Job Description

Salary: c. £60,000
Bonus: Discretionary
Location: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays-Thursdays – 3 days in our office, Monday + Friday – anywhere)
Employment Type: Permanent, full time
Closing Date: 19.04.26



About ARIA

ARIA is a new R&D funding agency built to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible.

From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on.

Our success is shaped by one question: how will ARIA transform the lives of the UK’s future generations? Whether that’s a life-changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.

If you want to help make breakthroughs like these possible, come and build ARIA with us.

Learn more here.

Role Summary

As Special Projects Manager (Tech/Science) at ARIA, you will serve as a core ideation, coordination, and execution function across the agency with the freedom to build and create entirely new initiatives from scratch. You’ll be responsible for delivering and executing (fast!) on a whole range of world-changing R&D and science-entrepreneurship initiatives that are central to ARIA’s success. 

The projects you’ll build and deliver will not be siloed, but focus on expanding the reach and enabling the progress of the frontier R&D across all our opportunity spaces, as opposed to managing the progress of the individual projects in our programmes. Our Activation Partners initiative is a great case study and you will take the reigns in coordinating our first cohort of these partners. Other projects could include building novel entrepreneurial mechanisms, new ways of interfacing with the deeptech community, and building talent activation mechanisms, similar to our Innovator Circles initiative – ultimately, we’ll let your creativity shape our direction.

You’ll collaborate with other internal functions, with the operational support and thought partnership of the wider Projects team, and work closely with ARIA’s Executive team, Programme Directors, and the broader R&D community. Above all, you’ll need a creative, flexible mindset and excitement for what the agency is building. 

What you’ll do

The scope of the role will evolve as ARIA continues to grow, but will broadly involve the following:

• Be responsible for the creation and delivery of technical and translational projects across ARIA’s portfolio to enable our programmes and opportunity spaces to have outsized societal impact.
• Work cross-functionally to deliver these initiatives, fostering strong working relationships and norms with ARIA’s internal teams and external partners.
• Coordinate ARIA’s science entrepreneurship initiatives, including the flagship Activation Partners programme, and scale them across our opportunity spaces and the wider UK ecosystem. 
• Create ecosystem-wide mechanisms to increase ARIA’s reach such as engaging with deeply technical communities that can be force multipliers for ARIA’s impact. 
• Drive a user-first approach to how ARIA works with the teams it funds, experimenting with how we deliver programmes and partnerships to ensure our work enables researchers and engineers to push the frontier, further.
• Build systems and processes to enable a lean, fast moving team to deliver high-quality projects. 
• Ensure clear communication across internal and external stakeholders to share the progress of projects including defining and tracking performance metrics and milestones to ensure visibility of learnings and outcomes.

Who you are

A successful candidate will bring many of the following skills/experience to the role:

• You have a scientific or technical background, with the ability to evaluate scientific ideas that might be at a nascent stage.
• You have experience executing and operationalising projects in fast-moving environments, across multiple functions.
• You excel at working across multiple domains, both scientific and operational, and can get up to speed fast on new projects.
• You’re capable of distilling complex technical information into actionable insights and strategic recommendations.
• You have experience building networks and connections, including with senior stakeholders in the R&D ecosystem.
• You are a team player who excels in cross-functional work, bridging gaps between diverse teams, perspectives and initiatives.
• You are comfortable with uncertainty and are willing to ask questions in complex and evolving situations.
• You are passionate about how science works, and highly motivated by the opportunity to create world-changing impact.

Desirable Criteria

• Scientific/technical background such as working in academic research labs or operational experience in the R&D sector.
• Experience working in or volunteering in UK science, tech or innovation networks.
• Evidence of executing projects at pace with a high level of attention to detail and coordination of cross-functional teams.
• Experience in R&D, technology development, or rapid iteration environments with quick feedback loops and an experimental mindset.
• You have worked in startups, technology development, or rapid iteration environments with quick feedback loops and an experimental mindset to develop new products/initiatives.
• Experience of building projects from scratch and leveraging user needs to guide execution strategy and timelines.
• Experience of defining, tracking, and leveraging well-defined metrics to drive execution, evaluate impact of projects, and inform strategic decisions during project execution and after project completion.

Benefits

• Pension: A defined contribution pension scheme with a 5% employer contribution.
• Annual Leave: 27 days per year, in addition to statutory bank holidays and the option to buy or sell up to three days of leave.
• Wellbeing & Support:
  • Access to a free, confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme.
  • Life Assurance coverage equivalent to three times your annual base salary.
• Additional Benefits:
  • Participation in the Cycle to Work scheme.
  • Two days of paid volunteer leave annually.
  • Enhanced family leave arrangements. 

Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry. If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to this, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar.

Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.

If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please notify us and we will make every effort to accommodate you. Disclosing any requests are intended to provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.

ARIA adopts a highly considered approach to ethical and social responsibility. You can read our policy here.
Our research and development activity will abide by the 3Rs principle. You can read about those here.