Project Coordinator

Purpose of the post

HDR UK is seeking to appoint an experienced and hands-on Project Coordinator to deliver vital UK-wide initiatives which focus on building public trust and confidence in the use of data and statistics in research. Reporting to the Senior Partnerships Manager, Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement at HDR UK and the Senior Communications and Engagement Manager at DARE UK, this new and pivotal role will work with several PEDRI and DARE UK partner organisations. The role will be key to supporting and drawing on the expertise of organisations across the data research and statistics sector in the UK to embed meaningful public engagement and involvement in data research.

PEDRI has set up its approach and delivery plan until March 2027 and needs a skilled and collaborative Project Coordinator to drive the delivery of this plan. The role holder will bring effective project coordinating tools and skills to work with and support organisations, teams and senior leaders to deliver on objectives across communications, events and stakeholder involvement and engagement. Additionally, the post holder will directly support one of PEDRI’s founding partners; DARE UK’s public involvement and engagement functions and will have a central role in working across the data research and statistics ecosystem. The post holder will draw on expertise to enable shared knowledge and good practise-based learning about involvement and engagement of patients, the public and practitioners in data science.

The successful candidate will share HDR UK’s values, have strong collaboration skills, excellent communications skills, be comfortable with supporting multiple projects at pace in a complex organisation and demonstrate a clear willingness and passion to support organisations within the Initiative to trial, develop and deliver innovative approaches to engagement.

Main responsibilities

• Organise and administer PEDRI meetings including the Governing Board, Steering Group and Public Advisory Group meetings, annual Away Days and ad-hoc working group meetings whilst ensuring agendas, meeting notes and actions are sent out in a timely manner
• Support the delivery of detailed project plan for PEDRI, reporting on progress, and highlighting key milestones and risks to key stakeholders
• Develop and maintain partnerships with PEDRI partners and facilitate the involvement of key stakeholders throughout the Initiative
• Support the Initiative Co-Leads with meeting set up, note taking and following on actions as needed.
• Co-ordinate regular reports from different working groups and prepare relevant updates for onward communication
• Manage day-to-day operational aspects of projects ensuring project documents are complete, current, and stored appropriately
• Act as the ‘point of contact’ for the Initiative across partner organisations ensuring they are kept updated, receive all information in a timely manner and that any issues are dealt with in a sensitive manner
• Support small working groups to develop full scale project plans and programme of activities, define outcomes, schedule project timelines, assign individual responsibilities and timescales and identify requirements including for wider stakeholder engagement
• Manage the development of communications materials such as standardised presentation and communication decks
• Support the commissioning of external suppliers to support delivery of the Initiative’s communications and/or events, managing relationships and project managing delivery to time and budget.
• Organise, co-ordinate and support high quality events to engage with a wide range of audiences, managing event logistics, evaluating effectiveness, providing follow-up communications and ensuring event outputs, impacts and learnings are disseminated widely
• Work with the Communications and Engagement Lead to maintain a calendar of communication, events and engagement activities, coordinated across partner organisations
• Work with the Communications and Engagement Lead to develop and manage a series of PEDRI webinars
• Working with colleagues across partner organisations, maintain relevant media and communication contact lists in HubSpot (CRM)
• Manage PEDRI’s monthly bulletin, seeking updates from all partners in a timely manner to ensure the update is ready for circulation
• Manage PEDRIs social media channels with support from HDR UK’s comms colleagues, updating and posting regularly
• Work with the senior managers and partner organisations to source and apply for further funding, being clear on resource requirements
• Support finance tracking and liaise with the HDR UK Finance team
• Arrange, submit and process payments for Public Advisory Groups and public contributors involved in the work

Experience

• Experience of working with the public and supporting PPIE activities
• Experience in supporting project management with an ability to apply management principles and processes and proactively manage risk
• Demonstrable success in delivering complex programmes/ running several projects at once to similar timeframes with conflicting priorities and many collaborating organisations in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent experience of defining and documenting requirements from multiple stakeholders and facilitating collaboration across teams and/or organisations to help create and co-deliver shared goals
• Demonstrable experience of planning, running and evaluating successful activities and events
• Experience of facilitating, supporting meetings, minuting and preparing presentations
• Excellent experience of supporting and communicating effectively with a broad range of stakeholders, including written communications (e.g. news stories, case studies)
• Experience of managing and utilising social media channels and other communication channels for organisations or initiatives.
• Experience of successfully using a range of software packages and tools to support delivery of tasks such as HubSpot, Trello, Monday, Survey Monkey, MS Forms as well as traditional GANTT style planning.

Skills

• Ability to organise multiple tasks, timelines, and deadlines efficiently and proven track record in managing calendars, coordinating meetings, and tracking project milestones.
• Keeping projects on track by ensuring team members meet deadlines and helping the senior manager with resource allocation.
• Ability to handle diverse tasks and responsibilities, shifting priorities as needed and managing complex workloads while staying adaptable to changing project demands and priorities.
• Identifying issues, analysing data, and suggesting solutions. Being able to break down complex problems and propose actionable solutions.
• Engaging and managing relationships with various stakeholders, from patients to senior leaders, ensuring their input is incorporated.
• Providing support by creating an inclusive environment, managing different perspectives with care, and handling sensitive discussions constructively.
• Being able to prioritise tasks in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent communication tailored to various audiences. This includes writing reports, emails, blogs, website content and documentation as well as delivering presentations.
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to produce high quality materials
• Proactive and supportive approach to engagement with colleagues to support problem solving with ability to determine when issues need to be escalated
• Ability to work as part of a team as well as autonomously making decisions without supervision

Please note, as we are a UK-based organisation, applicants must be living in, and eligible to work in, the UK. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.