Research Portfolio Lead - Ada Lovelace Institute

Hours: Part time (open to requests for 21-28 hours per week).

Location: We are London based (Farringdon). Our staff have the option to work part of the week from home.

Closing: 09:30am (GMT), Monday 1st December 2025. 

The Ada Lovelace Institute is recruiting to the new role of Research Portfolio Lead, to ensure that its research is conducted with integrity, within a culture of care and support, to support Ada’s mission for data and AI to work for people and society.  

As Research Portfolio Lead you will apply your research management experience to support high-quality evidence building and a critical, rigorous and relational approach to research culture. The role is also key in the ongoing development of Ada’s research culture, including ethics approval processes, contributing to a culture of continual assessment and learning, and the development of ongoing development of ethical and accountable research practices and processes that centre equity and inclusion.   

You will be curious about Ada’s core areas of work in the societal impacts of AI, data and technology (including public sector, policy, industry and public participation), and have experience in a comparable role and context (such as public research organisations, charities, think tanks, universities, libraries archives or museums, public sector or the civil service).  

With proven experience of leading the management of multiple projects, programmes or a research portfolio from inception to evaluation you will also be able to demonstrate your ability to lead the management of research design and methods, and a good understanding of developing and maintaining research cultures or research production.   

You will have experience of leading or contributing to change programmes aimed at embedding principles and processes into the work of an organisation, for example research integrity, evaluation, or equity and inclusion, and a solid understanding of theory of change; monitoring, evaluation and learning practices; and/or impact frameworks. 

About us

The Ada Lovelace Institute is an independent research institute funded and incubated by the Nuffield Foundation since 2018. Our mission is to ensure data and artificial intelligence work for people and society. We do this by building evidence and fostering rigorous debate on how data and AI affect people and society.  We recognise the power asymmetries that exist in ethical and legal debates around the development of data-driven technologies and seek to level those asymmetries by convening diverse voices and creating a shared understanding of the ethical issues arising from data and AI. Finally, we seek to define and inform good practice in the design and deployment of AI technologies.    

The Institute has emerged as a leading independent voice on the ethical and societal impacts of data and AI. We have built relationships in the public, private and civil society sectors in the UK and internationally. Please find details of our 2025-2028 strategy here.   

Our research takes an interconnected approach to issues such as power, social justice, distributional impact, and our team have a wide range of expertise that cuts across policy, technology, academia, industry, law and human rights.   

Further information and how to apply

For further information about the role, please click through to the vacancy listing on our website via the 'Apply' button above.

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