Operations Lead

Salary: 36650 per annum
Band: UKRI D
Team: UKRI Talent and Skills
Hours: Full time or Part time (minimum 0.6 FTE)
Contract Type: Fixed Term (Ending 31/03/27)
Location: Polaris House Swindon Wiltshire. (hybrid working available)
Closing Date: Monday 29th September 2025

About the role

We are recruiting for an Operations Lead within the Interdisciplinary Responsive Mode Team (UKRI Talent and Skills Team) who will support the delivery of the UKRI cross research council responsive mode (CRCRM) scheme pilot. This pan-UKRI programme is designed to support interdisciplinary ideasemerging from the research community outside current disciplinary boundaries and outside of the remit of existing UKRI responsive mode schemes.

The Operations Lead will be responsible for effectively leading the operational processes associated with the delivery of the schemes funding opportunities including the assessment and awarding of applications and supporting the management and training of the Interdisciplinary Assessment College. The Operations Lead will also play a key role in the effective monitoring and evaluation of the pilot. They will be responsible for the task management of Funding Officers and Funding Administrators and will line manage at least one member of the team.

Key responsibilities:

• Leading the operational delivery ofthe UKRI Cross research council responsive mode scheme pilot ensuring the effective delivery of the funding opportunities and management of awards
• Effectively managing delivery and resourcing across the team implementing training for staff to ensure long-term capability within the team
• Promoting consistency and quality in the mechanisms supporting funding decisions by ensuring that areas of improvement for operational delivery are recorded and progressed
• Reporting and analysing information to build progress updates and inform decision makingincluding analysing data as part of the scheme evaluation
• Managing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders including working collaboratively across UKRI and its Research Councils and external delivery partners for the evaluation
• Supporting the management of the Interdisciplinary Assessment College including presentations at training events and briefings and ensuring the composition of the membership is appropriate for the scheme
• Ensuring clear communication with the community including sending clear instructions to college members and maintenance of opportunity guidance documents website content and responding to external queries
• Participate in regular meetings to discuss scheme development and logistics and attend and prepare papers for cross Research Council meetings and where appropriate the governance board meetings
• Line management with a commitment to supporting and developing staff
• Carry out any other duties/ projects that may be required of the post across the UKRI Talent and Skills team

Personal specifications:

The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S) Interview (I) or both (S&I)

Essential:

• Educated to degree-level or demonstrate equivalent experience (S)
• Experience of working in a research and/ or innovation environment with a clear understanding of peer review (S&I)
• Effective team member with experience of establishing and maintaining effective working relationships both internally and externally and at all levels of seniority (S&I)
• Excellent leadership skills including delegation and supporting others (S&I)
• Excellent communication skills (both orally and written); experience of presenting information persuasively and succinctly and negotiating effectively with others (S&I)
• Excellent organisational skills including the ability to manage changing and / or conflicting priorities and time optimally and collecting managing and maintaining large volumes of sensitive data (S&I)
• Demonstrable analytical and problem-solving skills and the ability to work with ambiguity and respond to difficult situations by showing initiative and judgement in an evolving environment (S&I)
• A clear understanding and commitment to advancing Equality Diversity and Inclusion (S&I)

Desirable:

• Training in people or project management or equivalent (S)
• Experience of managing and delivering projects (S)
• Experience of acting as an organisational representative in external activities (S)
• Experience of staff management and supervision (S)
• Experience of delivering informal and / or formal training to colleagues (S)
• Experience managing large data sets using key Excel tools such as pivot tables and vlookups(S)

Application guidance

UK Research and Innovation uses a competency framework to assess applications. We will score applications against each of the essential and desirable criteria listed above. We will be looking for a demonstration of these competencies so would suggest you include examples of your experience and expertise against these criteria in your cover letter and CV. The STAR method(Situation Task Action Result) may be useful to articulate these examples. We will consider the essential criteria first and will only refer to the desirable where we need to differentiate between two candidates that score the same.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage you will be invited to interview. This will consist of a short test and a panel interview. Reasonable accommodations are available if you require them at interview and there will be an opportunity to request these upon invitation.

Benefits

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package! We are committed to supporting employees development and promote a culture of continuous learning!

A list of benefits below:

• An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme
• 30 days annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent)
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities
• Employee assistance programme providing confidential help and advice
• Flexible working options

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

For further information on our benefits please see:

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

Please note if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK as part of your sponsorship application you and any dependants travelling with you will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information please visit or contact

Please apply online if you experience any issue applying please