Operations Manager

Ref Number

B04-07597

Professional Expertise

HR and Wellbeing

Department

UCL BEAMS (B04)

Location

London

Working Pattern

Full time

Salary

£43,981-£52,586

Contract Type

Fixed-term

Working Type

Hybrid

Available for Secondment

Yes

Closing Date

23-Aug-2026

About us

The Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) is a department within UCL and part of The Bartlett faculty, known internationally for its radical thinking about space, design and sustainability.

The work of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) is influencing global policy decisions and creating new policy collaborations to deliver public value-driven innovations.

IIPP is founded and directed by Mariana Mazzucato, who holds the Chair in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value. The Deputy Director’s of IIPP are Rainer Kattel is Professor of Innovation and Public Governance and David Eaves Associate Professor of Digital Government. Our team brings together an interdisciplinary group of cutting-edge academics and practitioners with global experience.

The mission of IIPP is to change how public value is imagined, practiced and evaluated to tackle societal challenges - and, by doing this, deliver economic growth that is innovation-led, sustainable and inclusive.

About the role

This role is responsible for overseeing the effective and efficient delivery of operational processes across research HR administration, finance, and Health & Safety (T100). It supports the Head of Operations in ensuring the smooth running of the Directorate, enabling academic and research staff to achieve their objectives.

The role provides comprehensive operations and resourcing support across the Institute, ensuring full compliance with policies and procedures. It includes line management of two Operations Administrators, promoting strong and collaborative working relationships, and proactively identifying and escalating any potential people-related issues.

About you

You'll be an experienced operations or HR professional who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and enjoys making processes more efficient. Highly organised and proactive, you're confident managing a broad range of operational responsibilities across HR, finance, compliance and administration, while maintaining exceptional attention to detail.

You're a natural relationship builder with excellent communication skills, able to advise and support managers, interpret policies, and handle sensitive issues with professionalism and discretion. Comfortable working independently and using your initiative, you're equally happy leading a small team, managing competing priorities, and contributing to wider organisational improvements.

You'll bring a strong understanding of HR processes and employment practices, a commitment to delivering an excellent staff and candidate experience, and a passion for continuous improvement. If you're motivated by enabling others to succeed, value inclusivity and collaboration, and enjoy working in a purpose-driven organisation, we'd love to hear from you.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits, some of which are below:

41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave, 8 bank holidays and 6 closure days)

Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme

Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)

Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan

Immigration loan

Relocation scheme for certain posts

Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay

Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service

Discounted medical insurance

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

Our Faculty holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality.

You can about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/