TransiT Programme Manager

Position Title: TransiT Programme Manager

Grade and Salary: Grade 9 - £59,390 - £70,878 per annum

FTE and working pattern: Full-time, Fixed term until June 2029

Reward and Benefits : 33 days annual leave, plus 9 buildings closed days for all full time staff.

Purpose of the Role

TransiT is the UK’s largest research hub dedicated to rapidly decarbonising transport through digital twinning. The role of Programme Manager is to provide leadership and focus to the team of nearly 100 academic, research and support staff to deliver the objectives of the programme. The Programme Manager sits on the core Management Team of the Hub with the two programme directors, Prof Greening (Heriot-Watt) and Prof Flynn (Glasgow) and convenes the Transit Research Leadership team of around 10 senior co-investigators. The role includes close liaison with the funder and key stakeholders as well as convening the TransiT Advisory Board and sub-boards.

The TransiT research programme is highly challenging and complex, demanding close collaboration across work packages and challenge led demonstrators. Research teams need to work in an integrated way in coordination with researchers from a broad range of disciplines. This leading-edge research environment raises complex challenges that demand creativity and sensitivity to address effectively. The maintenance and enhancement of a collegiate and supportive working environment is essential to the success of the programme. The Programme Manager plays a critical role in maintaining that ethos across the eight institutional partners and the ten integrated research teams.

Detailed Description

Led by Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow, this £46 million initiative unites 8 universities and 67 industry partners to address transport decarbonisation. TransiT is creating a Federated Transport System of Systems (FTSoS), integrating digital twins across road, rail, air, and maritime transport modes. The Hub is building national capability in digital twinning by attracting and engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in industry, government and civil society. The research informs debates in many areas of national policy, including transportation, energy, cyber-security, connectivity and digital twinning. This national research hub is responsible for delivering new knowledge, technical capabilities and policy advisement relating to UK transport decarbonisation priorities through the development of digital twinning.

Digital twinning allows different transport configurations to be tested and developed much faster than real-world engineering projects, until the lowest cost pathway to net-zero carbon emissions is identified. UKRI and the Department for Transport have committed to support TransiT to take a ‘learning by doing’ approach to test the feasibility of integrated and federated digital twins to inform policy choices. TransiT has developed four Challenge Led Demonstrators focussed on key multi-modal transport challenges in passenger and freight logistics. These have been supported by close collaboration with critical industrial stakeholders, to address current and future decarbonisation challenges.

Work package research teams focus on common aspects of digital twinning that apply to all demonstrators, covering specialisms such as ontologies, connectivity and cyber-security, human factors, federation and policy. The demonstrators provide real-world context for the testing of approaches developed within the work packages, and raise practical issues to be addressed. To support common approaches across the demonstrator teams, a Digital Architecture Working Group has been established.

The planning and co-ordination of these research teams is the responsibility of the PM team, which includes the Programme Manager, the Head of Data and two Project Managers. Each Project Manager manages a number of research teams, meeting regularly to assess progress and identify challenges. This team utilises the normal range of management tools (risk register, project plans, stakeholder engagement, publications, data processes, etc.)

The support team includes a number of professional specialists – communications, finance, contracts, stakeholder engagement, hub co-ordinator. These roles are held by highly competent and supportive individuals who work effectively as a team. The Programme Manager has line management responsibility for the support team and works closely with them individually on identification of strategic priorities and professional development opportunities, as well as providing some professional guidance as necessary.

About our Directorate and Team

The Transit Programme is managed by a Management Team of the two project directors and the Programme manager, responsible for delivering TransiT’s research ambitions. The TransiT team includes 95 people including 42 academic investigators, 28 postdoctoral researchers, 12 PhD students and a support team of 13 professionals.

The Programme Manager reports to the Programme Lead, Professor Phil Greening, and manages the weekly Management team meeting with Profs Greening and Flynn. The Programme Manager directly manages the support team, which consists of two Project and Industry Engagement Managers, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Contracts Manager, Hub Co-ordinator, Data Manager Communications Manager and Finance Manager. The Support Team is distributed between Glasgow University and Heriot-Watt University, working in a highly integrated way between the two institutions. The Programme Manager has line management responsibility for the team members based in HW and supervisory responsibility for the other team members based in Glasgow University. Most of the Support Team posts are based at Heriot-Watt University, sitting within the TransiT Research Hub. The role-holder is expected to work in person on campus at Heriot-Watt University within the TransiT Hub, with regular visits to Glasgow University.

The programme started in July 2024 and is funded by UKRI until June 2029, with the expectation of significant further investment from industry stakeholders beyond that date. The role has been filled by a highly experienced research manager who wishes to retire in good time to allow the new Programme Manager to take the work forward to further phases of funding.

For more information, please visit www.transit.ac.uk

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities

- Responsible for reporting to funder, key stakeholders and Advisory Board on progress of the programme and emerging risks.
- Co-ordinating weekly Management Meeting with co-Directors of TransiT, and ensuring implementation agreed actions.
- Maintenance of key stakeholder relationships through regular meetings (DfT, EPSRC)
- Management of quarterly meetings of TransiT Advisory Board and subsidiary boards.
- Production of 6-monthly progress reports to EPSRC, and responding to additional information requests from the funder.
- Strategic programme management to ensure delivery of funder objectives over the course of the programme
- Maintaining effective risk management systems for programme delivery.
- Management of the support team priorities to ensure professional services support the TransiT researchers across all institutions.
- Management and mentorship of support team members to enhance their career opportunities and develop valuable skills for research management.
- Dealing promptly and professionally with conflicts that arise within the programme and supporting collaborative working relationships among all members.
- The maintenance and enhancement of a collegiate and supportive working across the eight institutional partners and the ten integrated research teams.
- Management of TransiT financial resources across the TransiT programme, ensuring spend profile across all institutions is sufficient to meet funder expectations.
- Management of financial planning of Heriot-Watt programme resources, including TransiT and other aligned projects, to maximise research resource and delivery within funder timescales.
- Balancing the skills and resource needs across research teams to deliver an integrated and impactful research programme.
- Maintaining an effective programme of internal and external research meetings to deliver a coherent, validated and impactful research programme.
- Oversee the management of the TransiT Flexible Fund of £3M through open funding calls.
- Oversee management of key strategic relationships with stakeholders and government departments.
- Support the prioritization of demands on the stakeholder engagement manager and communications manager to focus on the most significant strategic objectives of the programme.
- Plan, prioritise and organise your own work and resources and others in the team to agreed objectives, including sharing responsibility for team activities and leading plans and priorities, monitoring progress against targets.

Education, Qualifications & Experience

Education & Qualifications and Experience

Essential

- Post-graduate degree level education
- Professional qualification and demonstrable experience in project management
- Experience of managing multi-disciplinary professional teams
- Demonstrable experience of managing resources, workloads and changing priorities for self and others
- Ability to research, analyse and present complex information and data effectively with good attention to detail.
- Excellent communication, presentation and interpersonal skills (written and oral), including a proven ability to communicate complex ideas succinctly to non-specialist audiences, and speak with confidence to senior practitioners.
- Demonstrable ability to forge and maintain mutually beneficial relationships both within academic institutions and with key strategic partners.
- Proven experience of dealing with and leading in uncertainty and ambiguity
- Confident working with senior managers and colleagues across the consortium and stakeholders.
- Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment
- High level organisational skills with the ability to prioritise critical risks and to function effectively in a pressured environment
- Flexible and resilient
- Collaborative and proactive

Desirable

- A postgraduate qualification in management or professional qualification in project management.
- Experience of project management within a research environment.
- Some knowledge of transport decarbonisation policy.
- Experience of facilitation of collaborative multi-disciplinary research exercises.

This job description is intended as a flexible framework which outlines the key general areas of activity in your position. Other activities may be required which are not outlined above but which are appropriate to the position and grade. Your personal objectives (Forward Job Plan) will also set out specific tasks and objectives for you to achieve, including objectives to help your career development.

For more information about the role, contact the TransiT Programme Manager, Dr Janey Andrews – [email protected]

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight on Thursday 12 November 2026.

Please submit via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment system (1) Cover letter describing your interest and suitability for the post; (2) Full CV.

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We therefore encourage you to submit your application promptly.

We recognise that many candidates use AI tools during the application process and are comfortable with AI being used as a supporting aid. However, we want to hear from you, not AI.

Your application should be an authentic representation of your skills, experience and achievements. Applications that appear to have been fully generated by AI may not accurately reflect your suitability for the role and are therefore discouraged.

At interview, candidates will be expected to discuss and provide evidence of the experience, skills and examples included in their application.

At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our University community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers https://disc.hw.ac.uk/ .

We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g. part-time working and job share options.