King's College London

About us

Research and innovation are at the heart of King’s College London’s mission to make a positive difference in the world. The Research Management & Innovation Directorate (RMID) leads this ambition by shaping and enabling the university’s research and innovation agenda, ensuring an environment in which our researchers, professional staff and doctoral students can excel. This work is guided by King’s Strategy 2030, which emphasises academic excellence, real‑world impact, and a culture where research and innovation can truly thrive.

  The Department of Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity (RGEI) plays a critical role in safeguarding the quality and credibility of King’s research. The department ensures that all research conducted across the university is safe, ethical, lawful and carried out to the highest standards of integrity and rigour. Our teams develop and deliver policies, systems, guidance, training and initiatives that support researchers in navigating ethical and regulatory requirements, enabling them to conduct high‑quality research with confidence while feeling supported and valued.

About the role

This is a new leadership role within the recently developed KCL Clinical Research Hub, co-led by the Department of Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity (RGEI), King’s Clinical Trials Unit (KCTU) and Research Pre-Award and Contracts.

This post will be based in the Research Governance Office (RGO), Department of RGEI, reporting to the Director of RGEI. The post holder will work closely with both the Director of KCTU and Director of Research Pre-Award and Contracts, and their teams, as part of hub working.

The Clinical Sponsorship and Quality Lead will play a central role in supporting King’s College London’s responsibilities as sponsor for clinical research. The postholder will ensure that sponsor obligations are clearly defined, consistently applied, and underpinned by robust and proportionate quality processes.

Working collaboratively across the teams involved in sponsorship activity, the postholder will provide senior coordination, quality oversight and expert guidance to help ensure that KCL‑sponsored CTIMP and Non‑CTIMP studies are appropriately governed, compliant, and supported by clear, efficient and effective processes. They will help promote a strong culture of good governance and quality and contribute to the continual improvement of sponsor systems and practices.

The role will have an early focus on supporting KCL’s transition from the co-sponsorship to sole‑sponsorship model and once this is completed will oversee the efficient and effective management of sole sponsorship, while maintaining strong working relationships with our partnering NHS R&D Partners, Joint Research Offices (SLaM/IoPPN and KCL/GSTT) and faculties.

This post will line manage the Research Governance Manager who in turn line manages the team of 6 Research Governance Co-Ordinators (clinical and non-clinical), and the Senior Medical Devices Specialist.

King’s adopts a hybrid working model of home and on campus working. The role holder will be based at the Lavington Steet Building, part of the King’s Waterloo Campus when on site.

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

We reserve the right to close the application process early in the event of a large volume of applications.

About you

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

Essential criteria

1.      Significant senior level experience in clinical research governance, quality assurance or a related regulatory field.

2.      Strong understanding of sponsor responsibilities and regulatory expectations across CTIMP and Non‑CTIMP research.

3.      Experience developing or managing quality assurance processes, including audits, incident review, CAPA, and document control.

4.      Ability to coordinate cross‑team processes and work collaboratively with stakeholders at all levels.

5.      Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain governance and quality expectations clearly to researchers and staff.

6.      Strong organisational skills and ability to manage competing priorities in a complex environment.

7.      Ability to work autonomously, exercise sound judgement and identify risk in governance pathways.

8.      Evidence of the ability to respond effectively to challenging circumstances and to work with individuals exhibiting difficult or demanding behaviours, using sound judgement and a professional approach.

Desirable criteria

1.      Experience working in or alongside a Clinical Trials Unit or NHS R&D office.

2.      Experience with IMP/device governance, safety reporting or monitoring.

3.      Experience supporting regulatory inspection or external audit preparation.

4.      Experience contributing to service improvement or organisational change within a research or regulated environment.

5.      Knowledge of research contracts, including overseas research

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 on the next page (click ‘apply now’). 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 reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

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