Senior Clinical Study Manager (fixed-term contract until...

Interviews: There will be a two-stage process comprising of a telephone interview and an in-person on 17 and 18 September 2025.

Deadline: Monday 1 September 2025.

We have an important and exciting new role available as Senior Clinical Study Manager until end-March 2027 to lead the planning, coordination, and delivery of the initial phase of the Brain Health Community Assessment for Trials Service, a key component of the Dementia Trials Accelerator (DTA), as well as other assigned projects within the broader Brain Health portfolio.

This role is in partnership with the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI)and Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) .

We are seeking an experienced Senior Clinical Study Manager to join our team. This new role reports to the HDR UK's Associate Director for Brain Health and supports their Senior Programme Manager as part of a small, dynamic team delivering the DTA initiative, with a dotted reporting line into the UK DRI. The DTA is part of a diverse and expanding program of Brain Health-related activities.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record in managing complex, multi-stakeholder clinical research projects, particularly with external service providers. We welcome applicants who bring strategic insight, operational excellence, and a commitment to collaboration with both academic and commercial partners.

In this role, you will play a key part in expanding research opportunities for individuals at risk of or living with early-stage dementia. Your adaptability, innovation, and strong problem-solving skills will be crucial in navigating a fast-paced, evolving research environment. Enthusiasm, flexibility, and leadership are essential qualities that will help you deliver high-quality outcomes.

A central part of the role involves building and maintaining strong, effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including clinicians, commercial providers, patients, regulatory bodies, data partners, and research teams. You will serve as the primary point of contact for collaborators and external partners, with a keen understanding of high-quality data, confidentiality, and sensitivity to the work undertaken.

This is a unique opportunity to shape a critical area of dementia research and contribute to a national effort to enhance the understanding of the causes and progression of neurodegenerative and broader neurological conditions to improve strategies for diagnosis and treatment. This role will involve some travel to sites across the UK.

Join us in making a difference in the field of dementia research.

You'll have:

• Proven experience in clinical study (e.g. clinical trial or cohort) management, ideally with both academic and commercial experience.
• Demonstrable success in delivering complex programmes with multiple components and many collaborating organisations.
• Experience in all aspects of trial management from protocol and database development to dissemination of data.
• Experience in negotiating and managing contracts.
• An understanding of commercial considerations.
• Experience of managing risk, financial and contractual controls to deliver high-impact outputs within tight timeframes.
• An ability to drive projects forward, while ensuring that relevant guidelines and regulations are adhered to, involving working within a team and delegating tasks appropriately.
• Experience in monitoring, analysing and disseminating complex information.
• Experience in managing non-NHS study sites.
• A willingness to work flexibly outside of office hours on occasion.

Skills & Experience

• Extensive clinical study management expertise, including proven ability to manage complex clinical trials from start-up to close-out, ideally within commercial environments.
• Experience of an external service provider.
• Excellent planning, organisation and time-management, trial management and project management skills with a proven track record of delivering multiple challenging projects on different deadlines.
• Ability to build and maintain momentum across project teams of multi-skilled professionals.
• Strong understanding of clinical trial regulations and governance frameworks, including GCP, GDPR, and HTA, with experience ensuring compliance in research settings
• Excellent stakeholder engagement / account management including ability to network, negotiate and influence effectively
• Excellent communication skills, written and verbal, including the ability to explain concepts without technical jargon and communicate confidently with people at all levels
• Organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to work accurately with attention to detail
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to work autonomously and make decisions without supervision
• Strong IT literacy (MS Office) skills, including data management skills
• Excellent project management, team working and communication skills

Desirable skills

• Extensive trial management delivery in academic environments.

What we offer

As well as a competitive base salary and the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer great benefits, including:

• 27 days holiday + UK Bank Holidays

• Up to 6 business closure days

• Option to purchase 5 days’ annual leave

• Single medical cover

• Group Life Assurance 4x base salary

• Group Income Protection and Critical illness cover

• Season ticket loan

• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay

• Employee assistance programme

• Comprehensive programme of voluntary benefits

To apply

Please submit your CV and covering letter detailing why you wish to join the UK DRI and your experience for this role.

No agencies please.

By applying to this role, you understand and agree that your information will be shared within the UK DRI People & Culture team and/or any team members (including HDR UK) who will be part of the hiring process.

About us

Launched in 2017, the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the single biggest investment the UK has ever made in dementia thanks to founding funders the MRC, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK. Our mission is, through research, to transform the outlook for people living with or at risk of dementia and related neurodegenerative conditions. Our target conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementia, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron disease.

We are a distributed national MRC institute currently made up of over 950 researchers. With world-leading expertise in a range of areas centred on mechanistic discovery research focussed on improved understanding of the cellular interplay that underpins disease initiation through to more applied and linked care and translational research programmes.

Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national institute for health data science. Its mission is to accelerate trustworthy data use to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. By working in partnership with the NHS, industry, academia, patients and the public to provide safe and secure access to rich health data, it aims to better understand diseases and discover new ways to prevent, treat and cure them. It is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in England and equivalents in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and leading medical research charities. UK DRI is committed to equal opportunities.

The UK DRI embraces diversity, inclusion and accessibility for all of our people. We are committed to building a diverse organisation that represents the communities we serve and ensuring inclusion in everything we do. This means ensuring our recruitment processes are barrier-free and as inclusive as possible to everyone. We will make adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition.