Head of Operations

The King’s Health Partners Clinical Trials Office is a collaboration between King’s College London, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It was set up to provide a single interface for those wishing to conduct clinical trials within the partner organisations, and to ensure that there are common, efficient processes for the set up and administration of clinical trials.

About the role

The post-holder will be responsible for the development, implementation and oversight of robust, integrated operational systems and processes across the King’s Health Partners Clinical Trials Office (KHP-CTO), ensuring the effective, efficient and compliant delivery of clinical research services across the partnership.

The post-holder will be responsible for KHP-CTO communications, including ownership of the KHP-CTO website, external communications platforms and overall communications strategy.

The post-holder will provide senior operational leadership and expert advice with respect to all aspects of governance and best practices in clinical research, ensuring regulatory requirements and sponsor obligations are translated into scalable, workable operational processes.

The post-holder will be responsible for ensuring that appropriate operational, quality and information management frameworks are in place — supported by a comprehensive and coherent suite of SOPs, systems and external services — so that all research projects supported by the KHP-CTO are conducted in accordance with current regulatory and quality standards and that the King’s Health Partners (King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) maintain a consistent state of “inspection readiness”.

The post-holder will be responsible for the provision of highest-quality GCP training to research staff in King’s Health Partners.

We’re looking for someone to start as soon as possible.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills  experience:

Essential criteria

• Educated to postgraduate (master’s degree) level in a health/health related area or equivalent professional experience
• Substantial experience of senior operational leadership and change management, with a proven ability to translate strategic objectives into effective operational delivery across multiple functions or services
• Strong knowledge of clinical research regulation and governance, including the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations, UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Human Tissue Act 2004, and their practical application in NHS and/or academic research settings
• Proven expertise in contracting and commercial arrangements, including drafting, negotiating and managing complex agreements with external suppliers or partners in a regulated environment
• Demonstrable experience of financial accountability, including ownership of a departmental or service-level profit and loss account and responsibility for budgeting, forecasting and income management
• A proven track record in designing and delivering business-to-business marketing and communications campaigns, with knowledge of the tools and platforms required to support an effective communications strategy
• Significant experience of procuring, implementing and managing Software as a Service (SaaS) and other externally provided systems, including supplier management and information governance oversight

Desirable criteria

• PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent project management qualification
• Experience of leading the adoption of artificial intelligence–enabled tools within an operational team, ensuring appropriate governance and staff engagement
• Experience of leading or supporting the migration between operational or research management systems, including planning, data integrity, stakeholder engagement and transition to business-as-usual