ADR UK Research Portfolio Manager

Salary: £34,905 per annum 
Hours: Full-time or Part-time (Minimum 0.8 FTE)

Contract Type: Fixed term ending January 2025

Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire (hybrid working)
Grade: UKRI Band D
Closing Date: 12th May 2025

Proposed interview date: 6th June 2025

Employees applying for any opportunity which may mean being away from your substantive role for a temporary period of time, please refer to the Recruitment Policy for further information in the first instance.  If you are made an offer, please ensure you liaise with your Line Manager and the designated HR Team as soon as possible in order that implications of any move are clear and understood, prior to a move taking place.  

Hybrid Working: This post is based at our Swindon office, but we operate a hybrid approach, and you can expect a mix of working from home, the office, and occasionally at external locations. As we recognise the benefits of in-person working, individual teams have set a minimum expectation that they will work in person together in the Swindon office at least once or twice per month. On occasions where there is a business need, you may be required to attend the office more than the minimum expectation (e.g., for training, events, or team days). Expectations will be set out at interview and offer, and all working arrangements will be considered.

Job Purpose

This role sits within the breadth of ESRC teams and plays a key role within ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) commissioning exciting new research and innovation, leading our portfolios of high-profile research investments.

The post holder will join the Research Commissioning and Capacity Building (RCCB) team, part of the ADR UK’s Strategic Hub in ESRC.  This is a lively and dynamic team, committed to unlocking the enormous untapped potential of linked administrative data to inform better decisions about the UK’s public services and people’s lives.  You will work closely with team members across the Strategic Hub as well as wider ADR UK collaborators to lead and take personal accountability for a select number of portfolios and make an important contribution to the success of ADR England.  

You will play a leading part in the commissioning and oversight of key high-profile initiatives led by the needs of ADR UK’s next 5-year business case such as the ADR UK research fellowships. You will also support the existing cohort of ADR UK research fellows in the delivery of their data research projects. You will ensure that the experiences of ADR England researchers are collected and work with our partners to ensure lessons are learned for future researchers. 

You will support senior staff to engage with a wide range of academic and broader community partners to catalyse research ideas and to drive forward their subsequent delivery.  The major partners for this role will include the academic community; Office for National Statistics; ADR UK’s national partners in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, plus Whitehall government departments.

You will be involved in prioritising ideas, drafting documents, running funding processes, setting up grants, evaluating initiatives, and supporting researchers. Additionally, you will maintain information trackers, deliver monitoring reports; support governance activities and take responsibility for project management and co-ordination. 

The RCCB team has funded some foundational projects that the post holder will build on. These include the linkage of government departments’ administrative data to build a collection of ADR England Flagship data as well as a growing cohort of researchers using these datasets for example via these schemes: ADR UK Research Fellowship scheme, ADR UK PhD cohort, and ADR England Research Community Catalysts. 

Key responsibilities

• Coordinating the commissioning of new investments.
• Working across the team to aid the delivery of ADR UK’s priorities.
• Working with ADR UK senior staff to establish effective relationships with key strategic partners such as government departments, trusted research environments and ADR UK’s national partners.
• Investment management of key investments within assigned portfolios such as the ADR UK Research Fellowships, ensuring that outputs, outcomes, and impact reach their full potential by engaging with key collaborators.
• Working with the team heads, senior managers and key collaborators to support, develop and prioritise new ideas to facilitate administrative data research.
• Working closely across ADR UK and its partners, ensuring high quality and timely project management of commissioning and governance activities.

Person Requirements

We will assess applicants on the criteria stated below. We ask that applicants state how their skills and experiences meet these criteria in a covering letter (maximum 2 pages) and provide a CV (maximum 2 pages).

S = criterion will be assessed at the shortlist stage

I = criterion will be assessed at the interview stage

Essential Criteria:

• A degree/equivalent qualification in a relevant subject area or demonstrable equivalent level of knowledge, skills, and experience. (S)
• Planning and organisational skills, including: an awareness of project management methods, the ability to support the co-ordination of project workstreams, the ability to effectively prioritise and manage complex activities with competing workloads, and taking ownership for delivery of expected outcomes whilst maintaining attention to detail. (S/I)
• Ability to work collegiately and flexibly in a team, delivering a varied portfolio consistently in a timely manner. You will need to be responsive to changes and task manage the work of others to overcome challenges and successfully deliver expected outcomes. (S/I)
• Sophisticated and engaging communication skills, using appropriate styles and methods to maximise impact and understanding. (S/I)
• Experience of building effective working relationships with both internal and external collaborators (such as senior academics, policy makers, practitioners, or business partners) at varying seniority levels with the ability to influence and persuade. (S/I)
• Analytical skills with the ability to evaluate, report, and act on complex information of various forms, including numerical data. (S/I)
• Demonstrable experience or understanding of the context of administrative data research, our key partners or a similar domain to support a rapid start in this complex environment. (S/I)

Desirable Criteria:

• Facilitation skills including the ability to create an inclusive environment, encourage others to contribute, consider differing perspectives, guide others to appropriate and useful outcomes. (S/I)
• An enthusiasm for economic and social science research and/or administrative data research and an understanding of the role it plays within the UK research/innovation system. (S/I)

ADR UK

ADR UK is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation.

To find out more, visit adruk.org or follow @ADR_UK on X (formerly Twitter) or on LinkedIn.

Qualifications