Assistant Costing and Contracts Manager

About the Role

The postholder will support the Costing and Contract Manager in delivering a high-quality, responsive, and strategically informed research development and pre-award support service to staff at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and associated Trusts. This includes three core areas of responsibility:

• Costing research proposals in line with funder and institutional requirements.
• Drafting and managing research contracts to ensure compliance and timely execution.
• Horizon scanning to identify emerging funding opportunities, policy developments, and strategic trends that inform institutional research planning.

The postholder will act as a key liaison with funders, collaborators, and internal stakeholders, ensuring that research bids are both competitive and compliant, while also contributing to the university’s strategic foresight and planning capabilities.

This role is onsite two days a week. 

About You

You will have experience of working in HEI, or similar research environment in a pre-award role, with knowledge of UK and international research funding bodies, schemes, and regulatory frameworks. This experience would include familiarity with research governance, including intellectual property, data protection, and compliance requirements.

As part of your extensive experience in contract preparation and negotiations, you will be effective at communicating with stakeholders, senior management and staff at all levels. Being highly numerate and having strong analytical skills allows you to research and present information.

About the Department

The Joint Research Management Office (JRMO) supports researchers across Queen Mary, University of London and Bart’s Health NHS Trust. Our highly trained team is on hand to support a diverse range of research activities, from getting a project off the ground to ensuring its smooth running and future development. The team members understand where their work fits into the strategic plans and goals of the organisations. 

Our services include assisting with the approvals process, ongoing financial management of grants and awards, support with Research Integrity, and International Research and Innovation Partnership Support.

About Queen Mary

At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits

We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, campus facilities and flexible working arrangements.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.

Valuing Diversity & Committed to Equality

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