Associate Director - Compute - Economic Growth - (R&D MAP)

Associate Director Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Salary: £70,752 per annum.
Band: UKRI Band G.
Contract Type: Open-ended.
Hours: Full-time/ Part Time. (minimum 0.8 FTE) (flexible working available)
Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available.

Closing Date: 20/03/2026

About Us

The R&D Missions Accelerator Programme is the Government’s flagship new Mission-led R&D programme to transform people’s lives and drive economic growth. The programme has a £500m budget to galvanise the private sector, third sector and academia to develop new innovative solutions to the biggest problems facing society today. The programme will catalyse cutting-edge research, technology, service solutions and IP aligned to the UK Government’s five National Missions and deliver the milestones in the Plan for Change. The programme is currently developing its approaches across the Missions. Joining at this stage presents a real opportunity to establish and drive the strategic and operational direction of the programme and set the agenda for the UK’s approach to 2030.

Mission Specifics Innovation in Compute: Infrastructure for AI Inference Traditional approaches to compute infrastructure and data centres involving large-scale, energy intensive, centralised architectures, located at traditional hotspots, are too slow, costly and rigid to meet growing demand. The UK needs to urgently develop energy-efficient, low-latency AI compute infrastructure and associated software orchestration to manage distributed edge-compute environments, enabling dynamic workload allocation, energy optimisation, and system resilience at scale. It is envisaged that the Compute Challenge will include creating an architectural framework for delivering modular computation and processor approaches and configurations to AI inference, although there is still opportunity to work with partners to shape its direction. This is your opportunity to drive economic growth, support new jobs, and position the UK as a global leader in innovation. As an Associate Director, you’ll collaborate with national experts to drive strategic innovation, foster stakeholder partnerships, and tackle industry challenges head-on. You’ll play a pivotal role in aligning research and commercial priorities, while leading high-impact projects that support the UK’s economic goals. Purpose As Associate Director, you will bring energy, high standards, a desire to do things differently and an understanding of urgency and pace. You will join the Challenge senior leadership team, helping to shape the strategic direction of the Challenge specific R&I in the UK while delivering this flagship programme. This is a unique opportunity to lead in a significant cross-sector programme that creates real world impact through collaborative, evidence-led innovation. The role combines programme delivery, strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement and senior-level management. The role requires self-awareness, excellent personal resilience, as well as a high level of personal motivation to achieve widespread impact, along with strong influencing skills and levels of personal resilience. You will be expected to act in the absence of the Challenge Director and will deputise for the Challenge Director as required. Main Outputs and Activities Strategic Leadership:

• Provide strategic leadership for the design and delivery of Challenge specific R&I, ensuring it is ambitious, independent, and trusted across research, policy, and public sectors and delivers real-world impact at pace.
• Shape and implement challenge-wide approaches to commissioning, governance, and innovation funding that reflect UKRI’s values, including excellence, transparency, and public benefit.
• With in-depth knowledge of industry, use business acumen to engage widely to bring people together and problem solve.
• Lead horizon scanning and capability development to ensure the R&D MAP helps establish a sustainable, high-quality, and interdisciplinary innovation ecosystem
• Represent R&D MAP and UKRI in national and international fora.

Stakeholder Engagement & Representation:

• Lead engagement with a wide range of stakeholders across business, industry, government, third sector, and policy communities to build trust, manage risk, and ensure the R&D MAP Challenges reflects diverse perspectives and public interest.
• Build commercial insights into the approach from the outset to ensure that we are maximising additionality and growing the UK innovator base.
• Represent R&D MAP and UKRI in cross-government and cross-sector fora related to the Missions, embedding Government priorities at the heart of our approach.
• Act as a visible and credible ambassador for R&D MAP, able to navigate contested policy spaces diplomatically and assert UKRI’s commitment to independent, high-quality research and innovation.
• Build constructive, inclusive relationships with innovators and researchers, ensuring open communication and a shared commitment to the long-term success and integrity of the programme.

Programme Design, Delivery and Evaluation:

• Lead the design and delivery of a major interdisciplinary innovation programme with a multi-million-pound budget, including creation of the business case, delivering at pace and scale with a strong focus on realising outcomes.
• Ensure delivery is effective, timely and aligned with strategic objectives, with robust evaluation and risk management processes to generate insights fast and course correct.
• Support the sustainable transition of investments from delivery through to completion and long-term impact.
• Embed a culture of learning, evidence and continuous improvement across the programme.

People Leadership:

• Build high-performing, inclusive teams through coaching, development and effective communication.
• Act as a role model for collaborative, transparent and values-led leadership.
• Promote staff engagement in planning, delivery and organisational development through inclusive and agile management approaches.
• Line manage and oversee relevant programme staff.

Personal Specification The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I). Essential:

• Knowledge and experience of managing projects across compute and data centres, including modular computation, energy-efficient, low-latency AI compute infrastructure and associated software, distributed edge-compute environments. It is not expected that you have experience across them all but please call out in your CV and cover letter any that you do have. (S&I)
• Proven experience of strategic planning, including writing a business case, and delivery in complex organisational settings. (S&I)
• Excellent leadership credentials with experience in managing and developing senior staff. (S&I)
• Exceptional communication and influencing skills, with a proven ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders. (S&I)
• Successful track record in leading major interdisciplinary programmes. (S&I)
• Strong programme and financial management skills, including risk and evaluation oversight. (S&I)

Desirable:

• Experience in developing and managing multi-sector partnerships, including within government and civil society. (S&I)
• Strong commercial acumen, ideally with commercial experience, particularly in the start-up and innovation space. (S&I)
• In-depth understanding of the UK R&I funding landscape and its broader societal impact. (S)
• Understanding of research commercialisation and policy translation across different sectors. (S&I)

Benefits We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning! A list of benefits below:

• An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
• 30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent).
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
• Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
• Flexible working options.

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance! For further information on our benefits please see:
Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer. Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact Recruitment@ukri.org. We do sponsor - Please note, if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK, as part of your sponsorship application, you and any dependants travelling with you, will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some, or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs or contact Recruitment@ukri.org.