Research lead

We are currently looking for a Research Lead to join our Research and Development Function within the Scientific Research and Innovation group.

This is a full-time opportunity, on a fixed term contract basis until 31st March 2028. The role will be based in 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf.

Government departments and agencies are working towards implementing a minimum 60% attendance in office sites.

What's the role?

The postholder will join an established team and work with an SEO to match novel AMR innovations to clinical need, and identify what would be needed to enable regulatory evaluation, marketing authorisation, and access and adoption. The post holder will actively engage with national and international research partners, including academia, industry, other regulatory agencies, and non-profit public health organisations to carry out the work and identify opportunities to leverage additional funding.

The primary purpose of the role is to inform programme of work delivering research relating to novel antimicrobials and diagnostics pertaining to AMR across One Health.

An understanding of the regulatory requirements for novel and established medicines, as well as an appreciation of the opportunities and challenges of identifying and deploying AMR solutions across One Health would be desirable.

The postholder will be expected to build and lead a project capable of covering the multiple disciplines and sectors that AMR encompasses, with expert knowledge of the challenges and opportunities across One Health and Lower Middle Income Countries (LMICs). The post holder will work closely with colleagues across SR&I and other Agency groups to provide expert advice relating to AMR products, regulation, and access.

Key Responsibilities:

• Be accountable to the Head of Diagnostics and contribute to the strategic direction of the R&D undertaken in the team in response to programme priorities. Engage with, and provide expert advice to, national and international stakeholders including WHO, the global Pharmacopoeias, manufacturers, regulatory organisations and academia.
• Initiate and lead the project to pull out key regulatory and access challenges pertaining to novel AMR medicines and diagnostics. Generate scientific data that is publishable in high quality scientific journals.
• Establish and maintain relationships and collaborations with external stakeholders (including industry, academia, government departments, regulatory agencies and non-profit philanthropic organisations) as appropriate to identify and progress research priorities to deliver outputs that positively impact health of patients.
• Represent the Agency externally, nationally, and internationally, as an expert in medicinal products developed to tackle AMR and provide state of the art guidance to senior agency colleagues in other functions such as HQA and S&S.
• Provide expert advice on products relating to the AMR to colleagues in the Agency and other Government departments as appropriate.
• Seek and drive opportunities for continued service improvement through expert services, training, and scientific and technical advice.

Person Specification Behaviour Criteria

• Leadership (A, I)
• Managing a Quality Service (A, I)

Experience Criteria

• Significant research experience and evidence of collaborative, multidisciplinary working (A)
• Experience of delivering project in collaboration with external stakeholders (A, I)
• Evidence of engaging with external stakeholders and partners to promote knowledge exchange and build productive relationships (A, I)

Technical Criteria

• Demonstrate good knowledge of, and practical experience in, a broad range of research techniques used to assess and characterise biological molecules and biotherapeutics (A, I)
• Using AI to build data curation and collection pipelines with classification and embedding models for Natural language processing (A, I)
• Good knowledge of how Agency activities relate to, and support, medicines development and regulation (A, I)

Closing date: 11th May 2026