Project Manager

The Project Managers are responsible for the successful delivery of high level, complex or multifaceted projects within the ATC portfolio through effective assurance, tracking and reporting.

To succeed in this role, you should have effective communication skills and be able to collaborate with ATC Partners as well as various industry and academic partners to deliver successful outcomes to set deadlines.

Ultimately, the role of the Project Manager is to support the whole team to ensure that the project is governed and administered correctly in line with Innovate UK guidelines and the approved Project Business Cases and Project Management Plans.

Main Duties

You will take responsibility for leading and running the delivery of a wide range of Agri-Tech research projects including the following responsibilities:

· Ensure the winning bids for project funding are translated into delivery objectives and implemented to agreed outcomes within time, cost and quality.

· Anticipate and manage delivery risks, assessing the impact to project delivery and managing mitigation and fallback plans. Highlighting obstacles to delivery in advance and pulling together the activities to overcome them

· Maintain and monitor project plans and schedules, resourcing etc. keeping delivery of projects on track

· Lead on stakeholder engagement to understand their unique communication needs during the project

· Act as a reference point for project queries from internal and external stakeholders. Understand the project scope and required activities to be able to challenge project progress

· Organise, prepare materials for and participate in project stakeholder meetings.

· Produce management information data (including report and dashboard creation) to the PMO and ATC leadership team, supporting ATC internal and external governance and oversight.

· Making appropriate use of the ATC project reporting and monitoring tools and governance arrangements., This role will require some travel to ATC offices, partner sites and occasional project meetings.

· Strong track record as a Project Manager managing complex and high value projects.

· IPMA Level D / APMP / PRINCE2 Practitioner certification.

· The ability to prepare and interpret flowcharts, process maps, schedules, WBS and step-by-step action plans.

· Familiarity with risk management, governance principles and quality assurance.

· Intermediate level Excel skills would be essential.

· Experience of Innovate UK funded project delivery

· A background in either agriculture, agri-food or research environments.

· MS Visio.

· GDPR knowledge.

· Flexible in applying knowledge and capable of adapting approaches to meet different project needs.

· Able to confidently manage stakeholders, challenging and influencing while maintaining good relationships.

· Strategic thinking, aligning project deliverables with business strategy.

· The ability to collaborate with colleagues effectively.

· The ability to use initiative and have the instinct to review information and breakdown to lower level.

· Have a holistic view, be able to see the context of projects within the business model.

· Solid organisational skills, including multitasking and time-management.

· Strong client-facing and teamwork skills.

· Ability to translate technical and scientific dialogue into user friendly requirements.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

· Strong attention to detail.

· Strong Line management, mentoring, coaching and development skills.

The UK Agri-Tech Centre is a new organisation launched on 1 April 2024 and created from three of the original Agri-Tech centres.

Utilising our UK-wide assets, world-class facilities and expertise, our new organisation is a gateway for funding programmes, such as the Farming Innovation Programme and Horizon Europe, and provides benefits to the whole supply chain, the UK economy and beyond.

We offer a complete life cycle of support, driving Agri-Tech innovation and adoption through world-class facilities, expert knowledge and business support accelerating progress.

We strengthen the connections between science, business, and funders to accelerate research and development tackling the industry's most critical challenges such as climate change, labour availability, disease mitigation and environmental sustainability.