ARDT Project Manager

Salary: £35, £37,694, with progression to £46,049 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 08 December 2025

The Role

We have an exciting opportunity to join our project team as a Project Manager.

You will join a dynamic, international, multidisciplinary team working in the area of translational research for neuromuscular diseases and other rare disorders within the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Centre at the Translational and Clinical Research Institute.

In this role you will be based at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle city centre, with excellent transport links.

This exciting new role forms part of a the ARDT project, funded by LifeArc, developing an innovative and integrated Rare Disease Recruitment Platform that will collect real world, rare disease patient data to accelerate recruitment to clinical trials.

With a proved track record in project management, you will be the main point of contact for project management activities within the work package. You will use your skills to coordinate activities to support the delivery, implementation, integration, day to day running and sustainability of the platform.

As the Project Manager, you'll need to communicate and build relationships with a wide range of key stakeholders from a range of disease areas. Alongside with experience of dealing with health data and excellent communication skills, the post holder would benefit from having worked in a healthcare or academic environment.

To apply for the position, we'll need your CV and a personal statement outlining how you are suitable for the role using evidence to highlight how you meet the essential criteria in the knowledge, skills and experience as listed in the job description.

This post is fixed until the 31st August 2028.

Further information can be obtained by contacting Phillip Cammish

Key Accountabilities

• Act as the main point of contact for project management activities within LifeArc on a day-to-day basis. Communicating clearly with the work package leads, the management group, the technical project manager, wider project team, collaborators and stakeholders
• Lead on building and nurturing highly productive relationships with a wide range of key stakeholders around the implementation and future activities of the RDRP across a wide range of disease areas.
• Lead on developing detailed project plans to enable the collection of real-world patient and clinical data from various sources
• Take overall responsibility for ensuring that the project has full ethical approval and monitoring / amending the required approvals as the project progresses, ensuring that all activities are running in accordance with both NHS and University ethical frameworks, whilst adhering to all data protection guidelines
• Lead on developing documentation to support the activities of the RDRP across a range of disease areas. This includes producing protocols, participant information sheets, consent forms, and promotional materials
• Work with the LifeArc Technical Project Manager and IT platform developers to develop an innovative platform that meets the needs of all stakeholders
• Provide a coordinated and efficient service to the various stakeholders, including project collaborators, clinicians, patients and the pharmaceutical industry
• Manage data held within the RDRP and to control who is able to access the data that is collected, by working with stakeholders to ensure that all legal requirements are in place for this activity.
• Liaise regularly with others in similar roles or with similar responsibilities (including DMD Hub staff and registry curators)
• Present the RDRP at relevant meetings and conferences and write related reports
• Manage the governance involved within the RDRP work package. Taking responsibility for organising all meetings and the production of associated documentation as required to support the project e.g. Advisory Boards, Steering Groups, inter- disciplinary working groups
• Develop an understanding of the scientific, regulatory and technical elements of the projects to cross communicate between different work packages
• Take responsibility for identifying own learning needs, including identifying appropriate courses to ensure up to date knowledge in the funding streams available to support translational research, as well as developing an awareness of the regulations governing clinical research and research data
• Work as part of the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre team to develop common ways of working and promote the use of best practice in project management
• Line manage and supervise staff as required
• Any other duties as deemed appropriate by line manager

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Awareness of the benefits and challenges of the collection of health data, particularly in the rare disease field in an academic and/or health care environment
• Comprehensive understanding of GDPR requirements and how to apply them in practice
• Advanced knowledge of project management including methodology and relevant business operating procedures, preferably in an academic research environment
• A proven ability to manage projects to defined deliverables and meet audit requirements
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; confident, adept and empathetic communicator in a variety of media
• Excellent interpersonal, team-working and negotiation skills
• Ability to work independently, take responsibility and prioritise workloads to meet strict deadlines
• Ability to understand complex scientific and medical information and communicate it to a lay audience
• Experience of managing the development, launch and ongoing day to day activities of IT platform(s) in an academic or health care environment
• Experience of developing detailed project plans and communicating these to a wide range of stakeholders
• Experience of acting in an advisory capacity to colleagues at all levels
• Experience of networking and dissemination work
• Experience dealing with complex numerical and scientific data
• Experience of engaging clinicians in data provision

Attributes and Behaviour

• Has the ability to see the "big picture", to think strategically and to manage complex problems and issues
• Uses clear, concise and accurate communication, tailoring the approach accordingly and encouraging a two-way communication process
• Works collaboratively with others, plays a positive role in teams and establishes and grows relationships across the organisation where different skills, expertise and opinions are valued
• Ability to undertake work outside of normal working hours and travel nationally and internationally for work on an occasional basis

Qualifications

• Degree (or equivalent professional qualification) in a relevant discipline, or significant experience of working in a project management role

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.

Requisition ID: 28827