Programme Specialist

Pace; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life Assurance

Critical Illness

Holiday Purchase Scheme

Electric Car Scheme

Cycle To Work Scheme

Birthday Day off

Paid Volunteer Day off

Enhanced Maternity Leave

Paternity Leave

Work from Abroad policy

Regular company events

Discounted shopping

Job summary

Pace is seeking a Programme Specialist to join the ARIA team in London, delivering high-velocity R&D programmes across seven opportunity spaces. The role blends operational delivery with strategic partnership to Programme Directors.

You will co-design work packages, establish lean governance, manage milestones, and liaise with PMO, Procurement, Finance, Legal and Communications. The position is permanent and hybrid, with three days on site.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience managing complex programmes end-to-end.
• Experience in all stages of the project lifecycle (initiation, planning, execution, control, close).
• Ability to collaborate across diverse teams and influence stakeholders, with excellent communication and facilitation skills.
• Experience leveraging AI and automated workflow tools to optimise project operations and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate end-to-end R&D programmes across the lifecycle from discovery to closure.
• Define lean governance, manage milestones, and review technical/financial progress with key leads.
• Identify risks early, pivot deviating projects and re-allocate resources as needed.
• Maintain cross-functional liaison with PMO, Procurement, Finance, Legal and Communications to remove bottlenecks.
• Engage with ARIA Programme Directors to translate ambitions into defined objectives and work packages.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder management

Delivery agility

Consulting mindset

AI & process automation

Domain awareness

Job description

Job Title: Programme Specialist (Consultant) - R&D

Location: London, hybrid (3 days per week on site)

Duration: Permanent

Start: ASAP

At Pace, we are reimagining management consulting through a human-centred, outcomes-focused approach. We solve complex, high-stakes problems across Government, National Infrastructure, Legal and R&D to help organisations realise real-world impact faster.

Due to the expansion of our ongoing work with The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), the UK’s high-risk, high-reward R&D funding body. We are seeking Programme Specialists to work across ARIA’s seven opportunity spaces, launching and delivering programmes.

As part of the Pace x ARIA team, you won't just manage projects; you will serve as a programme partner and operational force multiplier to world-leading Programme Directors driving breakthrough scientific and technological innovation.

Role

The Programme Specialist is the operational backbone and delivery partner to an ARIA Programme Director. You will bridge the gap between bold scientific vision and pragmatic, high velocity execution.

Acting as a key liaison, you will co-design work packages, establish lean governance, manage milestone driven performance across project teams (startups, academic labs, and research hubs), and ensure seamless interaction with ARIA’s core cross-functional teams (PMO, Procurement, Finance, Legal, Comms).

Accountabilities of the Programme Specialist will include

Programme Delivery & Active Management

• End to End Delivery: Coordinate R&D programmes across the entire lifecycle. From discovery and thesis definition through to solicitation, contract negotiation, active delivery, and closure.
• Milestone & Progress Tracking: Help shape and subsequently evaluate Creator progress against contractual milestones. Facilitate quarterly updates and review of technical/financial progress in close partnership with the Science and Technical Lead.
• Active Management & Pivots: Apply active management principles, identifying risks early, course correcting deviating projects, and supporting timely pivots or resource re-allocations.
• RAID & Financial Oversight: Maintain robust risk registers (RAID), track project and overall programme spend alongside Finance Specialists, and approve Creator invoices.

Trusted Thought Partner

• PD Collaboration: Act as the Programme Director's trusted operator during discovery and thesis buildout, helping translate big ambitions into clearly defined programme objectives, realistic work packages, governance structures, and budget forecasts.
• Constructive Challenge: Offer fresh insights, challenge assumptions respectfully, and keep the team focused on critical delivery trade-offs and high impact outcomes.

Ecosystem Interface & Organisational Glue

• Cross-Functional Liaison: Serve as the primary operational bridge connecting the Programme Team with ARIA core functions (Procurement, PMO, Legal, Comms, Events) to remove operational bottlenecks.
• Creator Engagement: Coordinate site visits, workshops, and stakeholder communications to build cohesive communities across funded R&D Creators and Activation Partners.
• Tooling Superuser: Maintain real-time accuracy across programme tracking tools, bringing a critical eye to process and potential efficiency gains.

Required skills and experience

• Project/Programme Management: 3+ years of experience managing complex, structured projects or programmes (ideally leading 6+ month initiatives end-to-end).
• Full Lifecycle: Experience in all stages of the project lifecycle i.e. project initiation, planning, execution, control and close down.
• Delivery Agility: Experience in a startup or similarly high stakes setting delivering programme structure and governance, whilst also being able to work on fast-paced projects, balancing structure and agility.
• Stakeholder Management: Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to collaborate across diverse teams. Demonstrated experience of influencing key stakeholders across the organisation. Excellent engagement skills (including interviewing, facilitating, mediating and presenting) .
• Consulting Mindset: A proactive consulting mindset, capable of anticipating challenges and addressing them effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• AI and Process Automation: Demonstrated ability to leverage AI and automated workflow tools to optimise daily project operations and reporting, ensuring all solutions operate within organisational data governance and compliance policies
• Domain Awareness (Desirable): Experience working within related sectors such as R&D, science, technology, deep tech, engineering, government, non-profit or innovation funding ecosystems is desirable but not essential.

What's in it for you

• An opportunity to join a high-growth, scale-up consulting firm; we see an opportunity to make a material difference to how clients are served, and are on a mission to create environments that thrive for our clients.
• An award-winning culture where talented people feel trusted, supported and inspired to do their best work - recognised through our Culture Award and built on genuine collaboration, shared ownership and having fun along the way.
• A dedicated focus on your individual personal development: managed through annual performance appraisals, individual personal development plans, and our bi-weekly ‘continuous conversations’ programme.
• Access to Corporate APM membership benefits and additional professional development through a personal training budget (subject to approval of a relevant business case)

Company benefits include

• Life Assurance*
• Critical Illness*
• Holiday Purchase Scheme*
• Electric Car Scheme*
• Cycle To Work Scheme*
• Birthday Day off, Paid Volunteer Day off
• Enhanced Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave
• Work from Abroad policy
• Regular company and team events
• Discounted shopping with ADS Rewards

*Available to permanent employees only.

Your Pace team

Pace is one of Europe’s fastest-growing UK-based management consultancies, transforming the industry with a focus on delivering measurable customer value.

By optimising people and systems, we help organisations enhance efficiency, boost productivity, and achieve significant savings in time, cost, and resources.

At Pace, we recognise that we are only as good as our people. Find out about the great things we're achieving together and the fun we have as a team.