University of Bristol
Research Compliance and Contracts Officer
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
The Role
This role is designed to specifically support EPSRC-funded Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) to comply with research security obligations and contractual arrangements with industry partners. You will be based within the Research Compliance Team with a line into the Research Contracts Team, managed by supervisors relevant to the element of work in which you are engaged.
This is a groundbreaking role in a sector-leading capacity, joining a dynamic and rapidly evolving team responsible for advising research academics and professional services teams across the University, to ensure research activity is carried out with the highest degree of compliance with relevant legislation.
You will be centrally involved in developing relationships with CDT Directors, PhD students, and industrial partners, and will have a key role in providing advice and training to research academics and those professional services staff that support them in the conduct of pioneering and prestigious research. Funder focus on compliance with national security regulation and the importance of drafting appropriate collaboration and studentship agreements continues to increase and it will be your responsibility to ensure outcomes that manage internal and external relationships, whilst also protecting the University from the risk of financial, legal, and reputation harm.
Engagement with internal and external stakeholders, including Government Funders and regulators will be a key element of your role, in addition to developing knowledge-sharing and best practice material in a fast-paced and developing area of law, delivering a critical function in providing specialist advice around Government regulation created to protect UK national security and infrastructure.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
What Will You Be Doing?
You will:
- Be involved with investigating and managing enquiries from CDT Directors, supervisors, and postgraduate students specifically pertaining to their research.
- Assist in establishing policy, processes, and guidance around the University's response to legal compliance and contractual measures as relevant to CDTs.
- Assist with training of professional services teams and research academics in the context of providing advice and awareness around research compliance and contractual requirements from CDTs, and associated risks of non-compliance.
- Provide input into wider internal communications around prevalent research security risks and in preparing material for updates to SharePoint.
- Horizon-scanning for arising risks and changes to legislation that could impact the University and, specifically, the CDTs awarded to the institution.
- Assist in developing a reporting function to showcase practice implementation for each of the 9 CDTs awarded to the University over a 4-year period with the aim of extending its reach and size in the short- and long-term.
You Should Apply If
- You are interested in an innovative role combining evolving regulatory compliance with strong commercial and contractual expertise.
- You are interested in developing an expanding area of legal expertise critical to research work in higher education.
- You are keen to understand new legislation, assess risk, and provide confident and assertive advice to senior personnel with legal and non-legal experience.
- You have an awareness of policy and guidance processes, understanding the importance of audit functions.
- You have strong problem-solving capability, able to deal with a concurrent workload of different issues with shifting priorities.
- You have experience of providing supervision to junior staff members, and can assist in mentoring them through legal work experience and education.
- You have positive interpersonal skills to enable engagement with key stakeholders within the University.
- You are solutions-focused, with a proactive and innovative approach to dealing with the challenges of working in a large, research-intensive University.
- Whilst experience in a regulatory/commercial environment is desirable, it is not essential. Relevant and detailed training will be provided.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Additional Information
- Contract type: Open-ended with fixed funding until 20/09/2032
- Work pattern: Full-time
- Grade: I
- Salary: £39,906 - £44,746 per annum
- School/Unit: Research Compliance
This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on: Wednesday 14th October
For informal queries, please contact:
- Chaitali Desai (Head of Research Compliance) on chaitali.desai@bristol.ac.uk
- Rajive Sharma (Senior Research Contracts Manager) on rajive.sharma@bristol.ac.uk
Our Strategy and Mission
We recently launched our strategy to 2030 tying together our mission, vision, and values.
Available Documents
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London