Associate Director
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Salary:£70,752 per annum.
Band: UKRI Band G.
Contract Type: Open-ended.
Hours: Full-time/ Part Time. (minimum 0.8 FTE) (flexible working available)
Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available.
Closing Date: 20/03/2026
About Us
The Research & Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP) is the Government's flagship new Mission-led R&D programme to transform people's lives and drive economic growth.
The programme has a £500m budget to galvanise the private sector, third sector and academia to develop new innovative solutions to the biggest problems facing society today. The programme will catalyse cutting-edge research, technology, service solutions and IP aligned to the UK Government's five National Missions and deliver the milestones in the Plan for Change.
The programme is currently developing its approaches across the Missions. Joining at this stage presents a real opportunity to establish and drive the strategic and operational direction of the programme and set the agenda for the UK's approach to 2030.
Mission Specifics
UK Infrastructure for Creative Content Exchange (CCE) Challenge Statement:
"We will develop a thriving, trusted, financially sustainable digital marketplace for creative and cultural content owners to license content, allowing them to generate commercial licensing revenue and take advantage of new commercial opportunities offered by AI. The objective is for the marketplace to be generating revenues of £50m per year by 2030."
The CCE Challenge is in its pilot phase, creating a marketplace as a commercial and investible proposition, to enable the sale and purchase through multiple mechanisms e.g. royalties and licences, for creative data, content and assets. The assets would be from the public and private sector (the content providers - initially large British cultural institutions, mainly GLAM, but later SMEs and individuals) supporting the discovery and realisation of value for them, while allowing ease of access for data and content users, including AI model developers, data product developers, other content consumers such as other creative companies or researchers (content consumers).
You'll be working with industry leaders, cultural institutions, government, and some of the UK's biggest museums to help accelerate the unlocking of investment into the digitisation of assets.
This is your opportunity to have a positive impact on the UK economy and drive innovation. Although the primary Challenge is on CCE, there is the potential to launch other Challenges, including one on digital IDs in the finance sector. As an Associate Director, you'll collaborate with national experts to drive strategic innovation, foster stakeholder partnerships, and tackle industry challenges head-on. You'll play a pivotal role in aligning research and commercial priorities, while leading high-impact projects that support the UK's economic goals.
Purpose
As Associate Director, you will bring energy, high standards, a desire to do things differently and an understanding of urgency and pace. You will join the Challenge senior leadership team, helping to shape the strategic direction of the Challenge-specific research and innovation (R&I) in the UK while delivering this flagship programme.
This is a unique opportunity to lead in a significant cross-sector programme that creates real world impact through collaborative, evidence-led innovation. The role combines programme delivery, strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement and senior-level management.
The role requires self-awareness, excellent personal resilience, as well as a high level of personal motivation to achieve widespread impact, along with strong influencing skills and levels of personal resilience.
You will be expected to act in the absence of the Challenge Director and will deputise for the Challenge Director as required.
Main Outputs and Activities
Strategic Leadership:
* Provide strategic leadership for the design and delivery of Challenge specific R&I, ensuring it is ambitious, independent, and trusted across research, policy, and public sectors and delivers real-world impact at pace.
* Shape and implement challenge-wide approaches to commissioning, governance, and innovation funding that reflect UKRI's values, including excellence, transparency, and public benefit.
* With in-depth knowledge of industry, use business acumen to engage widely to bring people together and problem solve.
* Lead horizon scanning and capability development to ensure the R&D MAP helps establish a sustainable, high-quality, and interdisciplinary innovation ecosystem
* Represent R&D MAP and UKRI in national and international fora.
Stakeholder Engagement & Representation:
* Lead engagement with a wide range of stakeholders across business, industry, government, third sector, and policy communities to build trust, manage risk, and ensure the R&D MAP Challenges reflect diverse perspectives and public interest.
* Build commercial insights into the approach from the outset to ensure that we are maximising additionality and growing the UK innovator base.
* Represent R&D MAP and UKRI in cross-government and cross-sector fora related to the Missions, embedding Government priorities at the heart of our approach.
* Act as a visible and credible ambassador for R&D MAP, able to navigate contested policy spaces diplomatically and assert UKRI's commitment to independent, high-quality research and innovation.
* Build constructive, inclusive relationships with innovators and researchers, ensuring open communication and a shared commitment to the long-term success and integrity of the programme.
Programme Design, Delivery and Evaluation:
* Lead the design and delivery of a major interdisciplinary innovation programme with a multi-million-pound budget, delivering at pace and scale with a strong focus on realising outcomes.
* Ensure delivery is effective, timely and aligned with strategic objectives, with robust evaluation and risk management processes to generate insights fast and course correct.
* Support the sustainable transition of investments from delivery through to completion and long-term impact.
* Embed a culture of learning, evidence and continuous improvement across the programme.
People Leadership:
* Build high-performing, inclusive teams through coaching, development and effective communication.
* Act as a role model for collaborative, transparent and values-led leadership.
* Promote staff engagement in planning, delivery and organisational development through inclusive and agile management approaches.
* Line manage and oversee relevant programme staff.
Personal Specification
The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I).
Essential
* Knowledge and experience of managing projects and the policy context, within the creative industry, across areas such as creation of marketplaces, AI in the creative industries, intellectual property, copyright, IP-related commercial models, technical exchange platforms, digitalisation of assets. It is not expected that you have experience across them all but please call out in your CV and cover letter any that you do have. (S&I)
* Proven experience of strategic planning and delivery in complex organisational settings. (S&I)
* Excellent leadership credentials with experience in managing and developing senior staff. (S&I)
* Strong commercial and financial management skills, including risk and evaluation oversight, ideally within data-intensive or tech start-up environments. (S&I)
* Exceptional communication and influencing skills, with a proven ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders, including that ability to navigate contested policy spaces diplomatically. (S&I)
* Successful track record in leading major interdisciplinary programmes. (S&I)
Desirable
* Knowledge and experience of managing projects and the policy context, potential within the finance sector, across areas such as digital IDs, deepfakes, identify fraud, cyber-security, biometric scanning technologies. It is not expected that you have experience across them all but please call out in your CV and cover letter any that you do have.
Benefits
We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning
A list of benefits below:
An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent).
Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
Flexible working options.
Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance
For further information on our benefits please see:
Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.
Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact
UKRI - UK Research and Innovation
UKRI is an organisation that brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Together, we build an independent organisation with a strong voice and vision ensuring the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation.
Supporting some of the world's most exciting and challenging research projects, we develop and operate some of the most remarkable scientific facilities in the world. We are pushing the frontiers of human knowledge through fundamental research and delivering benefits for UK society and the economy through world-class research, skills and business-led innovation.
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Disability Confident Employer
As users of the disability confident scheme, any candidate who opts into the scheme and best meets the essential criteria, will be shortlisted for interview. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
How to apply
Online applications only preferred for this role. Please submit a CV and covering letter which clearly outlines how you fulfil the criteria specified along with your motivation for UKRI and the role. Ensure that the job reference number is included in the filename description of each document uploaded. Note that failure to address the above criteria or submit an application without a covering letter may result in the application not being considered. Assessment will only be based upon the content of your submitted covering letter and CV and not the 'experience' section of the application.
UKRI seeks to ensure it creates and maintains a system of openness, fairness and inclusion – a collaborative, trusted environment, which is attractive to and accessible to everyone who is interested in developing their career with us.
The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.