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Programme Lead, National Pain Institute
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About the Role
Grade: Senior Manager
Salary: £65-75,000
Contract: Fixed-term, 12 months (development phase)
Location: London, with remote working up to 2 days per week
Programme Lead, National Pain Institute
About the National Pain Institute
Chronic pain affects an estimated 14 million adults in the UK. It is the second most recorded long-term condition in primary care. Yet across research funding, clinical training and NHS commissioning, pain is still treated mainly as a symptom of other conditions rather than as a subject in its own right. That condition-based approach leaves people whose pain is chronic, complex, or hard to attribute to a single diagnosis consistently falling through the gaps between services.
The National Pain Institute (NPI) is being established to close that gap: a new, permanent UK institution whose purpose is to turn what pain science already knows into what health services, employers and policymakers actually do - and to do so in a way that earns and keeps the trust of the people it exists for.
The NPI is being developed in partnership by Zinc Innovation Partners (ZIP), Arthritis UK and the University of Bath. It is currently in a 12-month development phase - building the evidence base, the governance model and the funding case that will underpin the Institute's full launch by the end of 2027.
Working under the leadership of Professor Eccleston, along with ZIP CEO Polly Mackenzie and Chief Science Officer Rachel Carey, we are hiring three roles to lead this development phase. All three of these new roles are fixed-term for the development phase (approximately 12 months) though we anticipate opportunities for team members to transition into the NPI as it is established, or find ongoing roles supporting partnerships, social innovation and science commercialisation at ZIP if preferred.
We are holding a briefing call for interested candidates on Friday 24 July at 9.30 which will be recorded.
About the Role
Grade: Senior Manager
Salary: £65-75,000
Contract: Fixed-term, 12 months (development phase)
Location: London, with remote working up to 2 days per week
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This is the lead role in the NPI's development phase: responsible for turning a strong case into a fundable, deliverable plan. You'll own the 12-month development roadmap, holding together a small team working across Zinc Innovation Partners, the University of Bath, Arthritis UK and other partners as they come on board. It's an early-stage, high-responsibility role for someone who wants to build an institution from its first year, pushing at the boundaries of what is possible and crafting something fit for purpose, capable of holding public trust and securing impact.
The NPI will act primarily in the translational space: accelerating the pathway of scientific breakthroughs and analytical insight to real-world change for patients, policy and systems. So we are looking for someone with a background in at least one of the translation pathways we will use: commercialisation, social innovation, policy impact or training and education. You must be comfortable working with a blank piece of paper, and fascinated to learn about the parts of this project that are unfamiliar to you.
This is a unique and challenging role. There isn’t a simple model for what we are trying to build that we can copy, because this translation gap exists across the whole paradigm of social change and scientific innovation. We are building this institution not just to improve outcomes for people experiencing chronic pain but to test a new model for turning knowledge into practice. As well as bringing the pain research community together to accelerate and co-ordinate research, we plan to build experimental blended finance funds that can support translational medicine from lab to life, as well as social innovation pathways into the NHS, welfare systems and employer relationships.
What you'll do
- Own and drive the 12-month development phase plan, including workstream ownership, capacity mapping and dependencies. Workstreams include:
- Governance and accountability, including designing patient experience pathways
- Stakeholder engagement, across the academic pain research community, the impact economy, government and health services and others.
- Brand, identity, vision, mission and values
- Landscape mapping across policy, practice and investment ecosystems
- Designing ‘sprint’ programmes that will be the core operating model of the NPI, accelerating real-world impact on a tightly defined problem area
- Coordinate across partner organisations and hold the core team to shared goals and deadlines, establishing internal processes and learning cycles over the 12 months
- Represent the NPI in funder and stakeholder conversations
- Manage the Researcher and Partnerships Lead
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What we're looking for
- Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects - in research, health, policy, or the charity or social investment sector
- Depth of experience in at least one of our translation pathways - commercialisation, social innovation, policy impact or training and education - with appetite to learn about the others
- Comfort moving between strategy and delivery in the same week
- Experience interacting with, or designing, governance structures and accountability mechanisms, in particular those involving public and patient engagement.
- Strong writing and argument-building skills
- Confidence working with senior academics, funders and investors as equals
- A deep commitment to tackling pain and its impacts
Working at Zinc
We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including those with current or past lived experience of the issues we are tackling, and those from marginalised communities who are often disproportionately affected by them.
We welcome requests for flexible working and job sharing.
We offer 25 days’ holiday and an employer's pension contribution.
How to apply
To apply, please submit a CV and a short note (no more than one page) explaining your interest in this role. AI tools are fine to use, but we really want the letter to help us get to know you — tell us in your own words and your own voice why this role is a good match.
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