Project Manager - Consulting Services

With one foot in academia and the other in industry, Oxford University Innovation’s professionals undertake a wide variety of tasks from licensing university ideas and supporting academic consultancy to finding investment for spinout companies, setting up social enterprises and supporting student entrepreneurship. The Consulting Services team within OUI works across the depth and breadth of the University’s academic disciplines and is responsible for providing a professional project negotiation, facilitation and coordination service to researchers who engage in consultancy, as well as for departments who undertake services work.

The Opportunity: We now have an exciting opportunity for a collaborative Project Manager to join our highly motivated and successful Consulting Services team. Reporting to the Head of Consulting Services, the Project Manager will be responsible for actively coordinating and managing a portfolio of academic consultancy and technical service projects, from initial enquiry to contract negotiation and project completion, ensuring project delivery and customer satisfaction. The role is broad-based, working on projects drawn from across the breadth of the university’s research areas, so the ability to grasp a wide range of intellectual concepts quickly is important.

The key responsibilities of the role include:

• Contract negotiation – drafting from template agreements or marking-up client contracts, seeking legal advice where necessary from OUI’s lawyer.
• Coordinating a diverse portfolio of projects, liaising with academic researchers, University departments and external clients to ensure that project scopes, timeframes and costs are all agreed, and projects are successfully delivered.
• Fielding enquiries from both researchers and external clients and maintaining a network of relationships with researchers who may undertake consultancy.
• Liaising closely with support colleagues in OUI Operations and Finance, ensuring projects are managed in compliance with the group’s policies and procedures and those of the University.
• Instructing and approving project payments, ensuring that projects are invoiced, and payments distributed in a timely manner.
• When experienced in the role, working with colleagues on marketing and business development initiatives, including promoting the group’s services to University staff at internal marketing events.

About you: You will be a collaborative team player and have strong administrative skills and a working knowledge of contracts and legal language. A degree is desirable, but not essential, as is experience of successful contract negotiation. Key to this position is the ability to grasp concepts, understand and implement processes, and have very good attention to detail. The successful candidate will also have strong relational skills and be capable of working with and contributing to the success of this high-performing team. They will need to demonstrate competence in:

• Working successfully both independently and as an active team player.
• Contract negotiation and mark-up of agreements.
• Showing tenacity and persistence to close deals and achieve successful project outcomes.
• Deploying excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both verbally and in writing.
• Managing relationships through challenging situations with tact and diplomacy.

How to apply: If you are interested in applying for this role, please download the application form from the OUI website and send it together with a copy of your CV and cover letter to Roy Bennett at roy@adlib-recruitment.co.uk.

The salary for this role is commensurate with experience and will be in the range of £42,000 – £46,000 with extensive benefits including 30 days leave plus 8 bank holidays, 10% employer pension contribution, private healthcare and hybrid working (50/50 ratio).

The closing date is midday Wednesday 7th May 2025.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: Oxford University Innovation is an Equal Opportunities Employer and is committed to fostering an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a supportive working, learning and social environment, in which the rights and dignity of all its staff are respected, and where everyone can be themselves and are empowered to reach their full potential. This commitment is linked to and reinforces the OUI values of integrity, collaboration, and empowerment. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures.

OUI is accredited with the Investors in People Gold status.

Our approach to hybrid and flexible working: We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset, and we are committed to attracting and retaining the very best talent. We also appreciate that the UK workforce is becoming increasingly diverse and includes a high percentage of parents and individuals with caring responsibilities, as well as those whose interests and aspirations impact on their time. We recognise the importance of helping our employees balance their work and home lives by offering flexible working arrangements that enable them to balance their work commitments with other priorities. This includes hybrid working and flexible working.