NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN) Director

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust

Job summary

The RRDN Director is the senior officer responsible for the overall leadership, delivery and management of the RRDN. They oversee and drive the work of the RRDN Strategic Development, Operations and Health & Care Research Directors.

The purpose of the RDN is to support the effective and efficient initiation and delivery of funded research across the health and care system in England for the benefit of patients and the public, the health and care system and the economy. The RRDN Director is accountable for enabling this regionally by providing efficient, effective and nationally consistent supporting services and activities in line with the requirements of the RRDN Host Organisation Contract with the Department of Health and Social Care, with particular emphasis on addressing the needs of the life sciences industry (across both commercial contract and commercial collaborative research).

Main duties of the job

The NIHR RRDNs have three key roles:

? First, to provide support to research sites to enable the effective and efficient initiation and delivery of funded research across the health and care system in England.

? Second, to enable the strategic development of new and more effective research delivery capability and capacity. This includes bringing research to under-served regions and communities with major health and care needs.

? Third, to work jointly with the Coordinating Centre in the strategic oversight of the NIHR RDN. This is to ensure that the Portfolio is maintained as a cohort of high-quality, fully-funded, viable and deliverable studies. It also ensures that the NIHR RDN as a whole serves the needs of researchers and R&D teams and is responsive to the changing domestic and global environment for health and care, life sciences and health research.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

  • Experience of working in the health and care research sector, the health and social care service sector or academic environment at a senior level
  • Professional research leadership, both strategic and operational at a senior level
  • Experience of working across complex organisational structures and effective matrix management

Skills

Essential

  • Highly developed leadership, strategic thinking and planning skills with ability to demonstrate these in highly political environments
  • Strong external communications skills in a politically sensitive environment with knowledge of and experience in handling media relations

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Closing Date: 13 September 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.