King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us

We are looking for a Contracts Associate to be an integral member of the Contracts Team, which provides a professional, effective and efficient service for King’s researchers by drafting, reviewing, negotiating and advising on contracts from private and public sector organisations for King’s research and consultancy activity.

The candidate should have experience of negotiation with different stakeholders and preferably be familiar with issues relating to legal. Experience of costing and pricing project budgets is desirable but not essential.

Applicants also require excellent organisational and communication and literacy skills, proven decision-making ability and be able to work well under pressure, both individually and as part of a team.

About the role

The primary role is to support our Senior Contracts Associates through drafting, reviewing and negotiating research-related agreements on behalf of King’s with external organisations and institutions and to provide an efficient and effective service to King’s academic community.

The Contracts Associate will be required to support the negotiation of the following agreements types:-

• Agreements for Research collaborations and contracts
• Confidentiality Agreements / Data Agreements
• Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs)
• Consultancy and fee for service agreements

The Contracts Associate will secure optimum terms in research or research related agreements (including publication and intellectual property rights, institutional risk and liability exposure, strategic value general provisions, apportionment of risk and reward, reputational management), referring to the Senior Contracts Associates and Director of Research & Consultancy Agreements where appropriate.  This will involve collaboration with partner organisations as well as service providers. To ensure the contracts they negotiate comply with King’s regulations and policies and, where relevant, those of external funding organisations and NHS collaborators.

The post holder will draft legal agreements for projects and provide a level of expertise in contractual negotiation. To recommend the acceptability of contracts in their area for signature in conjunction with Senior Contracts Associates and the Director of Research & Consultancy Agreements.

The post holder will have the delegated authority and responsibility within certain limitations to negotiate contractual conditions, draft agreements and submit official costs.

The role will develop and deploy an expertise in external funders’ terms and relevant costing/pricing methods in the context of King’s policy and negotiate the price to maximum advantage to King’s with particular attention to the recovery of full costs, using King’s Worktribe costing tool, and favourable payment terms.

To foster a strong working relationship with the academic community, the Contracts Associate will disseminate information on King’s policy and procedures and explain them as appropriate to academic and research support staff, including participating in seminars as necessary and hold meetings with academic and departmental staff, senior managers and/or external organisations as necessary to develop relationships and negotiate terms for activity.  To give academic staff accurate, clear advice on legal / contractual and policy matters - working in conjunction with the Senior Contracts Associates, Director of Research & Consultancy Agreements and senior managers and deliver training where required.

The Contracts Associate will be personally responsible for their own work and ensure that proper records of their activity are maintained and contribute to the preparation of Divisional and Directorate reports and analyses of activity. They will prepare detailed information and instructions as may be necessary for the financial administration of contracts they negotiate so they can be administered and managed properly and efficiently by the Award Management Team

To work closely with King’s staff on all campuses, including other colleagues in the Research Management & Innovation Directorate to ensure a consistent and integrated approach and response in policy and practice, and undertake such other duties as are consistent with the role of a Contracts Associate as required by the Senior Contracts Associates and Director of Research and Consultancy Contract and to work on such campuses as may be required.

This is a full time (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.      Degree or equivalent professional qualification

2.      Ability to manage a large and diverse turnover of bids and contracts

3.      Ability to explain complex ideas with clarity – excellent written and oral communication skills

4.      Excellent organisation skills and proven negotiation/influencing skills

5.      Self-starting, a completer/finisher and able to work largely unsupervised

6.      Demonstrably high levels of accuracy and attention to detail

7.      Good analytical skills and practical, sound numeracy skills

8.      IT literacy and experience of word processing, spreadsheets and databases

Desirable criteria

1.      Good level of legal and contractual skills

2.      Knowledge of full economic costing methodology

3.      Broad research funding administration in the university sector, or other relevant institutions (e.g. the public sector)

4.      Working knowledge of the university research funding environment, including experience and familiarity with key funders’ terms and conditions

5.      Proven track record of negotiation of contracts and agreements, including negotiation of intellectual property, liability/indemnity and price.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘ How we Recruit’ pages.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.