattern, requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in the office.

About you:

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

Essential criteria

1. Strong knowledge and skills of research support acquired through relevant posts, demonstrating development through progressively more demanding work/roles.
2. Working knowledge and experience of grant management processes, systems and budget monitoring.
3. Working knowledge and experience of HR processes, software, and regulations.
4. Experience with Worktribe, Unit4 Business World and PeopleXD or other university equivalents.
5. Proficient levels of numeracy and experience of budget management and costing.
6. Relevant working experience in using Excel, Word and other Microsoft applications (e.g., SharePoint).
7. Effective communication and interpersonal skills to receive, understand and relay complicated ideas or information to various groups of all levels.
8. Effective at working independently, and as part of a team, able to take own initiative, make decisions with minimal supervision and excellent time management skills, with the ability to organise workload and manage competing priorities.
9. Exceptional organisational skills with an in-depth knowledge of various practices, methods and procedures to deliver effective and efficient support.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in managing staff, giving feedback on performance levels 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 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.