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ApplyBioFAIR is undertaking an ambitious programme to redefine the UK’s data and service landscape for the life sciences — and we’re looking for someone to help us ensure we put the answers to life science questions directly at researchers’ fingertips.
Applications are invited for a Lead Product Owner to join the BioFAIR Hub, hosted at the Earlham Institute, Norwich, UK.
Background:
BioFAIR is funded by a £34M UKRI investment over five years and will deliver a step change in ‘Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable’ (FAIR) research data management, providing end-to-end FAIR data and analysis capabilities alongside support and training for UK researchers.
To achieve this mission, BioFAIR seeks to redefine the UK’s existing data and service landscape for the life sciences. Guided by a “reuse, don’t rebuild” philosophy, BioFAIR will need to onboard a wide range of mature services while also providing a framework for developing new, state-of-the-art capabilities. Our services will also need to evolve over time to meet changing community and research-infrastructure needs.
BioFAIR is structured around a distributed “Hub and Spokes” model.
The BioFAIR Hub is responsible for coordination of the overall programme, project governance, procurement, and core service delivery. The five Spokes are the primary engines of service delivery, organised around three Commons – the Data, Methods, and People Commons – and two capabilities, the Knowledge Hub and the BioFAIR Portal.
A clear, user-centred product vision is essential to ensure these services come together into a coherent national infrastructure. The Lead Product Owner role will be based in the BioFAIR Hub.
The role:
This senior role puts the needs of the UK life science research community at the heart of a national, federated research infrastructure.
Based at the BioFAIR hub and as the primary advocate for researchers across the BioFAIR Commons network, you will ensure the BioFAIR Technical Platform is intuitive, coherent, and aligned with real-world research data journeys — enabling researchers to move seamlessly from “assay to insight”.
Working in close partnership with the Lead Architect and Senior Technical Project Manager, you will provide expert product leadership across the five spokes: the Data, Methods and People Commons, the Knowledge Hub, and the Portal.
The ideal candidate:
The successful candidate will bring significant experience in product ownership or user-experience design within Agile/Lean frameworks, ideally in the life sciences, alongside a track record of delivering user-facing digital services.
You will be an expert facilitator of collaborative journey- and story-mapping, with a rich understanding of how researchers work with complex data at scale. You will combine design-led, iterative problem-solving with the socio-technical awareness to see how team structures and service boundaries shape product success, and you will communicate complex user needs with clarity to technical and non-technical audiences alike.
This is primarily a hybrid role, as BioFAIR partners are distributed across the UK. As this is a key leadership role in the BioFAIR Hub, the post holder would be expected to spend some time at the Earlham Institute working with other members of the BioFAIR Hub team (on average around one day per week), and some time engaging with partners and communities around the UK.
The exact working patterns are flexible and we welcome applications from the right candidate irrespective of location in the UK.
Additional information:
Salary on appointment will be within the range of £71,000 – £90,000 per annum depending on qualifications and experience.
This is a full-time post for a contract up to 30 June 2029. Although full-time hours are available, applications from those interested in working part-time hours (or alternative working patterns) are also welcomed.
Interviews will be held on Wednesday 15th July.
This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply. Please contact the Human Resources Team if you have any questions regarding your application or visa options.
As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.
The closing date for applications will be 5 July 2026.
We believe that our people are our greatest asset, and we want you to have the freedom to achieve your very best work here.
Norwich is a city of culture, with its rich history of art and writing, as well as a city of science - hosting some of the leading centres for life science research in the world.
The behaviours and communication skills we expect from candidates.
