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

Based at the Strand in the heart of London, the Policy Institute at King’s College London is a distinctive department of the university, uniquely positioned at the intersection of research, policy, and practice. We combine the analytical rigour of academia with the agility of a consultancy and the strategic insight of a think tank. Our work addresses pressing societal challenges through interdisciplinary research and collaboration, drawing on the expertise and resources of both the institute and King’s extensive academic and policy networks.

About the role 

The Policy Institute is seeking to appoint a Senior Research Operations Officer to join our dynamic team and support the Research Managers, Principal Investigators (PI) and researchers. 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 post award activities for The Policy Institute’s research and consultancy portfolio and provide support for our ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, which makes internal awards to King’s researchers to support their research impact work.

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 a fixed term contract for 2 years.

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. Experience with Worktribe, Unit4 Business World and PeopleXD, or other university equivalents
4. Proficient levels of numeracy and experience of budget management
5. Intermediate to advance excel abilities
6. Effective communication and interpersonal skills to receive, understand and relay complicated ideas or information to various audiences
7. 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
8. Exceptional organisation skills with an in-depth knowledge of various practices, methods and procedures to deliver effective and efficient support

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in working with consultancy projects in a university or think tank environment
2. Degree level or equivalent qualification or experience  
3. Dedication to fostering equality and diversity in the workplace
4. Experience in or interest in research impact in higher education

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.

We welcome your thoughts on how organisations can create an inclusive environment, including one which supports free speech and the exchange of a wide range of ideas.  

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.