Job ID: 1146

Closing Date: 1st July 2025

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Overview

Data Connect and the Secure Data Services are joint services within the Research and Innovation IT team. Together they support and enable researchers in getting access to NHS and social care data safely and securely for academic research projects. They are strategically important services in the University that enable research that will directly impact on the quality and length of people’s lives.

The University  is a partner in the Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment network which aims to ensure all sensitive data used for research stays within secure research environments to protect patient confidentiality and privacy.

We are seeking a Research Project Manager (Tech & Data) to support the Data Connect team, ensuring seamless project execution from planning to delivery. You’ll work closely with the Senior Research Project Manager, the Head of Secure Data Services whilst acting as a key point of contact for all Tech & Data projects for all delivery partners of the Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment.

In this pivotal role, you’ll contribute to the full project lifecycle, proactively identifying and addressing obstacles to optimise federated projects involving both infrastructure and data.  Your responsibilities will encompass planning, scheduling, and delivering engagement, governance, and data management activities. You’ll facilitate agile workflows, including daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, sprint planning, and retrospectives, to drive continuous improvement.

The Research Project Manager (Tech & Data) will work closely with other team members, particularly the Senior Research Project Manager and Head of Secure Data Services, as well as senior colleagues across all Secure Data Environment delivery partners, communicating openly about the work pipeline and opportunities, progress on current projects, highlighting risks and issues and collaborating to resolve them. They work, along with other team members, to communicate clearly to set project scope, timelines and delivery expectations.

Main duties and responsibilities

The Research Project Manager (Tech & Data) is responsible for the current active project activity including:

• Working with SDE delivery partners to define project workflows, project scopes and timelines and ensuring alignment with stakeholder expectations.
• Providing support to a range of programmes for the Yorkshire & Humber Secure Data Environment
• Working with teams to break down defined research projects into manageable tasks and create sprint plans.
• Contributing to the improvement of service design, by providing feedback and insights based on user interactions and project experiences.
• Maintaining and optimizing JIRA board workflows, ensuring efficient project tracking and task management.
• Working closely with the Senior Research Project Manager and Head of Secure Data Services to manage capacity and resource allocation across all active projects.
• Facilitating effective communication amongst delivery partners, ensuring clear and consistent information flow.
• Creating and maintaining comprehensive project documentation, including project plans, reports, and meeting minutes.
• Identifying and implementing process improvements, streamlining workflows and increasing efficiency.
• Implementing and facilitating agile methodologies, including sprints, stand-ups, and retrospectives.
• Provide progress updates to the Yorkshire & Humber Senior Leadership Team.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

We are a research university with a global reputation for excellence. Our ideas and expertise change the world for the better, making a real difference to society. We know that when people come together with different views, approaches and insights it can lead to richer, more creative and innovative teaching and research and the highest levels of student experience. Our University Vision (www.sheffield.ac.uk/vision) outlines our commitment to building a diverse community of staff and students that recognises and values the abilities, backgrounds, beliefs and ways of living for everyone.