Senior Procurement and Contracts Manager
Permanent - Full Time £90,000 / yearJob Overview
Salary: £90,000
Bonus: Discretionary
Location: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays-Thursdays - 3 days in our office, Monday + Friday - anywhere)
Employment Type: Permanent, full time
Closing Date: From 13th of May, we will transition to a rolling application process. The role will remain open until we have identified a strong shortlist of candidates for the interview stage.
About ARIA
Bonus: Discretionary
Location: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays-Thursdays - 3 days in our office, Monday + Friday - anywhere)
Employment Type: Permanent, full time
Closing Date: From 13th of May, we will transition to a rolling application process. The role will remain open until we have identified a strong shortlist of candidates for the interview stage.
About ARIA
ARIA is a R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible.
From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on.
Our success is shaped by one question: how will ARIA transform the lives of the UK’s future generations? Whether that’s a life-changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.
Role Summary
At ARIA, we believe that breakthroughs are driven by people. As our member of the procurement and contracts team, you will be at the heart of our operational engine. While others see procurement and contracts as a process, you see it as enablers of innovation, creating the right conditions for ambitious ideas to flourish.
Acting as the bridge between Programme Directors, operational teams, and external partners and our mission, you will be the custodian of ARIA’s commercial and funding relationships, ensuring every interaction is human, thoughtful, and engaging. You will use your expertise to make everything run smoothly, allowing genuine connections to flourish.
What you’ll do
The scope of the role will evolve as ARIA continues to grow, but will broadly involve the following:
- Design and deliver funding and procurement approaches: Work at pace with Programme Directors to shape and deliver funding mechanisms from early concept through to award.
- Support programmes as they evolve: Partner with teams post-award, helping adapt contracts and funding structures as programmes pivot, scale, or change direction.
- Manage contracts with purpose: Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of contracts, ensuring clarity, fairness, and effectiveness. You create agreements that work in practice, not just on paper
- Improve systems and ways of working: Continuously refine templates, processes, and guidance to make procurement and contracting simpler, smarter, and more scalable as ARIA grows.
- Enable innovation within a governance framework: Help navigate the balance between agility and accountability, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations while supporting novel and non-traditional approaches.
Who you are
A successful candidate will bring many of the following skills/experience to the role:
Essential criteria
- High Autonomy: We don’t micromanage; we trust you to take full accountability, proactively identifying bottlenecks and building solutions before problems escalate.
- Agile & Adaptable: You thrive in environments where the "right way" isn’t always written down. You are comfort operating in ambiguity, with a proactive, solutions-focused mindset
- Strong procurement commercial experience: You bring experience across procurement, commercial, contracts, or funding delivery. You’ve led open and competitive sourcing processes and know how to run them effectively in practice, not just in theory.
- Strong commercial judgement: You combine sharp attention to detail with sound judgement, navigating contractual terms and conditions with confidence while keeping broader outcomes in mind.
- Strong communication and relationship-building: You build trust quickly and work effectively across multiple stakeholders and projects, ensuring alignment and momentum even in complex environments.
Desirable criteria
- Systems Thinker: You don’t just do tasks; you build systems to make everything run smoother.
- Cross-Sector Experience: You’ve worked across both public and private sector environments and understand how to navigate different commercial, regulatory, and delivery contexts. You bring an appreciation for innovation-driven settings, whether in research, technology, or fast-moving organisations, and know how to adapt your approach accordingly.
- CIPS or equivalent