Grants Operations Manager

Hours: Full time/Part time (minimum 0.8 FTE)

Location: Polaris House, Swindon

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) supports world-class research that furthers our understanding of human culture and creativity. It supports research and postgraduate training in a wide range of subject areas, from ancient history and heritage science to modern dance and digital content. Research into these areas helps us to interpret our experiences, probe our identities, interrogate our cultural assumptions and understand our historical, social, economic and political context. 

The Operations team supports the strategic themes within AHRC to deliver successful funding opportunities. The team covers three main areas: Grants delivery, Policy and Process and AHRC’s peer review college. 

This post within the Operations team will manage delivery of our open grant application schemes and strategic funding opportunities. This is a pivotal role as the successful delivery of these opportunities and schemes depends not only on those who process grants, but in their management as well. The role will be diverse and challenging and you will be working across internal AHRC teams and UKRI. 

• You will work with staff across a range of teams, and across sister organisations in UKRI ensuring all open schemes and strategic funding opportunities are delivered to time and quality, using key performance indicators (KPIs) and other monitoring techniques.
• You will be responsible for the operational management and administration of our open application schemes and strategic funding opportunities by working to ensure applications submitted to us are delivered to time effectively and efficiently. 
• Together with the other Operations Managers, you will task and line manage the team’s Funding Officers, ensuring a fair distribution of workload, that high levels of performance are met, and identifying and enabling career development.
• You will manage the forward planning of schemes and funding opportunities in a collaborative manner, ensuring they can be resourced and managed appropriately and writing guidance in conjunction with colleagues.
• You will understand and advise on grants policy, particularly for funding opportunities you oversee.
• You will act as a subject matter expert on operational funding activity and feed into the operational training programme. 

Shortlisting   

Essential:

• You are a self-starter and take ownership of your work; motivated to achieve outcomes, take initiative to improve policy or process, and delegate effectively where appropriate.
• You can think creatively, solve problems and make effective decisions, sometimes in a challenging environment.
• You are a strong and positive team worker with great interpersonal and influencing skills, able to negotiate effectively with colleagues at different levels inside and outside the organisation.
• You are an excellent communicator, both verbal and written, able to convey complex information to a variety of audiences. 
• You understand how to handle data sensitively, accurately and responsibly with an analytical mind-set and strong attention to detail.
• You can proactively plan and prioritise your work and that of others to meet competing deadlines whilst avoiding duplication of effort.
• You can demonstrate an ability to manage and supervise the work of others, including those you do not directly line manage, including supporting their wellbeing and their professional development.
• You possess a good working knowledge of IT (preferably MS packages) and databases, with the ability to quickly learn new software and systems.

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