Cross-Institute Partnerships Manager | Academic Research & Strategic Partnerships

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

About the role:

The Cross-Institute Partnerships Manager plays a key role in developing, coordinating and supporting strategic external partnerships that enhance the Institute's scientific environment and advance its strategic priorities. Working within the Strategy, Policy & Partnerships team, the role focuses on partnerships that span multiple departments, programmes or functions across the Institute. These may include collaborations with universities and research institutes, scientific societies, non-profit organisations, research consortia and peer networks that bring researchers together across disciplines.

The role translates high-level partnership opportunities identified by senior leaders into meaningful collaborations with clear objectives, effective governance and measurable outcomes. It also helps establish and continuously improve the Institute's approach to partnership management, ensuring that strategic relationships are visible, coordinated and delivering value across the organisation. Working closely with the Senior Translation Partnerships Manager, the postholder will ensure a consistent and coordinated approach to external engagement while maintaining clear accountabilities across different partnership types.

We welcome applications from individuals with a broad range of skills and experience and encourage applications from curiosity-driven people with backgrounds that don’t exactly fit our requirements, but who can provide proof of exceptional work. We place a high value on work-life balance and are dedicated to supporting our team members with family-friendly policies and benefits, including flexible working arrangements. We welcome full- and part-time applicants for this role.

You will be responsible for:

• Developing and continuously improving the Institute's approach to cross-Institute partnership management, including governance, tools, processes and monitoring frameworks.
• Coordinating the assessment and progression of strategic partnership opportunities, gathering information, facilitating stakeholder input and supporting decision-making.
• Providing operational and alliance management support for existing Institute-wide partnerships.
• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with internal stakeholders and external partner organisations.
• Supporting partnership meetings, visits, events and engagement activities, ensuring clear objectives, effective coordination and appropriate follow-up.
• Leading operational project management for partnership initiatives, including consortium activities where the Institute acts as lead partner.
• Monitoring partnership progress, risks and outcomes, providing regular reporting and escalating issues where appropriate.
• Managing and continuously improving the Institute's partnership management system, ensuring opportunities, relationships, actions and outcomes are appropriately recorded and tracked.
• Producing high-quality briefings, presentations and papers for senior leaders, drawing together information from multiple sources to support decision-making.
• Working closely with colleagues across Strategy, Policy & Partnerships and other Institute functions to align activities, share best practice and maximise the impact of external relationships.

About you:

You are an experienced partnership or stakeholder engagement professional who thrives in collaborative, complex and intellectually stimulating environments. You are comfortable working across organisational boundaries, bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders to deliver shared objectives. You have strong relationship-building skills and can influence and coordinate activity without direct authority. You combine strategic awareness with excellent operational delivery, enabling you to translate high-level opportunities into practical plans and successful collaborations. You are highly organised, adaptable and able to manage multiple priorities while maintaining attention to detail. You enjoy working with senior leaders, researchers and external partners, and are motivated by the opportunity to help shape how one of the world's leading genomic research institutes develops and manages its most important relationships.

To excel in this role, you will need the following skills and experience:

Knowledge

• Understanding of academic research collaboration landscapes and strategic partnerships.
• Knowledge of alliance management and project governance approaches.
• Understanding of governance, stakeholder engagement and decision-making processes within complex organisations.

Experience

• Managing multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborative initiatives.
• Coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver complex projects and programmes.
• Building and maintaining effective professional relationships across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Working with senior leaders, academic stakeholders and external partners.
• Supporting initiatives that align partnership activity with organisational priorities.

Skills and Capabilities

• Excellent project management and organisational skills.
• Strong communication, negotiation and relationship-building abilities.
• Analytical skills with the ability to monitor, evaluate and report on partnership performance.
• Ability to influence, coordinate and drive progress across complex stakeholder groups without direct authority.
• Strong judgement, prioritisation and problem-solving skills in evolving or ambiguous situations.
• Ability to establish effective processes, governance approaches and operational frameworks for partnership management.

About Us:

The Strategy team helps shape and align the Institute's direction across science, operations, people, funding and impact. Working closely with Science Programmes, Institute leadership, Wellcome and external stakeholders, the team provides insight, coordination and strategic support to help the Institute achieve its long-term ambitions. The function brings together expertise in strategy, impact, policy and partnerships to maximise the reach, influence and impact of Sanger science.

Our work spans three core areas:

• Strategy & Impact - Setting and aligning institutional direction across science, operations, people, funding and impact. Ensuring coherence across Institute, programme and operational strategies. Tracking progress and evaluating strategic impact.
• Policy - Translating research into policy-relevant insight and influence. Positioning the Institute as a thought leader in areas where it has distinctive expertise. Advising on the implications of external developments for Institute priorities.
• Institute Partnerships - Developing and supporting strategic institutional partnerships. Increasing visibility of key external relationships across the Institute. Creating opportunities for collaboration that enrich science and maximise impact.

As part of the creation of Innovation & Impact, we are building a new team that operates at the intersection of science, strategy and external engagement. This is an exciting opportunity.

Next Steps

If you’re excited by the opportunity to join a newly formed function and help shape how the Institute builds relationships, influences its environment and delivers global impact through science we’d love to hear from you. Please include a cover letter along with your CV. In your cover letter, include detail on how your knowledge, skills and experience match the requirements of the role described.

Interviews will be held on 30th July 2026. Candidates shortlisted for interview will be asked to complete a short task in advance of the one-hour panel interview.

Additional information

Please note: This is a hybrid role with 2-3 days per week onsite.

Applications:

Salary: £55,000 – £66,000 per annum

Closing Date: 11:59pm Sunday, 19th July 2026

Contract duration: Permanent

Role profile: For the full list of accountabilities and criteria please click here. To read more about the Impact and Innovation Department, take a look here.

Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and the role may close when a successful appointment has been made.