Main Purpose of the Job

The BioFAIR Senior Technical Project Manager will provide the project management leadership for the initiative and will ensure the establishment of the structure, staffing, partnerships and governance to transition to sustainable long-term success.

They will establish and run the processes to select and commission the spokes (delivery partners). They will coordinate the Delivery Team and embed within it a community-led culture of collaboration and collective responsibility. Working with the Director and Architect, they will provide the long term leadership to enable and inspire the BioFAIR community to assemble a digital research infrastructure that meets the broad needs of life science researchers and delivers the objectives of the business case. BioFAIR is seeking to establish a team-first culture, so the Senior Technical Project Manager will need experience of working in agile environments. They will be responsible for ensuring the BioFAIR community is focused on incremental, continuous delivery of value rather than checking off lists of scheduled, predetermined deliverable items.

They will coordinate the reporting to the BioFAIR Project Board and ensure that the Project Board is fully informed on all aspects of delivery, budgetary management and risk.

The Senior Technical Project Manager will act as Deputy Director of BioFAIR, delegating for the Director as and when required.

The Senior Technical Project Manager will need outstanding project management relationship management skills, experience of delivering research computing infrastructure and a commitment to community delivery reusing existing services and capability whenever possible.

Key Relationships

- Member of the BioFAIR Project Board and delegate contact to the UKRI Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) 
- Coordination of the delivery of BioFAIR across the hub and spokes.
- Evangelist for BioFAIR Nationally and Internationally
- Point of contact for key community organisations such as ELIXIR, SSI and Society for Research Software Engineering
- Point of contact for peers in HDR UK, DARE UK, NERC, Alan Turing Institute and other UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure projects.
- Functionally reports to the BioFAIR Director.

Main Activities & Responsibilities

Percentage

Project Management: They will lead the planning, coordination, and execution of BioFAIR activities, ensuring alignment with the proposed work packages and deliverables as outlined in the approved business plan. They will ensure overall business assurance of project activities are undertaken and where appropriate are delegated.  They will own the risk management for the project, coordinating the risk register and reporting to the Project Board.

20

Resource Management: They will ensure the efficient allocation and utilisation of resources, including funding, infrastructure, and personnel, to support the implementation and ongoing operations of BioFAIR. This includes monitoring and managing the budget and seeking additional funding opportunities as needed.

20

Stakeholder Engagement: They will provide direction for establishing and maintaining relationships with RPOs, research teams, bioinformaticians, tool developers, and other stakeholders to foster collaboration, gather feedback, and ensure their involvement and support for the BioFAIR initiative. 

15

Partnerships and Collaborations: The Senior Technical Project Manager will identify, establish and coordinate partnerships with relevant organisations, both nationally and internationally, to leverage expertise, resources, and best practices in data management, analytics, and FAIR principles. This will include collaborating with ELIXIR, UKRN, SSI, DCC, Society for Research Software Engineering, Galaxy Community, and other relevant stakeholders and national Digital Research Infrastructures.  They will be responsible for the development and delivery of an open, transparent and robust approach for the selection of partner organisations / spokes.

10

Strategic Planning: With the Director, they will be responsible for coordinating the delivery of the strategic vision and objectives for BioFAIR in collaboration with key stakeholders, including UKRI, Research Performing Organisations, research teams, and the broader life science community.

10

Reporting and Evaluation: Working with the Director and the Project Board they will establish a framework to provide regular updates and progress reports to funders, advisory committees, governance boards, and other relevant bodies. Conducting periodic evaluations and assessments of BioFAIR's impact, effectiveness, and adherence to the proposed goals and objectives.

10

They will ensure that the project embeds a culture of equality, diversity and inclusivity across all aspects of delivery and throughout all of its activities.

5

Any other duties as appropriate for the role in agreement with the line manager.

5

Team Management: The Senior Technical Project Manager will act as deputy to the BioFAIR Director assuming their management responsibility as and when required.

5

Education & Qualifications

Requirement

Importance

Degree in a relevant discipline

Essential

PMI qualified

Desirable

Specialist Knowledge & Skills

Requirement

Importance

Track record of project managing the delivery and operation of infrastructures and services, through collaboration and cooperation

Essential

Ability to think strategically and to develop multi-year plans in a dynamic technology environment

Essential

Relevant Experience

Requirement

Importance

Track record of open collaborations on a national and international level

Essential

Track record of delivering infrastructure projects spanning multiple organisations and teams.

Essential

Skilled in developing and improving business process and procedures

Essential

Experience of discovering new ways of working and solutions through personal initiatives and challenging prevailing ideas and assumptions

Essential

Strong organisational and planning skills

Essential

Budget and financial management

Essential

Experience of working in agile environments

Essential

Management and Leadership

Requirement

Importance

Strong relationships management skills

Essential

Proven track record as an effective leader

Essential

Proven ability to build, grow and retain high performing distributed teams

Essential

Interpersonal & Communication Skills

Requirement

Importance

Committed to the principles of FAIR and open science data sharing

Essential

Outstanding proven experience of collaboration

Essential

Open-minded, determined and resilient

Essential

Ability to communicate effectively and appropriately at all levels

Essential

Able to represent BioFAIR and EI to a high standard externally with a wide range of stakeholders

Essential

Strong team player; working together to reach common goals; sharing information and supporting colleagues and collaborators

Essential

Strong negotiation skills

Essential

Ability to lead through influences across a distributed delivery team

Essential

Additional Requirements

Requirement

Importance

Attention to detail

Essential

Promotes equality and values diversity

Essential

Highly developed diplomacy and emotional intelligence that supports effective resolution of complex and sensitive issues

Essential

Able to present a positive image of self, BioFAIR and the Earlham Institute

Essential

Be an outstanding leadership role model

Essential

Good time management skills

Essential

Commitment to work collaboratively with international organisations delivering tools, services and DRIs to ensure alignment across initiatives

Essential

As this is a key leadership role in the Hub, on average the Senior Technical Project Manager would be expected to spend one day a week in EI.

Desirable

Earlham Institute

About the Earlham Institute
The Earlham Institute is a hub of life science research, training, and innovation focused on understanding the natural world through the lens of genomics.

We are building a future where the biology of any organism can be understood by analysing its genome. Our mission is to decode the scale and complexity of living systems so we can understand, benefit from, and protect life on Earth.

The Earlham Institute is based on the Norwich Research Park and is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC).

Our Science
Earlham Institute scientists specialise in developing and testing the latest tools and approaches needed to decode living systems and make predictions about biology.

We are home to state-of-the-art facilities and technology, creating a unique combination of expertise and infrastructure. We have dedicated laboratories for genome sequencing, single-cell analysis, engineering biology, and large-scale automation; as well as one of the largest supercomputing facilities for life science research in Europe. Our Advanced Training team also provides access to specialised scientific training to upskill the next generation of research and technical staff.

Our Culture
The Earlham Institute champions 'team science'. Our collegiate and innovative research environment comes with significant support, including a commitment to your professional development, research and administrative assistance, and opportunities to build collaborations with scientists and industry on the Norwich Research Park, across the UK, and internationally.

The Institute is also home to talented technical and operational staff, whose invaluable contributions enable our science to have the maximum impact. We aim to recognise, reward, and develop all staff and students so that every individual feels able to achieve their best with us.

We work hard to nurture an engaged and positive workplace, centred on core values that include openness, technical excellence, and collaboration. We attract staff from around the world who contribute to - and benefit from - an environment that enables them to deliver world-class science alongside a supportive and social community.

For more information about working at the Earlham Institute, please click here.

Further Information:

Our Vision and Mission

Our Strategy

Our Culture

Life at Earlham Institute

Department

BioFAIR

Group Details

BioFAIR is a new UK government-funded investment of £34M to develop and operate a federated digital research infrastructure connecting existing life sciences infrastructures which will largely be assembled through the integration of existing services, resources and knowledge.

BioFAIR is funded for five years and will focus on four core capabilities: Data Commons, Method Commons, Knowledge Centre, and Community Centre. 

The BioFAIR’s Commons will be shared places, built to incorporate FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and allow researchers to collaborate and connect with colleagues to work on research projects.

BioFAIR will operate as a Hub and Spoke organisation. The BioFAIR Hub will be based at the Earlham Institute, who will be responsible for coordination, establishing and managing delivery partnerships and governance.
 

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BioFAIR Senior Technical Project Manager

Applications are invited for a Senior Technical Project Manager to join the BioFAIR Hub at the Earlham Institute, based in Norwich, UK.

Background:

BioFAIR is a new UK government-funded investment of £34M to develop and operate a federated digital research infrastructure connecting existing life sciences infrastructures which will largely be assembled through the integration of existing services, resources and knowledge.

BioFAIR is funded for five years and will focus on four core capabilities: Data Commons, Method Commons, Knowledge Centre, and Community Centre. 

The BioFAIR’s Commons will be shared places, built to incorporate FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and allow researchers to collaborate and connect with colleagues to work on research projects.

BioFAIR will operate as a Hub and Spoke organisation. The BioFAIR Hub will be based at the Earlham Institute, who will be responsible for coordination, establishing and managing delivery partnerships and governance.

The role:

The BioFAIR Senior Technical Project Manager will provide the project management leadership for the initiative and will ensure the establishment of the structure, staffing, partnerships and governance to transition to sustainable long-term success.

They will establish and run the processes to select and commission the spokes (delivery partners). They will coordinate the Delivery Team and embed within it a community-led culture of collaboration and collective responsibility. Working with the Director and Architect, they will provide the long term leadership to enable and inspire the BioFAIR community to assemble a digital research infrastructure that meets the broad needs of life science researchers and delivers the objectives of the business case. BioFAIR is seeking to establish a team-first culture, so the Senior Technical Project Manager will need experience of working in agile environments. They will be responsible for ensuring the BioFAIR community is focused on incremental, continuous delivery of value rather than checking off lists of scheduled, predetermined deliverable items.

The objectives of the BioFAIR project are:

• Culture change: To drive adoption of FAIR principles and open data across the UK life sciences to provide high quality FAIR datasets ready for uptake and reuse.
• Defragmentation: To increase the coordination, collaboration and cohesiveness of the UK’s life sciences related data landscape, enhancing its effectiveness and efficiency.
• Access: To enable democratised access to data and data methods within UK life sciences via a national capability.
Skills: To attract, develop and retain excellent research data management skills and capacity for UK life sciences.
• Data reuse: To improve the efficiency of research and enabling new research by increased re-use of data in the life sciences.

The ideal candidate:

The post holder will have a degree in a relevant discipline and a proven ability to build, grow and retain high performing distributed teams. It is essential that the successful candidate has a proven track record as an effective leader. They must also be committed to the principles of FAIR and open science data sharing.

It is advantageous if the post holder has the ability to think strategically and to develop multi-year plans in a dynamic technology environment.

As this is a key leadership role in the Hub, on average the post holder would be expected to spend at least one day a week at the Earlham Institute.

Additional information:

Salary on appointment will be within the range £70,560 to £78,400 per annum depending on qualifications and experience. This is a full-time post for a contract of 48 months – although full-time hours are available, applications from those interested in working part-time hours (or alternative working patterns) are also welcomed.                                          

Interviews will take place on 26th February 2025.

This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply.  Please contact the Human Resources Team if you have any questions regarding your application or visa options.

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.

The closing date for applications will be 18 February 2025.