Senior Research Officer

What the job involves

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and it’s harming too many lives. At Prostate Cancer UK, one of our top priorities is funding research that leads to real change. It’s vital we do our best to make sure this research makes a meaningful difference to men’s lives, and that’s where you come in.

We’re looking for an enthusiastic and proactive Senior Research Officer to help us deliver our funding schemes and patient and public involvement work. This role sits in the Research Funding Team and will provide us with support across our grant funding schemes, ensuring we are following best practice in research funding.

You’ll take responsibility for a small portfolio of active research grants, providing support and guidance to the researchers leading them. You’ll be a main point of contact for grant applicants, supporting them as they apply to us and will be responsible for running peer review. Using your understanding of research funding and administration, you’ll help make sure our funding schemes run smoothly and to time. You’ll work with colleagues to support patient and public involvement in research both in our review process and through our Patient Representative Network who help researchers make sure their work is focused on the needs of men with prostate cancer.

What we want from you

We’re looking for a Senior Research Officer who is passionate about research and has a desire to develop knowledge of prostate cancer. You’ll hold a biomedical degree (or a degree in a related science subject), or with equivalent experience gained in research funding, administration or the wider research sector.

You’ll already have a good grasp of how grant funding works with demonstrable experience of research administration and peer review. Confidence in interpreting complex scientific information is important, as you’ll be using this knowledge to find the right people to peer review the grant applications that are submitted to our schemes. You’ll have experience of supporting scientific meetings, preferably research funding committees, and understand the importance of capturing accurate minutes to provide constructive feedback to applicants.

You’re also an accurate record Keeper with a keen eye for detail and excellent time management skills. You’re assured and clear in your communication, both written and verbal, and you’re able to respond to a wide range of inquiries from researchers while always adhering to data protection and confidentiality best practices. Experience of using Symplectic’s Grant Tracker or other grant management systems would be an advantage but is not essential.

We encourage applications from candidates who may not completely fit the job description as we are fully committed to help colleagues develop and progress in their role.

Why work with us?

Every man needs to know about the most common cancer in men – prostate cancer. It’s a real and present danger that takes over 12,000 of our dads, grandads, brothers and friends each year.

Prostate Cancer UK is the largest men’s health charity in the UK. We have a simple ambition – to stop prostate cancer damaging lives. We invest millions in research to revolutionise testing, treatment and care. We’re blazing a trail to a screening programme that could save thousands of lives with regular, accurate tests for all men at risk. And we work tirelessly to spread the word about risk and offer specialist support to people living with the disease.

Work with us and you’ll see your efforts pay off as we give men and their families the power to navigate prostate cancer.

What we offer

Join our team and be part of an award‑winning charity. We’ll support you to develop your skills and expertise.

We offer a competitive benefits package, including:

• Generous leave entitlements that increase with service
• One ‘development day’ a month to use for training or personal development
• Enhanced contributory pension scheme
• Life insurance and group income protection
• Health Cash Plan
• Life and wellbeing advice and support via our Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounted gym membership and high street shopping discounts
• Loans for season tickets or cycles

This role is in salary Band 3. We’ll appoint at a salary between £34,300 – £37,300 per year. We aim to pay the median salary for the sector and after 12 months’ successful service all colleagues are moved to the midpoint of the pay band. Those appointed below the midpoint will have their salary increased at that time. The midpoint salary for this role is £40,300.

We operate national salaries that account for our contractual base being our London office. We also pay a working from home allowance at the HMRC tax free rate of £312 per year.

We’re committed to paying at least the London Living Wage for all roles and implement the new rate from April each year.

Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion

At Prostate Cancer UK we’re committed to righting health inequalities across the UK, starting with those faced by Black men. This includes ground-breaking research into Black men’s risk and working with communities directly to overcome barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. To make this happen, we\’re dedicated to being an inclusive, proactive organisation, as we strive to be Allies to Black communities. We’ll achieve this by advocating and working alongside those communities to promote change. We\’re also working to be Allies to each other, not only protected groups. In 2024, we launched our New Allyship Training Programme. All colleagues at Prostate Cancer UK will be trained to act and identify as an Ally.

We\’ve also signed Business in the Communities Race at Work Charter, as a dedication to our Black health equity work and wider EDI priorities. As a signatory, we\’re responsible and accountable for driving positive change.

Our people networks

We’re continuously learning more about the needs of our colleagues, and have three amazing People Networks, sponsored by our Leadership team:

• Pride – A safe space where LGBTQ+ colleagues — and our allies — can share their diverse lived experiences, celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and history, and create new ideas about how our organisation can be more inclusive and representative of LGBTQ+ people
• Mind & Body – Here to increase awareness, promote wellbeing and support colleagues affected by neurodiversity, mental health problems, disability and long‑term illness
• Culture Club – Here to increase awareness and celebrate the different cultures and beliefs that we have in the organisation, so that we all have our cultures felt and felt welcomed

How and where we work

Our hybrid working approach is based on guiding principles and combines choice around where you work effectively most of the time with clear expectations on connection time, usually at our London Bridge office (SE1 2QN).

We are all expected to be in the office at least four days a month (pro-rata for part time colleagues) to work with and alongside colleagues in our immediate team and beyond to build connections and strong working relationships. We value that face‑to‑face time for relationships, projects and decisions. We’re very welcome to work there more frequently. Office time is a commute, so we pay our own travel costs to and from the office and other London locations.

We trust our colleagues to work in this way with the flexibility to juggle personal commitments with work. We aim to balance the needs of individuals, teams and the charity.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and will make reasonable adjustments for colleagues with a disability, neurodiversity or long‑term physical or mental health condition.

For this role we expect the successful candidate to be coming into the London office at least four times a month. There will be some additional in person attendance for training and induction in your first few months to enable you to get to know your new role and colleagues.

Next steps

For more information on the role, please download our job description (job profile document) and read through the ‘How to apply’ section (below), sharing the key points to refer to in your application and to apply, go to: https://prostatecanceruk.ciphr-irecruit.com/Applicants/vacancy

The closing date is Sunday 11th January 2026. Applications must be submitted by 23:45 UK time.

Interviews: By arrangement. Currently scheduled for the week of Monday 19th January 2026. We’re expecting the interviews for this role to be held online.

To complete your application, you’ll be asked to upload your CV and complete the supporting information section through our application portal. Please fill in parts one and two of our application for your personal statement, both have an 8000-character limit. You may wish to use a method such as the ‘STAR’ technique or similar. When completing the statements please ensure you clearly provide a full and relevant example of how the criteria apply.

Got a question? Please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements or any other questions – we’re here to help: recruitment@prostatecanceruk.org

We look forward to receiving your application!

Prostate Cancer UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1005541) and in Scotland (SC039332). Registered company number 02653887.