"Senior Centre Manager"

About us

Our Centre for Society and Mental Health is a cross-Faculty initiative between the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy (SSPP) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN).

The centre aims to better understand the complex interrelationships between society and mental health, with a commitment to:

• Ensure that the impact of social context is central to how we understand mental health;
• Work in partnership with affected communities.

To help us complete this work, we are looking for a Senior Centre Manager to lead and manage the Centre’s day-to-day operations and provide administrative and strategic support to deliver its growth ambitions.

You will work closely with the Centre Co-Directors on strategy, planning, and delivery of the Centre’s aims, and will play a key role in securing its long-term sustainability.

About the role

You will work closely with Prof. Craig Morgan, Prof. Hanna Kienzler and Prof. Karen Glaser as part of the Centre’s senior leadership team. As part of this team you will oversee a wide range of business and research operations to ensure effective management of all non-academic activities and day-to-day operations. This includes budget oversight, support for grant applications, organisation of events and meetings, preparation of internal and external reports, and leading communications and engagement with external partners.

You will also work closely with programme and other leads to support the delivery of research programmes, career development and capacity building activities, and engagement and impact initiatives. You will lead a professional services team comprising of a Senior Research Officer and a Communications Manager.

The successful applicant will have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build good working relationships with colleagues across the College and with external community partners. They will have significant experience managing financial processes, including budget management, and will be highly organised and numerate, with strong written and verbal communication skills. A commitment to inclusive working practices and an interest in society and mental health are essential.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30/04/2028.

About you

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

Essential criteria

1. Relevant substantial experience in an HEI setting
2. Significant experience of managing large, complex budgets including monitoring and reporting
3. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including drafting documents and reports and building effective relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders including lived experience advisory board members.
4. Excellent organisational and time management skills, with the ability to prioritise effectively, work with efficiency and to tight deadlines.
5. Strong administrative, organisational, and time management skills
6. Ability to understand and analyse complex information and present data to a range of audiences
7. Ability to influence/lead others, whilst contributing effectively as part of a team with a ‘hands-on’ approach to working
8. Commitment to inclusive ways of working and experience of leading, managing or mentoring individuals or teams

Desirable criteria

1. Interest in society and mental health
2. Management or project management qualification
3. Commitment to continuing professional development
4. Experience in working in a multidisciplinary context and working collaboratively across teams and departments

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held in mid December.

Grade and Salary: £53,947 - £58,426 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Job ID: 130606

Close Date: 03-Dec-2025

Contact Person: Lyanne Wylde / Hanna Kienzler

Contact Details: Lyanne.wylde@kcl.ac.uk / Hanna.kienzler@kcl.ac.uk