Research Grants Manager

About us

This is an exciting opportunity to join King’s College London as a Grade 7 Research Grants Manager within the Post-Award team, part of Research Grants & Contracts in the Research Management & Innovation Directorate.

King’s is one of the world’s leading research-intensive universities, with a diverse and growing portfolio of research activity spanning health, science, social sciences, arts and humanities. The Post-Award team plays a critical role in supporting this activity by providing specialist financial, operational and compliance support throughout the active lifecycle of research awards.

The team supports a large and complex portfolio of research grants, contracts, consultancy and related funding. Working closely with researchers, faculties, professional services colleagues and external funders, Post-Award helps ensure that research funding is managed effectively, compliantly and in accordance with funder and institutional requirements.

Our work includes financial management and reporting, invoicing and debt management, audit and assurance activity, due diligence, project closure, support for complex and strategic awards, and advice on funder requirements and research finance matters. By combining specialist expertise with a strong customer focus, we enable researchers to concentrate on delivering high-quality research whilst safeguarding the university’s interests.

As part of an ambitious programme of service development, Post-Award is evolving towards a more proactive, risk-based and resilient operating model. This role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute directly to that transformation by leading service quality, assurance and operational improvement activities across the service

About the role

The Research Grants Manager provides operational leadership for service quality, assurance, continuous improvement and specialist support functions within the Post-Award service. Reporting to the Deputy Director of Post-Award and forming part of the wider Post-Award management team, the postholder will lead a centrally based horizontal support team and help shape the future development of the service.

The role combines people leadership with responsibility for service development and operational delivery. You will manage a specialist team providing due diligence, consultancy administration, strategic award support and flexible operational assistance across faculties, ensuring resources are deployed effectively to meet changing priorities, workload pressures and organisational risk.

Working closely with senior colleagues across Research Grants & Contracts and the wider university, you will lead improvement initiatives that strengthen service quality, consistency and customer experience. You will analyse operational performance, identify opportunities to streamline processes, enhance controls and implement sustainable improvements that support the University’s research ambitions.

A key aspect of the role is supporting the development of a more proactive and risk-based approach to award management. You will oversee support for complex, high-risk and strategically important awards, coordinate assurance and due diligence activities, and help embed effective lifecycle management practices across the research portfolio.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced research management professional who enjoys leading teams, driving change and improving services within a complex and collaborative environment.

This is a full time (35 hours per week) post, offered on an indefinite contract.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

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