Head of Planning and Operations - open ended contract funded until 31st July 2029
UK Visa Sponsorship Analytics
Above analytics are generated algorithmically based on job titles and may not always be the same as the company's job classification. You can also check detailed occupation eligibility, and salary criteria on our UK Visa Eligible Occupations & Salary Thresholds page.
Disclaimer: Hunt UK Visa Sponsors aggregates job listings from publicly available sources, such as search engines, to assist with your job hunting. We do not claim affiliation with UCL. For the most up-to-date job details, please visit the official website by clicking "Apply Now."
About us
UCL is one of the world's leading multidisciplinary universities, committed to excellence in research, innovation and education. Our Research Culture team sits at the heart of UCL's ambition to create a fair, inclusive and collaborative environment in which research and researchers can thrive.
Through an ambitious 10-year Research Culture Roadmap, the team works across UCL and with partners across the higher education and research sector to remove systemic barriers, embed positive change and amplify impact. We bring together expertise in strategy, change delivery, stakeholder engagement, communications and research policy, adopting a holistic and evidence-led approach to long-term cultural change.
About the role
Our Head of Planning & Operations is perhaps best described as a "strategic enabler." In this job you'll provide strategic leadership for the planning, governance, operations and performance reporting of UCL's Research Culture programme. You'll use your skills and experience to translate strategic ambition into clear priorities, robust plans and high-quality delivery, ensuring that work is well-governed, insight-driven and continuously improving.
You'll establish and maintain the processes, systems and standards that underpin effective programme delivery, including institutional planning cycles, governance arrangements, risk management and resource oversight. Using data, KPIs and dashboards, you'll generate meaningful insight to support decision-making and enable senior leaders to understand progress, trade-offs and impact.
As a member of the Research Culture Leadership Team, you will contribute to collective leadership and strategic direction, working closely with senior colleagues to align delivery, communications and engagement. You will also lead and develop a small team, providing clear direction, inclusive leadership and a strong operational backbone for the programme.
A full job description is attached to this advert.
This is an open ended contract funded until 31st July 2029.
About you
To do this job you'll need substantial experience of leading planning, operations or programme management in a complex organisation, with a strong track record of translating strategy into delivery. You'll be confident designing governance, managing resources and using data and insight to inform priorities, decisions and improvement.
You will have excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to lead inclusive consultation, synthesise diverse perspectives and communicate clearly with senior leaders and delivery partners. Comfortable working across organisational boundaries, you can balance strategic thinking with practical problem-solving.
You are an experienced people manager who values inclusive leadership and continuous improvement. While experience of higher education, the research environment, or a large public sector / not-for-profit organisation would be useful, we welcome candidates from a range of sectors who bring the skills, curiosity and credibility to support meaningful, long-term change.
Please review our job description carefully, paying particular attention to the essential and desirable criteria, and ensure these are covered in your application.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
* 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6
closure days)
* Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme
* Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension
scheme (CARE)
* Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
* Immigration loan
* Relocation scheme for certain posts
* On-Site nursery
* On-site gym
* Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
* Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
* Discounted medical insurance
Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce.
These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.