Chief Operating Officer

Purpose of the role

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a pivotal figure within HDR UK and reports directly to the Director as a member of the organisation’s senior leadership team. The COO is a high-profile internal leader, with a remit that encompasses portfolio management, governance, capacity building, communications, finance & risk, business systems, estates, Health & Safety and HR.

The post requires strong strategic and organisational skills with the ability to “think on your feet” to provide creative solutions to problems. The COO is responsible for providing support and advice to the Director in their leadership and management of HDR UK. Working with the Director and other senior executives, the COO will demonstrate the strong leadership, organisational and operational skills required to scale the institute during this next phase of its development.

The COO will also develop an external profile, building and maintaining the links critical to the delivery of the Director’s research vision and the development of HDR UK at local, national and international levels, increasingly networking with other research establishments and key stakeholders such as the public, the NHS, and industry.

Main responsibilities

Strategy and Governance                                                                                                                            

As a member of the HDR UK Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the COO will play a leading role in shaping strategy and aligning operational delivery to that strategy. This includes:

• Oversee HDR UK’s strategic financial and resource planning to enable effective financial management and sustainability of HDR UK.
• Leadership contribution to multi-cycle delivery planning (e.g. 1yr, 5yr), reporting, monitoring and tiered operational review. Ensure effective tracking and management of our overall performance via formal governance routes.
• Coordinate all of HDR UK’s external corporate reporting.
• Shape agenda of, active contributor to the Board and Board Committees. Oversee corporate governance support, linking to Director of Legal, Trust & Ethics for specialist advice as required
• Take responsibility for risk management at both strategic and operational levels, managing HDR UK’s assurance mechanisms, and advising the Director on risk management issues.
• Provide leadership for the regular senior team meetings including prioritisation, action tracking and agenda setting. Enable effective portfolio management.

Senior Operational Leadership

This role will provide vision, strategic direction, and leadership for multiple key functions (including portfolio management, governance, capacity building, communications, finance & risk, business systems, estates, Health & Safety and HR).

• Work to enable integration, community and teamwork between all HDR UK teams. Ensure the organisation provides a modern and responsive service and that staff are motivated to give of their best.

• Leadership of change via a culture of continuous improvement. Initiate, lead and manage change across HDR UK activity to improve policy and procedure, including proposing and contributing to strategic change across our landscape. Manage the intersect between change and BAU.
• Ensure that all activities and operations are performed and reported as by the law and/or relevant regulations.
• People management including ensuring effectively coordinated EDI, staff management and progression and adherence to TORCH values.

• Responsible for the majority of HDR UK’s policies, ensure alignment between policy and purpose, as well adherence and adoption.

Guidance for, representation of, senior colleagues

Line manage some members of the SLT team and contribute as a member of that team to all strategic decision-making in HDR UK. Advise the Director on matters of policy, strategy, risk, process and planning and provide leadership and guidance on strategic management issues to the Institute’s senior academic managers and for senior academic and professional services staff in the Institute’s associated collaborative ventures. Exercise delegated authority of behalf of the Director as agreed (e.g. management of projects, deployment of staff resources).

For more information, please download the full job pack

Please note, as we are a UK-based organisation,  applicants must be living in, and eligible to work in, the UK. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time. 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

We politely request no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.