Cross-Institute Partnerships Manager | Academic Research & Strategic Partnerships

About the Role

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life‑changing science to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

The Cross‑Institute Partnerships Manager plays a key role in developing, coordinating and supporting strategic external partnerships that enhance the Institute's scientific environment and advance its strategic priorities. Working within the Strategy, Policy & Partnerships team, the role focuses on partnerships that span multiple departments, programmes or functions across the Institute, including collaborations with universities, research institutes, scientific societies, non‑profit organisations, research consortia and peer networks.

The role translates high‑level partnership opportunities identified by senior leaders into meaningful collaborations with clear objectives, effective governance and measurable outcomes, and helps establish and continuously improve the Institute's approach to partnership management.

• Developing and continuously improving the Institute's approach to cross‑Institute partnership management, including governance, tools, processes and monitoring frameworks.
• Coordinating the assessment and progression of strategic partnership opportunities, gathering information, facilitating stakeholder input and supporting decision‑making.
• Providing operational and alliance management support for existing Institute‑wide partnerships.
• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with internal stakeholders and external partner organisations.
• Supporting partnership meetings, visits, events and engagement activities, ensuring clear objectives, effective coordination and appropriate follow‑up.
• Leading operational project management for partnership initiatives, including consortium activities where the Institute acts as lead partner.
• Monitoring partnership progress, risks and outcomes, providing regular reporting and escalating issues where appropriate.
• Managing and continuously improving the Institute's partnership management system, ensuring opportunities, relationships, actions and outcomes are appropriately recorded and tracked.
• Producing high‑quality briefings, presentations and papers for senior leaders, drawing together information from multiple sources to support decision‑making.
• Working closely with colleagues across Strategy, Policy & Partnerships and other Institute functions to align activities, share best practice and maximise the impact of external relationships.

You are an experienced partnership or stakeholder engagement professional who thrives in collaborative, complex and intellectually stimulating environments. You are comfortable working across organisational boundaries, bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders to deliver shared objectives, and have strong relationship‑building skills and the ability to influence and coordinate activity without direct authority.

You combine strategic awareness with excellent operational delivery, enabling you to translate high‑level opportunities into practical plans and successful collaborations. You are highly organised, adaptable and able to manage multiple priorities while maintaining attention to detail.

• Understanding of academic research collaboration landscapes and strategic partnerships.
• Knowledge of alliance management and project governance approaches.
• Understanding of governance, stakeholder engagement and decision‑making processes within complex organisations.

• Managing multi‑stakeholder partnerships and collaborative initiatives.
• Coordinating cross‑functional teams to deliver complex projects and programmes.
• Building and maintaining effective professional relationships across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Working with senior leaders, academic stakeholders and external partners.
• Supporting initiatives that align partnership activity with organisational priorities.

• Excellent project management and organisational skills.
• Strong communication, negotiation and relationship‑building abilities.
• Analytical skills with the ability to monitor,…