Grants Manager

Saffron Walden, United Kingdom

2026-03-22 (Europe/London)

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Are you an experienced research grants professional looking to play a key role in enabling world-leading science? The Wellcome Sanger Institute is seeking a permanent Grants Manager to join our collaborative Grants Team. This is an exciting opportunity to provide specialist, end-to-end grants management support to Faculty and research teams, helping to grow and diversify our research funding portfolio.

About the Role

As a trusted advisor to Faculty, you will manage a portfolio of grants across the full lifecycle — from pre-award development and submission through to post-award management, reporting and close-out.

You will:

• Provide strategic guidance on funding opportunities and funder requirements
• Support high-quality, compliant grant applications and costing
• Review and negotiate award terms, identifying and mitigating risk
• Oversee financial management, reporting and audit readiness
• Manage complex awards, including international collaborations and sub-awards
• Contribute to continuous improvement across grants processes and systems

This role is central to ensuring strong governance, financial oversight, and compliance, enabling ambitious, high-impact research.

About You

You are a highly organised and detail-oriented grants professional with experience across both pre- and post-award management.

You bring:

• Strong financial and analytical skills
• Experience interpreting funder terms and managing compliance
• Confidence working with senior academic stakeholders
• Excellent organisational and interpersonal skills
• The ability to manage multiple complex projects and deadlines

Experience supporting audits and managing complex collaborations is desirable.

We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds across academia, charities, government, industry, and the wider life sciences sector. We actively encourage applications from individuals and communities underrepresented in research management and STEM. If you bring transferable skills in research funding, project finance, compliance management, or research governance, we would be pleased to hear from you.

About Us

The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a world-leading genomics research centre. Our Grants Team works in close partnership with Faculty, Finance, Legal and Research Management colleagues to deliver robust, high-quality grants support across the research lifecycle.

Next Steps

If you’re excited by the opportunity to enable world-leading genomics research through expert research grants management, we’d love to hear from you.

Please include a cover letter along with your CV. In your cover letter, include details on how your knowledge, skills and experience match the requirements of the role described.

Additional information

Please note: This is a hybrid role with at least one day per week onsite.

Salary: £40,800 – £48,900

Closing Date: Sunday 22-MAR-26

Contract duration: Permanent

Role profile: For the full list of accountabilities and criteria, please click here.

To read about the institute and how we work, take a look here.