Job Title: Scientific Project Coordinator- LITE Pillar 3
Hours: Full-time
Grade of Post/Salary: UoD Grade 7
Staff Supervision: Operational oversight and coordination of the Dundee LITE laboratory team;
Duration of employment: Available immediately until 30 April 2028
Role Purpose
We are recruiting an exceptional individual to join the Sammler laboratory as Scientific Project Manager for Pillar 3 of the Michael J. Fox Foundation LRRK2 Investigative Therapeutic Exchange (LITE) programme. Working closely with the Pillar 3 lead, the postholder will oversee and work alongside the Dundee LITE laboratory team, coordinate the planning and delivery of interconnected laboratory workstreams, and contribute to the wider clinical operations, biomarker analysis and delivery of Pillar 3. This is a fixed-term appointment until 30 April 2028.
The postholder will bring together sample processing and quality control, assay development and transfer, clinical cohort analysis, lysosomal enrichment workflows and associated data activities. Alongside their project management responsibilities, they will contribute directly to key laboratory and analytical activities, particularly where hands-on input, troubleshooting or critical evaluation of data is required. They will maintain a clear overview of timelines, dependencies, capacity and risk while working effectively with the wider LITE team, MJFF, collaborating sites, biorepositories, core facilities and external partners. The role is ideally suited to a scientifically strong and practically experienced researcher who combines analytical thinking and hands-on problem-solving with project management, team coordination and international collaboration.
Principal Duties
Scientific and Laboratory Programme Oversight
- Work with the Pillar 3 lead to translate scientific priorities into clear workplans, milestones, deliverables and resource requirements, while providing scientific and practical input into their implementation.
- Oversee and work alongside the Dundee LITE laboratory team across participant processing, batch processing, quality control, assay development and clinical sample analysis, contributing directly where specialist input or additional support is required.
- Coordinate laboratory capacity, workflow scheduling, staff responsibilities and dependencies across concurrent Pillar 3 activities, maintaining a detailed understanding of progress at the bench.
- Support and contribute to the development, optimisation, implementation, troubleshooting, harmonisation and transfer of experimental workflows.
- Critically review experimental and analytical outputs with scientific leads, identify technical or data quality issues, and ensure that troubleshooting, decisions and follow-up actions are completed and communicated.
Project and Programme Management
- Develop and maintain an integrated Pillar 3 delivery plan covering milestones, timelines, dependencies, staffing, equipment, samples and external inputs
- Act as the principal project-management interface between the Dundee laboratory team, Pillar 3 leadership, MJFF, collaborating sites, biorepositories, core facilities and external partners.
- Coordinate the planning and delivery of participant processing, large sample batches, quality-control activities, assay-development and transfer work, and clinical cohort analysis.
- Track milestones, deliverables and decisions, proactively identify risks or capacity constraints, and coordinate mitigations and escalation where required.
- Prepare concise progress updates, delivery forecasts, action logs and decision records to support effective programme oversight.
- Coordinate meetings, training activities and communications required to deliver Pillar 3 laboratory workstreams.
- Contribute to scientific and programme reporting for MJFF, funding bodies and collaborators, including milestone updates and documentation of programme outputs.
- Maintain coherent programme documentation, including plans, SOPs, sample and assay trackers, risk and action logs, and quality-management records.
- Work closely with the Pillar 3 lead on strategic planning, prioritisation, resource allocation and successful delivery of programme milestones.
Quality and Delivery Oversight
- Oversee and contribute to quality-control activities, assay-performance assessment and troubleshooting to ensure robust and reproducible laboratory workflows.
- Investigate deviations and quality issues with the laboratory team, identify likely causes, and ensure that corrective actions are agreed and followed through to resolution.
- Support compliance with ethical, regulatory, governance and biosafety requirements relating to human biospecimens.
Team Leadership and Coordination
- Provide day-to-day coordination and operational oversight of the Dundee LITE laboratory team, creating clarity around priorities, responsibilities and deadlines.
- Support team development, onboarding, training and effective collaboration across scientists, technicians, students and visiting researchers.
- Foster an inclusive, supportive and delivery-focused working environment and ensure that relevant issues are raised promptly with the Pillar 3 lead.
Essential Criteria
- PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Sciences or a related discipline, or equivalent substantial scientific experience.
- Demonstrable experience combining hands-on translational laboratory research with the coordination of complex projects or programmes involving multiple concurrent workstreams.
- Excellent project-management and organisational skills, together with the analytical judgement needed to assess progress, identify problems and adapt delivery plans.
- Excellent leadership, interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams and work effectively across international collaborations.
- Strong practical understanding of laboratory research workflows and experience working with human biospecimens, quality-controlled assays and shared technology platforms.
Demonstrable experience in:
- Planning and coordinating laboratory activities, staff capacity and competing priorities.
- Monitoring milestones, dependencies, risks, actions and deliverables.
- Hands-on implementation, optimisation and troubleshooting of sample-processing or analytical laboratory workflows.
- Quality assurance, quality control, SOPs and scientific documentation.
- Coordinating work across multiple stakeholders, facilities or partner organisations.
- Critical interpretation of scientific and quality-control data, with the ability to identify patterns, limitations and appropriate next steps.
- Supporting or coordinating training, workflow implementation or technology transfer.
- Data management, progress reporting and maintenance of accurate project records.
- Investigating and resolving practical, technical and operational problems, escalating issues appropriately where required.
- Supporting a collaborative team environment and successful delivery of shared objectives.
- Excellent written and verbal scientific communication skills.
Desirable Criteria
- Experience working with Parkinson's disease, neurodegeneration, biomarker research or related translational programmes.
- Experience managing multicentre or international collaborative research projects.
- Experience coordinating or overseeing laboratory teams and shared scientific workflows.
- Understanding of regulatory, ethical and governance requirements associated with human biospecimens.
- Experience contributing to consortium management, funder reporting, milestone reviews and programme documentation.
- Experience with proteomic, phosphoproteomic, multi-omic or mass-spectrometry workflows.
- Experience with laboratory quality-management systems, assay harmonisation or technology transfer.
- Formal project-management training or experience using project-planning and reporting tools.
Knowledge & Experience
The successful candidate will combine a strong scientific background and hands-on laboratory experience with substantial capability in project delivery, analytical problem-solving and collaborative leadership.
They will demonstrate:
- A PhD in a relevant scientific discipline, or equivalent substantial scientific experience.
- Strong practical experience in translational laboratory research, human biospecimen workflows and quality-controlled experimental delivery.
- Experience coordinating complex laboratory workstreams, people, resources and timelines.
- Ability to understand, implement and troubleshoot assay-development, sample-processing and analytical workflows and to interpret data critically with technical leads.
- Ability to manage collaborative scientific projects involving multiple stakeholders and dependencies.
- Knowledge of Parkinson's disease biology, biomarker development or clinical research would be advantageous.
- Excellent analytical, organisational, leadership, communication and interpersonal skills.
- Commitment to scientific excellence, reproducibility, collaboration and successful programme delivery.
