Business Manager

Job Title: Business Manager (for the funding team)

Location: London, Stevenage or Edinburgh

Job Type: Permanent

Agencies: We will only work with recruitment partners on our preferred supplier list and will not engage with speculative CVs submitted.

Are you passionate about making life science life changing and delivering impact for patients? We want to hear from you.

About the role:

This is a great opportunity to join the Funding team at LifeArc. The team has oversight of all grant funding activity across the organisation. Reporting to the Head of Funding, this Business Manager role involves independently leading and/ or providing advice on all funding-related activities, to colleagues in the Translational Challenge teams, the wider organisation, and representing LifeArc externally.

The Business Manager has responsibility for delivering high quality technical insight when supporting internal and external clients, in relation to identification of science that has the potential for patient impact. This includes advising applicants in shaping funding applications, and requires a sound understanding of translation, across modalities, and the ability to offer credible translational advice, to partners at all levels of seniority, without preparation.

The role requires an in-depth knowledge of grant funding policies and processes and is expected to proactively make suggestions for improvement where appropriate, playing an integral part in shaping, developing and continuously improving LifeArc’s Funding Framework.

Responsibilities span the full funding lifecycle, from the design and planning of funding calls, through delivery and into the post-award phase. This role will also be required to independently lead on the management of a £ multi-million post-award grant funding portfolio, ensuring key performance targets are met and appropriately reported, maintaining relationships with the awardees, identifying risks and issues in a timely way, and working with awardees to draft, finalise and input to the approval of change requests.

The Business Manager will be required to flex to the requirements of different funding applicant pools across the breadth of translation, in various disease areas, as well as critically reviewing grant applications, milestone and final reports, providing advice to internal and external clients on all aspects of translation.

About you:

Your responsibilities will include the following:

• Independently delivering on LifeArc’s grant funding activities, across the full lifecycle including pre- and post-award.
• Managing a portfolio of Principal Investigators, projects, and technologies under development, requiring engagement with applicants and awardees at all levels of seniority.
• Working collaboratively in a matrix environment with different parts of LifeArc, including other colleagues in the Partnerships Team, Opportunity Assessment Group, Science and Legal, enabling the funding of high-quality translational science.
• Independently monitoring performance of LifeArc’s grant funded portfolio, ensuring that awardees are delivering against the agreed plan.
• Taking responsibility and accountability for leading specific funding calls and managing matrix teams also working on the same funding calls.
• Working collaboratively with the Head of Funding and the Funding team as they assess and execute translational science projects and provide advice. Identifies issues early in the process so solutions can be found.
• Ability to communicate effectively in written work getting the tone right and flexing their style for different types of writing, including external communications.
• Growing and maintaining collaborative relationships within the wider Funding ecosystem, acting as an advocate for LifeArc. Proactively identifying the other key stakeholders in their area of focus.
• Using and working to KPIs and targets. Deadline driven but considers how things can be improved in the future.
• Act as Panel secretariat for certain funding calls, leading an internal LifeArc team and providing high quality support to our expert panels.
• Help champion and implement Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) policies and procedures to ensure grant calls and technology transfer services are provided in line with our strategy
• Balancing near-term project deliverables, ensuring we exceed expectations of our clients
• Working with a number of external partnerships, ensuring we approach our partnerships with a growth and value-add mindset
• Approach all our interactions with professionalism and a growth mindset
• Have good awareness of the wider environment we operate in and work collaboratively and credibly within that ecosystem

Skills & experience required:

• Experience of delivering professional services to external clients
• Experience in the design, establishment and front-office delivery of funding calls to further the R&D goals of organisations. A keen understanding of the usual terms & conditions, legal and tax requirements and complexities of managing multi million pound funding initiatives
• Understand the translational research funding landscape in the UK and seeks to find the right route for a given project
• Good understanding of Technology Transfer services and able to advise and support clients with confidence on issues relating to IP and downstream development
• Financial and commercial acumen, enabling good application of judgement and decision making
• Have a good knowledge of the needs of your beneficiaries, committing to delivering the best outcome for our clients, flexing approach depending on the situation
• Good level of self-awareness, recognises own strengths, development areas and seeks to develop own self
• Knowledge of IP and how to support and manage IP implications for stakeholders
• Have a successful track record of handling negotiations

Education required:

• Qualified to degree level in a scientific discipline with a PhD and/ or equivalent experience in academia and/ or industry

About us:

At LifeArc, our ambition is to make life science life changing. We do this by advancing scientific discoveries beyond the lab, faster, so that they can shape the next generation of diagnostics, treatments, and cures.

Working at the cutting edge of translational science and as the early-stage translation specialists, we progress scientific discoveries on their journey to becoming a medicine, diagnostic or intervention that improve patients’ lives. Our work begins by seeking out innovative science, then helping to develop this to a point where there is a clinical and commercial pathway for others to invest the time and money to take it further forward.

What we can offer you:

Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, and supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of ‘putting patients at the centre of everything we do’.

We are dedicated to creating a diverse, flexible, equitable and happy work environment so our colleagues can thrive as their truest selves. We act with courage, curiosity, care & commitment to deliver quality & excellence for our patients and each other Join us, and you’ll be given the scope to develop your professional skills and experience in a safe, supportive and challenging environment

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate, and you may be just right for this or other roles.

We all have potential. At LifeArc, you’ll discover what you can really do with it.