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Programme Manager - AI Data Delivery

HEALTH DATA RESEARCH UK
50,000 - 60,000 per year
Remote
Full-time
21st July 2026
Listed today

Purpose of the post

HDRUK facilitates the remarkable changes to healthcare research and its impact in clinical care that are being delivered through AI systems. This places new demands on the data that enables rigorous, targeted, trustworthy AI to be initiated, conducted and sustained in healthcare settings. The purpose of this post is to support this data management process across the lifecycles of our major AI projects. These fall, broadly, into three categories: pilot projects that demonstrate proof of concept; signature projects that aim for major impact on research and clinical care; and AI components of our scientific driver programmes.

Serving AI while being focused on data, this role sits within the Institute Data Office while working closely with the Institute’s AI Advisor (so it is close to our strategic development of AI). It also connects to our activities in capability/asset mapping, trust and governance groups, and industry engagement. Through deep involvement in development and roll-out of our AI-related research projects you would gain (and exercise) broader knowledge of systems design for AI in healthcare.

Main responsibilities

Working with others in HDRUK and collaborating institutions, your focus is the support and development of data for AI-based research programmes:

  • Scoping data requirements for AI research programmes, both existing and in development.
  • Translating these requirements into actionable data access that satisfies the needs of data controllers, processors, AI systems engineers and scientific leads.
  • Supporting development of re-use plans for AI development pipelines.
  • Supporting programmes in ensuring that data is maintained through the lifecycle of AI systems, from inception to impact in ongoing research and/or clinical care.
  • Promoting a culture of responsible and accountable AI development close to working programmes of research.
  • Where appropriate, monitoring progress against milestones, ensuring pace, discipline, and accountability and own delivery outcomes across time, quality, and cost.
  • Operationalising AI-related data access across TREs, working across multiple TREs/Secure Data Environments, in partnership, to ensure consistent, efficient access for researchers, identify and resolve practical barriers to accessing and using data (not just influencing solutions, but implementing them).
  • Working closely with academic leads to ensure they can: access the right data; navigate TRE environments effectively and deliver their analyses to agreed timelines.
  • Working with TREs (and others) to resolve delivery friction, including: data access issues, governance bottlenecks and technical/environment inconsistencies; acting as the bridge between data infrastructure and research delivery.
  • Manage interdependencies and proactively escalate risks where needed and maintain alignment to delivery commitments, rather than just strategic intent.
  • Be prepared and able to work flexibly to support colleagues as needed, adapting to an evolving environment and emerging priorities.

 

This role is targeted to specialist data delivery for AI systems. This fits within broader planning for data delivery (managed by our Programme Director for Data Delivery) and aligns with strategy set by our Chief Data Officer (to whom you would report), while broader AI strategy is guided by our AI Advisor (with whom you would work closely). The role is primarily operational: ensuring that specific plans work in practice and aligning these to the priorities of the actors involved. This will require influencing, partnership, planning, organisational and delivery skills, an organised mindset with strong grasp of detail and a flexible approach to work to fast paced and changing demands. You will need to be independent, dynamic and self-driven, while making effective judgements on when to escalate issues to senior colleagues’ attention with appropriate urgency.

Knowledge/Skills/Experience

The role would suit someone from with an AI research track record (academic or industrial) who understands the essential need for data quality, availability and management for modern AI systems and wishes to use this understanding to make real impact in healthcare/biomedical research. This is practical, operational work in the complex area between system requirements and data control, providing a fascinating route into the fast-moving world of AI in healthcare.

Essential

  • Experience of development of AI systems, particularly data-intensive machine learning systems, through involvement with engineers and domain experts.
  • From this experience, the ability to engage with (and challenge) developers of AI systems in a healthcare context.
  • Experience of data management across the lifecycle of AI systems.
  • From this experience, the ability to relate AI system requirements to the permissions and obligations of health data controllers and processors within trusted research environments.
  • Adaptable to complex programmes with multiple components and many collaborating organisations in a fast-paced environment.
  • Able to analyse technical AI requirements with critical analysis of the feasibility and risk with respect to data availability.
  • Broad understanding of data access, governance, and technical constraints, with the ability quickly to learn the access/governance landscape of new projects.
  • Collaborative, but assertive in driving delivery outcomes with the ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and across different geographies and cultures.
  • Excellent organisational skills and the ability to work accurately with attention to detail.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

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.

For more information, please download the Job Description