Senior Programme Manager - Compute Services

UKRI Infrastructure
Salary: £46,743 per annum.
Band: UKRI Band E.
Contract Type: Fixed Term (23 Months).
Hours: Full-time or Part Time (minimum 0.8 FTE)(Flexible Working Available).
Location: Polaris House, Swindon - Hybrid working available (Min 2 days per week in the office).

Closing Date: Wednesday 4th November 2026.

About the role

We are recruiting two Senior Programme Managers to join the UKRI Infrastructure Team and play key roles in supporting the delivery of the Next National Supercomputing Service (NNSS) and managing the National Compute Resource (NCR) portfolio. The NNSS and NCRs are cornerstone investments at the heart of the DSIT-UKRI compute roadmap published in July 2025. The NNSS is a £750 million strategic investment for the UK government, to ensure the UK research and innovation community continues to have access to the most advanced modelling and simulation capabilities. It will provide innovative compute hardware at the University of Edinburgh, alongside the services, software and support needed to enable researchers and innovators to make effective use of this national resource. The NCR portfolio comprises a range of smaller scale compute resources funded by UKRI that are designed to be diverse, user-centred, coherent and serving the needs of the UK.

These roles are within the Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) pillar, which alongside the Infrastructure Fund and Portfolio pillars form the cross-cutting UKRI Infrastructure Team that coordinates and manages UKRI’s Infrastructure portfolio. You will collaborate across the organisation and externally, engaging with relevant collaborators in government departments, Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs), academia and industry to gather insight and ensure that UKRI’s plans for compute infrastructure enable our varied communities to use the most powerful digital tools and techniques.

As a Senior Programme Manager, you will lead and take part in a wide range of strategic and operational activities that support the successful and effective delivery of the NNSS and NCR investments. These responsibilities will range from developing policy and managing stakeholders, to facilitating governance boards and working with service providers resolving operational system issues. As part of this role, you will work closely with colleagues across UKRI and engage regularly with peers and senior leaders, playing a key part in shaping the future of UK’s compute infrastructure landscape and ensuring that UKRI’s investments deliver maximum value for the research and innovation community. You will be working particularly closely with the Head of Service Delivery and the Head of Policy and Engagement of NNSS.

We encourage candidates with an interest and knowledge in large-scale compute and related aspects of DRI to apply for this position: relevant experience might have been gained from several different types of career path or educational background. It is likely that the successful candidate will have the opportunity to work for periods with other policy or technical teams within UKRI to enhance the knowledge needed for their work.

Your responsibilities:

• Support the development, delivery and operation of key investments in the UKRI national compute ecosystem, including the NNSS, the NNSS Grand Challenges initiatives, the NCRs and Community Centres of Excellence.
• Develop and implement the access and allocation policy for the compute services to ensure fair, open and appropriate distribution of compute resources for effective utilisation of the entire portfolio of compute investments.
• Maintain and develop project management processes to ensure successful delivery of the compute investments, including appropriate governance, monitoring, assurance and evaluation approaches.
• Build and cultivate strong relationships across a range of stakeholders including users in the research and innovation communities, service providers and colleagues internally and Government departments.
• Provide high-quality expertise and advice in your area of responsibility, informed by evidence and engagement with relevant partners.
• Represent the UKRI Infrastructure team in meetings with internal and external collaborators.
• Contribute to strategic projects across the Infrastructure team, as required.

Personal Specification

The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I).

Your CV should be no more than two pages.

As part of the application, you will be required to submit a cover letter in which you should give evidenced examples that clearly explain how your abilities, experiences and skills demonstrate each of the shortlisting criteria listed below. You may find the STAR (situation, task, action, result) methodology a useful framework for providing these examples.

Essential

• Knowledge and experience of programme, portfolio and/or project management of research-related or innovation activities (S).
• Awareness of some technical concepts in large-scale advanced computing technologies such as HPC and AI (S&I).
• An ability to work as part of a team and engage with a range of internal and external stakeholders at different levels, including influencing others to achieve outcomes and improve performance (S&I).
• Strong written and oral communication skills with an ability to produce clear, concise, and accurate presentations and written documentation for a wide range of audiences, in the context of strategy development and implementation (S&I).
• Sophisticated analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills and an ability to think strategically and work in a fast-paced environment (S&I).
• Ability to understand, analyse, and present data to inform senior leaders in decision-making (S&I).
• Strong strategic awareness of how the UK research and innovation system operates (S&I).

Benefits

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. UKRI 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).

Other key information

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact [email protected].

You should be willing to travel and work away from the office and/or normal working hours on an occasional basis.

Please note, if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK, as part of your sponsorship application, you and any dependants travelling with you, will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some, or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs or contact [email protected].

 We encourage candidates to apply as soon as possible, as we reserve the right to close this vacancy early.

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.

More information can be found at www.ukri.org.

Choosing to come to work at UKRI means that you will have access to a whole host of benefits from a defined benefit pension scheme, excellent holiday entitlement, access to employee shopping/travel discounts and salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme.  For more details, visit benefits of working for UKRI.

How we support EDI in the workforce

At UKRI, we believe that everyone has a right to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be provided with equal opportunities to thrive and succeed in an environment that enables them to do so. We also value diversity of thought and experience within inclusive groups, organisations and the wider community. For further information, please visit ‘How we support EDI in the workforce’.

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.

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.

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

As part of the pre-employment checks there is a requirement to undergo Baseline Personnel Security Screening. BPSS is a pre-condition of employment and failure to achieve it may mean that the employment offer is rescinded. UKRI reserves the right to run, or re-run, security clearance as required during the course of employment.