Senior Network Manager

We’re looking for a Senior Network Manager to provide professional research network, project and community management support to the SCALE-UP Network Plus project and its leadership team. You’ll manage funding calls for the project’s flexible fund, oversee a portfolio of funded projects, develop and maintain links to other UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) projects, and help to grow the community for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs) nationally.

The central aim of the SCALE-UP network is to develop an inclusive, enthusiastic and skilled community for digital Research Technical Professionals through managing a flexible fund (£1M) for a set of targeted regional and national initiatives: supporting cohorts of Research Technical Champions and Research Technical Experience placements, organising events, and developing a programme to make research computing more visible through small low-powered computing clusters and related training materials.

You will help to develop these schemes and will support their operation and management alongside the project leadership team. The project will build on work being undertaken in the regional STEP-UP (  ) project funded under an earlier DRI call.

You will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the network, including managing funding calls and internal budgets, monitoring progress of funded activities and project evaluation, planning and running meetings and conferences and providing overall project management support. You will also build a community around our Champions and Experience programme participants, supporting the cohorts in these programmes and developing an enthusiastic and energetic group of ambassadors to promote the approaches developed through this network to others.

You will maintain communications between project collaborators, external project partners, and other Digital Research Infrastructure initiatives, attending national meetings to support and represent the network both as part of the project team and independently.

The ideal candidate will have experience of managing calls for grant funding from announcement to award, with experience of both project management and community management. You should be a good communicator, and enthusiastic about research, computing, research data and / or software. This is a lot to ask: but the right candidate could match this description in different ways. For example, for someone who already has project and funding management experience (essential) in an academic or related setting (preferably), we’d be looking for enthusiasm for engaging with our community of digital Research Technical Professionals and the researchers they work alongside and to develop their community management skills.

• Educated to degree level or possess equivalent experience. (A Masters or PhD in a technical or scientific discipline or other experience of working within a research community is desirable).
• Proven project management experience, preferably in a Higher Education setting, developing operational plans and coordinating their execution.
• Financial and budgetary management experience including record-keeping, forecasting and monitoring.
• Experience of organising events within the Higher Education sector or industry.
• Enthusiasm and strong communication skills – ability to engage and inspire community members.
• Self-motivated – ability to identify and explore community, technical and strategic opportunities within project guidelines.
• Able to work constructively and effectively as part of a distributed project team.
• Responsible and reliable – able to deliver high-quality results on time and within budget.
• Willingness to undertake occasional travel to…