FlashAcademy® is hiring a Research Project Manager on a fixed term contract to run a twelve month, government funded research project in schools. You will own the plan, the approvals, the fieldwork and the monthly evidence that the project is paid on.
FlashAcademy® is a UK learning and assessment platform for people learning English as an additional language, used by more than 700,000 learners in over 2,400 schools, colleges and workplaces. The project tests whether schools can identify special educational needs earlier and more fairly among pupils who are still learning English. It is research, not product development: the results are reported whatever they show.
Contract key information
Contract duration Fixed term to 31 October 2027, full time
Start date As soon as possible, January 2027 at the latest
Reports to Chief Executive, as project sponsor
Location Hybrid, with regular travel to participating schools in England
Checks Enhanced DBS check. Safeguarding training is provided
What you will do
As our Research Project Manager, you will run the project day-to-day through four phases, about 218 working days across the year. Each month ends in a milestone with written evidence and each milestone is a payment. If you join after December, you pick up phase 1 from the interim delivery manager.
Phase When What you will do What exists at the end
1. Set up and approvals October to December 2026 Keep the project plan, risk register and monthly reporting format. Manage the research ethics application through the independent committee, with its information sheets and consent forms. Coordinate the data protection impact assessment, safeguarding note, school data sharing agreement and intellectual property register. Put the external specialists under contract. Track school recruitment. Ethics application submitted. Data sharing agreement issued to schools. First decision note on what the historical data can support.
2. Schools signed, collection ready January and February 2027 Respond to ethics amendments. Get a signed data sharing agreement from each school. Set up parent and carer information and consent. Record the safeguarding route for each school with the project safeguarding lead. Keep the version record for the fixed set of pupil tasks. Start fieldwork. Ethics approval in place. At least eight schools signed. First pupil sittings recorded.
3. Fieldwork March to July 2027 Manage sittings for 400 to 800 pupils across the schools. Assemble pupil case files with schools for specialist review. Contract, schedule and keep training records for the reviewing educational psychologists. Schedule about 60 face to face assessments with schools, psychologists and interpreters. Organise three rounds of testing sessions with SENCOs and teachers. Assemble the evidence pack for the second decision point. All work in schools finishes by mid July, before the summer closure. Data collection complete. 100 to 150 case files reviewed. Final evaluation carried out.
4. Reporting and close August and September 2027 Assemble the usability and commercial reports. Schedule and record 20 interviews with schools, trusts and local authorities. Draft and assemble the final report and the plan for a second phase. Complete the archive record with the Data Protection Officer. Final report, second phase plan and archive record delivered.
Every month, you will also:
- write the monthly report and assemble the milestone evidence for the funder’s monitoring provider
- keep the risk register, and raise any change to dates or scope before the milestone, not after
- coordinate the internal team and the external specialists so that each milestone’s documents exist on time
Who you will work with
You coordinate about a dozen colleagues who each give the project part of their time, and a group of external specialists.
- the Chief Executive, who sponsors the project and takes its two formal decisions to continue, narrow or stop
- the Chief Technology Officer, who signs off the technical work
- the Head of Development and developers, who build the research environment and the pupil tasks
- product management, design and content colleagues, who shape the tasks and the summary for school staff
- the Data Protection Officer and the project safeguarding lead
- the customer success team, who recruit schools and coordinate sittings
- the Research Psychometrician, who does the analysis
Outside FlashAcademy®
- the lead educational psychologist, the independent measurement specialist, the EAL research adviser and the speech and language therapist
- four or five educational psychologists who review case files and assess pupils face-to-face
- headteachers, SENCOs and designated safeguarding leads in each participating school
- the research ethics committee and the funder’s monitoring provider
What we are looking for
You have taken a research project with human participants from approvals to final report and you are exact about records.
- You have managed a research project involving people from start to finish, ideally in schools or with children.
- You have written or led a research ethics application and run informed consent in practice.
- You have delivered against fixed milestones for a funder and produced the evidence for each one.
- You keep precise records: plans, risk registers, decision notes and version records.
- You get busy schools, clinicians and developers to deliver to your dates without line managing them.
- You understand the basics of data protection in research and of safeguarding in schools and work well with the people who lead on them.
- You can hold an enhanced DBS check and travel to schools.
- Experience of special educational needs, English as an additional language, or educational psychology services.
- Experience of UK Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Education Endowment Foundation or a similar funder.
- A project management qualification such as PRINCE2 or APM.
- Experience in a technology company, or of working alongside a software team.
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