Senior Research Contracts Manager

Venn Group’s Specialist Legal Team is excited to be recruiting for a Senior Research Contracts Manager to join one of Britain’s largest centres for postgraduate teaching and applied research. The University are based in the Northern Home Counties and their academic and research staff work both nationally and internationally on research and development for the benefit of 1,500 organisations each year.

This excellent Fixed-Term opportunity offers a salary of £44,001 – £49,048 with additional performance related pay up to £61,309 and includes a number of other employee benefits. The duration of the contract will be 12 months to cover maternity leave.

The department that you will be working in supports researchers in working together to achieve excellence and delivering on the University’s vision for research and innovation.  The primary focus of the work will be enabling the research activities of the University whilst mitigating and protecting against contractual risk.

Primary responsibilities of the position will be to:

• Manage a team of two Research Contracts Managers to ensure they deliver an efficient, timely and professional service

• Review, draft and negotiate a range of research and commercial contracts covering the full spectrum of research related activities including agreements relating to industry sponsored research collaborations, EU contracts, charitable funding and research consortium agreements, along with NDAs, service, consultancy, framework and material transfer agreements

• Provide clear, pragmatic advice on the implications of contractual terms within the context of the research, using a comprehensive working knowledge of research contract issues, such as confidentiality, publication requirements, intellectual property, VAT and other related issues

• Ensure that contractual terms are clear and appropriate, and that institutional risk is identified and appropriately assessed within each contract, whilst meeting the University’s approved contractual position

• Interact with external clients, as appropriate, to communicate clearly and concisely the points of negotiation, and work internally with the appropriate researcher

• Build, develop and maintain effective working relationships with all internal and external stakeholders

This position is suited to candidates who possess demonstrable knowledge and experience of complex contract negotiation and drafting and intellectual property issues as they apply in the context of a higher education institution and against the backdrop of funded research. It is essential that you possess either a Law Degree or significant practical legal experience working in a large/diverse organisation and line management experience.

To apply for this position, please contact Tom Hoult or Will Pardoe at Venn Group on 0121 651 1396 or midlandslegal@venngroup.com. We endeavour to respond to all applications within 48 hours. However due to the volume of applications we receive we may not be able to respond to all applications individually. If you have not heard from us within a 48 hour timeframe your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.