National Governance and Contracting Lead

Job overview

We are seeking an experienced and influential leader to join the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Oxford Health and the NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC) as our Governance and Contracting Lead.

Working with senior leaders across the NHS, academia, industry, regulatory organisations and government-funded research programmes, you will identify and address barriers to research delivery, improve governance and contracting processes, and contribute to the development of national policy and best practice.

This is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious and experienced professional to shape governance and contracting arrangements across a major national collaboration and contribute to the transformation of mental health research in the UK and internationally.

Please note this role is subject to evaluation and banding may change.

Main duties of the job

You will provide strategic leadership across a complex national research partnership, with oversight of governance and contractual risk. Key areas of focus will include collaborative research agreements, access to research data and biobanking materials, data sharing, trusted research environments, artificial intelligence and emerging digital technologies.

You will bring significant expertise in research governance, contracting or a related field, together with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and develop effective solutions across organisational boundaries. You will be a strategic and collaborative leader who can navigate complex regulatory and contractual environments while maintaining a clear focus on enabling high-quality research.

You will work closely with senior stakeholders across the NHS, academia, industry, regulatory bodies and government-funded research programmes to support high-quality, collaborative mental health research.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application. The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview. We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their application. We kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of their experience and must take care to ensure the use of AI tools does not generate an application that does not accurately reflect their knowledge, skills and values.