Senior Research Manager

• Salary: £43,800 - £58,500
• Location: Cambridge
• Country: UK
• Business Unit: English
• Vacancy Type: Permanent
• Closing Date: 1 October 2025

Meet the recruiter Ashley De Los Reyes leenarc.delosreyes@cambridge.org
Salary: £43,800 - £58,500 Location: Cambridge, Hybrid (at least 2 days per week in the office) Contract: Permanent, Full-time (35 hours per week)

We are looking for a Senior Research Manager to join our internationally renowned and diverse research team in support of IELTS research activities. In this pivotal role, you will conduct impactful research that contributes to Cambridge University Press & Assessment's (CUP&A) mission of ensuring quality and driving continuous improvement across our testing portfolio, with a particular focus on IELTS.

As part of this role, you will collaborate effectively across the IELTS partnership—which includes Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia. You will play a key role in advancing the IELTS research agenda, ensuring the accuracy, comparability, and fairness of test scores, while also exploring opportunities for innovation and improvement. Your work will be instrumental in delivering CUP&A's ambitions through targeted research for IELTS and, more broadly, for language assessment as a whole.

We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.
About the Role This is a research-focused position with key responsibilities that include:

• Identifying, designing, and conducting empirical research to gather validity evidence for a test, ensuring the quality of the test.
• Performing data analysis and statistical modeling, including psychometric analyses, to support evidence-based decision-making.
• Contributing to a validity argument and providing empirical evidence to support test recognition, helping learners and institutions make informed choices.
• Conducting fairness and comparability studies to identify and address biases in measurement, promoting equity and inclusivity in assessment.
• Preparing technical reports, documentation, and presentations to communicate findings clearly and effectively to diverse stakeholders.
• Ensuring compliance with professional testing standards, upholding integrity and trust in our assessments.
• Liaising with internal and external stakeholders and communicating complex methodologies in an accessible way, fostering collaboration and shared understanding.
• Working across teams and partner organizations as required, embracing cross-functional teamwork and global partnership.

About you

To excel in this role, you will bring:

• An advanced degree in language assessment, applied linguistics, educational measurement, psychometrics, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• A deep understanding of language learning and assessment, with demonstrated expertise in delivering research projects using a range of methodologies.
• Strong quantitative and/or mixed methods research skills, with proficiency in using data analysis software such as SPSS, SAS, R, and Python.
• Experience in areas such as applied AI (for learning and/or testing), natural language processing (NLP), corpus linguistics, human-computer interaction, or test validation, or willingness and interest to learn.
• Experience and knowledge of fundamental aspects of assessment are essential for this role, with specialist training available if needed.

The ideal candidate will also have effective written and oral communication skills, with the ability to explain research ideas and technical concepts to both specialist and non-specialist audiences. They will demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills and confidence in managing professional relationships, both within the organization and with external partners.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity and what will make you successful, please see the full job description attached to the bottom of this vacancy on our careers site.
Rewards and benefits We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Group personal pension scheme
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
• Green travel schemes

We are a hybrid working organisation, and we offer a range of flexible working options from day one. We expect most hybrid-working colleagues to spend 40-60% of their time at their dedicated office or location. We will also consider other work arrangements if you wish to work more flexibly or require adjustments due to a disability. If you choose to apply, please include a short cover letter with your application, making sure you specify you are applying for this vacancy. We look forward to hearing from you.
Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now. We review applications on an ongoing basis, with the closing date set for 1st October. Interviews are scheduled to begin during the week commencing 20th October or 27th October. Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry. Cambridge University Press & Assessment is an approved UK employer for the sponsorship of eligible roles and applicants under the Skilled Worker visa route. Please refer to the gov.uk website for guidance to understand your own eligibility based on the role you are applying for.
Why join us Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You'll belong to a collaborative team that's exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration. Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it's safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background. We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.