Director of Researcher Operations

We have an exciting opportunity for a Director of Researcher Operations who will be responsible for designing, stewarding, and continuously improving the end-to-end service level operational efficiency of the researcher journey, ensuring it is transparent, compliant, and user centred. They provide process ownership, experience leadership, and cross-functional oversight – not operational delivery of access, technology, or product development.

The Director of Researcher Operations is accountable for the end-to-end operating model that underpins researcher access and delivery. This includes process design, governance, performance management, controls, and continuous improvement across all stages of the researcher lifecycle. Examples include overseeing deployment of new products such researcher CRM, customer support, billing, access management, airlock management.

Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to detect, prevent, and treat diseases. We are a charity, supported by the UK Government, in partnership with charities and industry. We work closely with the NHS and with public authorities across all nations and regions of the UK.

What you’ll be doing:

This role ensures that multiple contributing functions (Commercial, Access, Technology, Product, Governance, Legal) operate as a single, coherent system, with clear ownership, handovers, standards, and performance expectations. Your key responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

• Own and maintain the end-to-end researcher operating model and journey blueprint.
• Lead cross-functional governance for onboarding, support, monitoring, and offboarding, including clear handovers and issue resolution.
• Set experience standards, service expectations, SLAs, and documentation to ensure consistent, high-quality researcher interactions.
• Define and oversee the framework for researcher support, including service standards, KPIs, escalation pathways, and quality measures across all channels.
• Use analytics and insight to monitor journey performance, identify friction, and drive evidence-based improvements.
• Lead regular service reviews and ensure learnings inform product roadmaps, access processes, and support models.
• Provide leadership for the operations function, fostering collaboration, service excellence, and continuous professional development.

To succeed in this role, you will have some of the following skills:

• Senior experience leading complex, multi-step service journeys in research, health data, digital, or regulated environments.
• Proven ability to orchestrate cross-functional processes without direct line management of delivery teams.
• Strong understanding of data access governance, research operations, ethical approvals, and secure research environments (e.g. TREs).
• Experience working closely with Product, Engineering, Governance, and Operations to deliver cohesive user experiences.
• Background in customer service, operations, and operational excellence.
• Confident managing senior stakeholders across academia, industry, and the public sector.
• Exceptional influencing and collaboration skills, with a structured, service-design-led approach to problem solving.
• Values-driven leader with strong communication skills, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to balance strategic oversight with operational detail.

• From £99,000 per annum basic salary.
• Generous Pension Scheme – We invest in your future with employer contributions of up to 12%.
• 30 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays – Enjoy a generous holiday allowance with the flexibility to take bank holidays when it suits you.
• Enhanced Parental Leave – Supporting you during life’s biggest moments.
• Cycle to Work Scheme – Save 25-39% on a new bike and accessories through salary sacrifice.
• Home & Tech Savings – Get up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products, spreading the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice.
• £1,000 Employee Referral Bonus – Know someone amazing? Get rewarded for bringing them on board!
• Wellbeing Support – Access to Mental Health First Aiders, plus 24/7 online GP services and an Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family.
• A Great Place to Work – We have a lovely Central London office in Holborn, and offer flexible and remote working arrangements.

Join us - let’s prevent disease together.

Closing date 11.02.2025 at 5:00pm

At Our Future Health, we recognise the importance of having a diverse workforce and ensuring that all candidates, regardless of their background, have equitable access to our application process. We proactively encourage applicants who identify as having a disability, neurodiversity, or long-term health conditions to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of their application process. 

If you do require any reasonable adjustments, please email us at [email protected]