RAND is a not-for-profit research institute with over 30 years of experience in conducting policy research for governments, international organisations, research councils, charitable foundations, and other organisations. We believe that good research helps shape sound answers to pressing societal challenges, ultimately making communities safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous in the future. RAND Europe has offices in Cambridge, Brussels and The Hague and employs approximately 200 staff.

We are looking for a Programme Support Officer to provide high quality Programme and project support to a large number of concurrent research proposals, projects and frameworks managed by research groups.

The position will be based at our Cambridge office in the United Kingdom, with a requirement to attend the office twice a week.

Key responsibilities

Lifecycle support

• Oversees full project lifecycle from expression of interest to project closure.
• Reviews invitations to tender to establish regulatory and financial capacity needs to support proposal submissions.
• Assists the research teams in the development of proposals, including helping with budget preparation, liaising with external stakeholders to retrieve all necessary information and documentation, ensuring sufficient approval is obtained and proposal documentation is complete.
• Monitor project implementation, ensuring milestones are met and objectives achieved.
• Coordinate project closure activities, including final reporting, evaluation, and documentation.

Financial Management

• Reviews and obtains approval of proposal and project budgets.
• Monitor, update, and maintain project budgets.
• Assist with all variation requests (including variations to intercompany work authorisations).

Corporate Governance, Quality Assurance and Improvement

• Maintains regulatory documents for all RAND Europe entities.
• Oversees proposal and project governance.
• Maintains, checks entries in the system lessons log.
• Creates, develops, and maintains processes and procedures, covering both functional and governance support.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of the Project and Finance Group processes and practices.
• Support researchers with the evaluation and assessment of proposal and project effectiveness and impact.
• Complies with all company policies and RAND Europe Management Systems.
• Compliance with all IMS policies.

Programme Management

• Maintains oversight of a portfolio of proposals, projects, and frameworks.
• Facilitate the transition of projects from proposal through to execution and closure, ensuring all stages are completed effectively.
• Tracks and reports against project progress, including milestones, budget and resource using established logs and registers.
• Works closely with Project Leaders and Project Managers to maintain accurate project management information and up-to-date plans.
• Tracks and manages risks and issues, to support project teams’ decision making.
• Facilitates project review meetings – presentation of appropriate, timely and accurate project information.

Communication and Liaison

• Serve as a point of contact for all programme-related inquiries and communications across your portfolio.
• Facilitate communication between stakeholders, including partners, clients, subcontractors, and RAND Europe colleagues.                                                                                                                               
• Liaise between the wider RAND Europe research community, Project and Finance Group, and wider support functions.

• Works effectively and collaboratively with the rest of the PSO team and the Project and Finance Group.
• Delivers training for the development of new starters and existing members of the Programme Support Office

Other duties

• Deliver training to the organisation around proposal, project and system management.
• Ad hoc duties as required; this will include deputising for the Programme Support Office Manager from time to time as required.