Director; Research

Location:

5 Worcester Street, Oxford, OX1 2BX
, UK

Contract:

Full Time /Fixed Term Contract (3 years)

The University of Oxford is a world-leader in research, engagement and innovation. Our research portfolio spans an exceptionally broad range of disciplines and has a strong interdisciplinary character. Oxford is currently the most successful UK university in securing research funding, with £801m secured in 2024/25, and is the UK’s leading institution for the commercialisation of research, having created more than 300 spin-out companies.

Research Services provides comprehensive professional support for Oxford’s research and innovation activities. We work in partnership with researchers, academic departments and divisions, other professional services, funders and external collaborators. Our ambition is to combine excellent professional support with trusted strategic insight and influence.

Our work is guided by four core values:
Collaboration, Excellence, Inclusion and Integrity. We work in partnership, pursue continuous improvement, create an environment where everyone can succeed, and act with openness, honesty and courage.

The Change Director (Research) will establish and lead a reconfigured Business Improvement Team, bringing together Research Services’ business systems, data and insights, and change management capabilities. The team will support a more integrated, resilient and user-focused approach to service improvement across research support, including continuous improvement of key business systems, stronger data stewardship and analytics, and opportunities to use AI and workflow automation to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Working at the University of Oxford offers several exclusive benefits, such as:

• 38 days of annual leave (inclusive of public holidays) to support your wellbeing, with the option to purchase up to 5 extra days and additional leave.
• One of the most generous family leave schemes in UK higher education, offering up to 26 weeks of full-pay maternity and adoption leave, plus 12 weeks of full-pay paternity/partner leave.
• A commitment to hybrid and flexible working.
• Affordable and sustainable commuting options, including a cycle loan scheme, discounted bus travel, and season ticket loans.
• Access to a vibrant community through our social, cultural, and sports clubs.

This is a new senior institutional change-leadership role with responsibility for shaping and coordinating the University’s wider research change portfolio. You will lead the development of a collective vision for research support across the research management lifecycle and coordinate improvements to business processes, systems, organisational structures, roles, skills, data and insights. The role will work through a matrix-management model across Research Services, academic departments, divisions and partner professional services.

You will represent the needs of the research support community to the Research Portfolio Committee and help ensure that digital and service-improvement priorities are informed by researchers and research support colleagues. Working closely with the Research Support Shared Leadership Group, Digital Transformation, the Portfolio Manager (Research) and the Director of Research Computing Infrastructure, you will set priorities, lead governance, support benefits realisation and embed sustainable change.

You will also hold senior oversight of the wider research change portfolio, including the Oxford Research Management System programme, for which the Programme Change Director (ORMS) will retain delegated delivery responsibility.

Alongside this institutional remit, you will establish and lead the Business Improvement Team and join the Research Services…