Change Director (Research)

University-of-Oxford; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

38 days annual leave

Hybrid and flexible working

Cycle loan scheme

Bus travel discounts

Season ticket loans

Vibrant community and clubs

Job summary

The University of Oxford is seeking a senior Change Director (Research) to establish and lead a reconfigured Business Improvement Team, shaping the university’s wider research change portfolio and coordinating improvements across systems, data and processes.

You will work across Research Services, academic departments and divisions, set priorities with senior leaders, and drive sustainable change to enhance researcher and service-user outcomes. Interviews will be held in Oxford.

Qualifications

• Substantial leadership experience and achievement in change programmes.
• Proven track record of leading complex change across multiple stakeholders.
• Credibility with researchers and senior academic leaders.
• Strong external network in research management.
• Outstanding communication, persuasion and stakeholder engagement skills.
• High personal effectiveness, organisation and coordination.
• Proven team leadership and development skills.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt to evolving needs.
• Enabling, ambitious and proactive leadership style.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of a collective vision for research support across the lifecycle.
• Coordinate improvements to business processes, systems, data and insights.
• Represent research support needs to committees and inform priorities with researchers.
• Establish and lead the Business Improvement Team and join the Leadership Team.
• Drive governance, benefits realisation and sustainable change across the portfolio.

Skills

Leadership experience

Change management

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic decision making

Communication skills

Team leadership

Programme coordination

Ambition and initiative

Relationship building

Job description

Location: 5 Worcester Street, Oxford, OX1 2BX, UK

Contract: Full Time /Fixed Term Contract (3 years)

About Us

The University of Oxford is a world-leader in research, engagement and innovation. Our research portfolio spans an exceptionally broad range of disciplines and has a strong interdisciplinary character. Oxford is currently the most successful UK university in securing research funding, with £801m secured in 2024/25, and is the UK’s leading institution for the commercialisation of research, having created more than 300 spin-out companies.

Research Services provides comprehensive professional support for Oxford’s research and innovation activities. We work in partnership with researchers, academic departments and divisions, other professional services, funders and external collaborators. Our ambition is to combine excellent professional support with trusted strategic insight and influence.

Our work is guided by four core values: Collaboration, Excellence, Inclusion and Integrity. We work in partnership, pursue continuous improvement, create an environment where everyone can succeed, and act with openness, honesty and courage.

The Change Director (Research) will establish and lead a reconfigured Business Improvement Team, bringing together Research Services’ business systems, data and insights, and change management capabilities. The team will support a more integrated, resilient and user-focused approach to service improvement across research support, including continuous improvement of key business systems, stronger data stewardship and analytics, and opportunities to use AI and workflow automation to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

What We Offer

Working at the University of Oxford offers several exclusive benefits, such as:

• 38 days of annual leave (inclusive of public holidays) to support your wellbeing, with the option to purchase up to 5 extra days and additional leave.
• One of the most generous family leave schemes in UK higher education, offering up to 26 weeks of full-pay maternity and adoption leave, plus 12 weeks of full-pay paternity/partner leave.
• A commitment to hybrid and flexible working.
• Affordable and sustainable commuting options, including a cycle loan scheme, discounted bus travel, and season ticket loans.
• Access to a vibrant community through our social, cultural, and sports clubs.

About the Role

This is a new senior institutional change-leadership role with responsibility for shaping and coordinating the University’s wider research change portfolio. You will lead the development of a collective vision for research support across the research management lifecycle and coordinate improvements to business processes, systems, organisational structures, roles, skills, data and insights. The role will work through a matrix-management model across Research Services, academic departments, divisions and partner professional services.

You will represent the needs of the research support community to the Research Portfolio Committee and help ensure that digital and service-improvement priorities are informed by researchers and research support colleagues. Working closely with the Research Support Shared Leadership Group, Digital Transformation, the Portfolio Manager (Research) and the Director of Research Computing Infrastructure, you will set priorities, lead governance, support benefits realisation and embed sustainable change. You will also hold senior oversight of the wider research change portfolio, including the Oxford Research Management System programme, for which the Programme Change Director (ORMS) will retain delegated delivery responsibility.

Alongside this institutional remit, you will establish and lead the Business Improvement Team and join the Research Services Leadership Team. You will provide authoritative leadership across a complex environment, build strong relationships with senior academic and professional services colleagues, and champion continuous improvement focused on researcher and service-user needs.

About You

• Substantial leadership experience and significant achievement, with the ability to build trust, motivate and inspire others through change.
• A proven track record of leading complex change beyond formal spans of control in a multi-stakeholder environment, including service review, redesign, innovation and improvement.
• Credibility with researchers and senior academic leaders, together with the personal authority and judgement to take strategic decisions and represent the University at senior level.
• A strong external network in research management, with current knowledge of research support practice and research support systems.
• Outstanding communication, persuasion, listening and stakeholder-engagement skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
• High levels of personal effectiveness, organisation and coordination, with experience mobilising broadly based teams to deliver against demanding plans and deadlines.
• Proven team leadership, management and development skills.
• The ability to navigate ambiguity, adapt to evolving organisational needs, and demonstrate drive and resilience.
• A leadership approach that is enabling and supportive, ambitious and innovative, engaged and curious, purposeful and proactive, and open and accountable.

Sponsorship and Right To Work

This role meets the criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa. The University will meet the cost of the Skilled Worker visa and NHS surcharge for applicants that require a visa.

Please let us know in your application if you require sponsorship.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on 13 November 2026

Interviews will take place at the end of November, and will be held at our offices in central Oxford.