Hybrid Projects Manager – Tech, Science

at Department for Education

• Job title: Projects Manager – Tech, Science
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: £60,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, London, United Kingdom

About the role

• Projects Manager driving R&D initiatives for societal impact at ARIA. Collaborating with internal teams and external partners to foster innovation and execution.

Responsibilities

• Be responsible for the creation and delivery of technical and translational projects across ARIA’s portfolio to enable our programmes and opportunity spaces to have outsized societal impact.
• Work cross-functionally to deliver these initiatives, fostering strong working relationships and norms with ARIA’s internal teams and external partners.
• Coordinate ARIA’s science entrepreneurship initiatives, including the flagship Activation Partners programme, and scale them across our opportunity spaces and the wider UK ecosystem.
• Create ecosystem-wide mechanisms to increase ARIA’s reach such as engaging with deeply technical communities that can be force multipliers for ARIA’s impact.
• Drive a user-first approach to how ARIA works with the teams it funds, experimenting with how we deliver programmes and partnerships to ensure our work enables researchers and engineers to push the frontier, further.
• Build systems and processes to enable a lean, fast moving team to deliver high-quality projects.
• Ensure clear communication across internal and external stakeholders to share the progress of projects including defining and tracking performance metrics and milestones to ensure visibility of learnings and outcomes.

Requirements

• You have a scientific or technical background, with the ability to evaluate scientific ideas that might be at a nascent stage.
• You have experience executing and operationalising projects in fast-moving environments, across multiple functions.
• You excel at working across multiple domains, both scientific and operational, and can get up to speed fast on new projects.
• You’re capable of distilling complex technical information into actionable insights and strategic recommendations.
• You have experience building networks and connections, including with senior stakeholders in the R&D ecosystem.
• You are a team player who excels in cross-functional work, bridging gaps between diverse teams, perspectives and initiatives.
• You are comfortable with uncertainty and are willing to ask questions in complex and evolving situations.
• You are passionate about how science works, and highly motivated by the opportunity to create world-changing impact.
• Desirable Criteria: Scientific/technical background such as working in academic research labs or operational experience in the R&D sector.
• Experience working in or volunteering in UK science, tech or innovation networks.
• Evidence of executing projects at pace with a high level of attention to detail and coordination of cross-functional teams.
• Experience in R&D, technology development, or rapid iteration environments with quick feedback loops and an experimental mindset.
• You have worked in startups, technology development, or rapid iteration environments with quick feedback loops and an experimental mindset to develop new products/initiatives.
• Experience of building projects from scratch and leveraging user needs to guide execution strategy and timelines.
• Experience of defining, tracking, and leveraging well-defined metrics to drive execution, evaluate impact of projects, and inform strategic decisions during project execution and after project completion.

Benefits

• Pension: A defined contribution pension scheme with a 5% employer contribution.
• Annual Leave: 27 days per year, in addition to statutory bank holidays and the option to buy or sell up to three days of leave.
• Wellbeing & Support: Access to a free, confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme.
• Life Assurance coverage equivalent to three times your annual base salary.
• Additional Benefits: Participation in the Cycle to Work scheme.
• Two days of paid volunteer leave annually.
• Enhanced family leave arrangements.