Job Assistant Director, Blacktown

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is seeking an experienced and high performing candidate for the role of Assistant Director in the Investigator Grants section. The successful candidate will manage a small team that is responsible for coordinating and delivering all aspects of the Investigator Grant scheme.

The Investigator Grants section is responsible for the delivering the Investigator Grant and Synergy Grant schemes, developing, implementing and reviewing policies, recruiting and training peer reviewers and managing cross-cutting eligibility processes between Ideas, Investigator and Synergy Grant schemes. Investigator Grants (the largest NHMRC grant scheme in terms of funding allocated) provide outstanding researchers at all career stages with a contribution to their salary (if required) and a research support package. The grants provide chief investigators with the flexibility to pursue new research directions as they arise, adjust their resources accordingly, and to form collaborations as needed.

Synergy Grants support multidisciplinary teams of investigators to tackle major health and medical research questions that cannot be addressed by a single investigator. The scheme fosters collaborative research across diverse fields, promoting teamwork among researchers of different genders, career stages, and cultural backgrounds to address significant health issues from discovery to translation.


The key duties of the position include
As the Assistant Director, you will support the delivery of NHMRC's Investigator Grants Section by:
• managing the Investigator Grants peer review process, including interactions with researchers, research administrators and other stakeholders
• providing leadership within the Section, including mentoring and training staff, monitoring milestones and key deliverables, and developing solutions to improve process and solve problems
• using data analytics, evaluation and reporting to support and improve grant administration and peer review processes
• using the Microsoft Power BI platform to monitor and report on scheme delivery milestones
• providing guidance, training and support in the use of NHMRC's grant management system, Sapphire
• draft briefings and reports for Senior Executive, ministerial briefings, committee papers, and correspondence
• provide technical and administrative support to other teams in the Section and Branch, as required.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following capabilities:
• strong leadership skills and an ability to engage in a high-performing team with multiple competing priorities and deadlines to achieve great outcomes
• ability to apply strategic thinking to lead a team to manage projects and resolve issues, including the identification, management and mitigation of risk
• strong commitment to ensuring NHMRC's key stakeholders are provided exemplary support and guidance and developing a client-focussed environment
• experience building and maintaining productive collaborations both within and across organisational boundaries to achieve outcomes
• excellent oral and written communication skills (experience writing high-quality policies, guidelines, correspondence or other documents).