Head of Programmes - CRADLE SMART

King's College London; Greater London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading university in the UK is seeking a Head of Programmes for the CRADLE SMART initiative. This part-time role involves managing FCDO funded research programmes, ensuring compliance and successful delivery. Candidates should possess a postgraduate degree in public health or a related field, extensive programmatic and operational management experience, and excellent communication skills. This role offers a fixed-term contract until March 2028, emphasizing commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in public health, global health, or related field.
• Extensive experience managing research programmes in development.
• Experience managing large research grants in multi-partner consortia.

Responsibilities

• Manage delivery and reporting on FCDO funded research programmes.
• Oversee budget spend and manage relationships with partners.
• Coordinate implementation teams to meet donor standards.

Skills

Programmatic management

Operational management

Excellent communication skills

Financial management

Grant compliance

Risk management

Team leadership

Education

Postgraduate degree in public health or related field

Job description

About Us

The CRADLE SMART (Community empoweRment Approaches to Develop Local, Early Sustainable MAteRnity care with co-developed Technology) care bundle aims to empower women and health workers by co-developing and evaluating innovative, low-cost, accessible, high-quality point-of-care (POC) diagnostic technologies, AI-enhanced ultrasound tools, and mobile technology applications. The Consortium brings together industry partners with world-leading research groups with extensive experience working in Sierra Leone, Zambia, and other L / MIC. By prioritizing locally driven, evidence-based solutions, CRADLE SMART will significantly improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in L / MICs. Through co-development with partners and communities, we will ensure sustainability, scalability, and maximum impact in reducing preventable maternal and perinatal deaths.

About The Role

Reporting to the CRADLE SMART Co-Chief Investigators, the Head of Programmes CRADLE SMART is responsible for the management, delivery and reporting on the FCDO funded CRADLE SMART programmes of research including: ensuring the high-quality delivery of research, donor reporting, contract compliance, monitoring, learning and evaluation, overseeing budget spend, managing relationships with co-applicants and downstream partners, and ensuring coordination with parallel programmes in Sierra Leone and Zambia.

The Head of Programmes will lead the programme’s implementation, and downstream partners’ finance, and operations teams to ensure careful adherence to collaboration agreements as well as donor / grants contracts compliance. They will coordinate the programme implementation teams to meet donor standards and requirements for key submissions. The Head of Programmes will develop strategies and donor compatible internal systems to sustain high compliance performance across CRADLE SMART programmes and in collaboration with implementation teams, carry out high quality reporting. They will coordinate key programme oversight meetings, including Study Steering Committee, Technical Working Group and Co-applicant meetings in accordance with research best practice and donor requirements. As part of their role, the successful candidate will ensure regular review and updates to the CRADLE SMART programme risk register and mitigate programme delivery risks, liaising with donors early to ensure agile programming in the face of obstacles.

This is a part time post (21 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31 March 2028.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience :

Essential criteria

• A postgraduate degree in public health, global health or a related field, or the extensive relevant experience in these fields.
• Extensive experience of the programmatic and operational management of research programmes in a development setting, including managing teams, programme delivery, recruitment, monitoring, evaluation and learning, financial management, grant compliance and risk management.
• Experience of managing large research grants in multi-partner consortia, ideally with FCDO grant management experience.
• Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias.
• Being self-motivated and willing to work independently, as well as part of a larger interdisciplinary team.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to prioritise different task demands.
• Understanding of data confidentiality, research integrity and knowledge of research design.

Desirable criteria

• The proven ability to lead, motivate and manage a diverse team of professionals.
• Experience of working in health in a complex development setting, ideally Sierra Leone / Zambia.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King\'s.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘ How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held on Friday 19 December or closest possible date after advert closes.