Head of Department in UCN's Research and Development Department

Do you want to lead initiatives that make it easier for UCN to succeed with research and development?

UCN is seeking an experienced and relationship-oriented leader for our cross-cutting research and development department. This is a newly established leadership position. You will report to UCN’s Chief Research and Development Officer and be responsible for the daily leadership of a department with around 15 employees and a central role in the continued development of UCN's overall research and development support.

The Research and Development Department supports UCN’s work to develop knowledge and bring it into use in education and practice. Based on UCN’s Strategy 2030, we are working to create greater coherence, clearer priorities, and common ways of working in the department. We collaborate with programs, research centers and external partners to create value for students, professions and society at large.

Your task

As a leader you will be responsible for the daily personnel management, operations and organizational development of UCN's central research and development department. You will play an important role in translating UCN's strategic direction for research and development into well-functioning support, clear priorities and organizational solutions.

The department includes, among other things, research-supporting project administration, funding and application support, legal quality assurance of contracts and collaboration agreements, research communications as well as portfolio overview and management information related to the research and development area. The staff work on different campuses in Aalborg, and you must ensure presence-based leadership, good communication and coherence across the sites.

Your central tasks will include

• overseeing personnel management and supporting employees' competence development in line with the department's tasks and UCN’s needs
• clarifying roles, responsibilities, priorities and ways of working
• strengthening collaboration and coherence across the department's functions and the rest of UCN
• creating an overview of the task portfolio, capacity and resource use so that tasks can be prioritized and allocated with a view to quality, competencies and workload
• applying data and management information to prioritize tasks, monitor progress and identify development needs
• develop more robust and common ways of working and reduce dependence on individuals
• translate strategic ambitions into concrete practice
• identify opportunities to use digitization, AI and automation to create better and more efficient workflows
• ensure a good working environment and support well-being through dialogue, clear expectations and ongoing follow-up on workload

Collaboration with the Chief of Research and Development

The Chief of Research and Development has the overall responsibility for UCN's strategic and cross-cutting development of research and development (FoU), including the institutional research centers and the overall research strategy. The Chief of Research and Development is the line manager for the research leads in the institutional research centers and for you. As a department head in the Research and Development Department you will have a clear and independent responsibility for daily leadership and development of the department.

We work closely together to ensure that strategic ambitions are translated into coherent and well-functioning support, and that the department works closely with education, research centers and UCN's other functions.

You must be able to create coherence

The Research and Development Department is one part of a larger organization. We are therefore looking for a leader who naturally looks beyond their own department and has an eye for how different functions can work together in the best possible way. You must be able to navigate a complex organization with many professional disciplines and perspectives and contribute to clear interfaces between FoU, education, research centers and other support functions.

For us, good FoU support is not only about the FoU department functioning well. It is about UCN experiencing a simpler, clearer and value-creating support as a whole.

Leadership close to people and the task

You will be the line manager for employees with different professional profiles, high specialization and a high degree of autonomy. We are seeking a leader with solid and documented experience in people management, who is available, listens and builds trust. You motivate professionally strong staff and create good frameworks for well-being, professional development and collaboration.

You will follow up on employees' tasks and workloads and engage in dialogue when there is a need to prioritize or adjust expectations. You create space to discuss mistakes, doubts and challenges. At the same time, you must be able to handle the more difficult leadership tasks that come with prioritization, change and development. You involve the employees and use their professional perspectives while setting direction and making decisions.

Data, digitization and automation

An important part of the department's development is to become more systematic and data-supported in our prioritization and management. Therefore, we are seeking a leader who has experience in using data and management information as the basis for prioritization, capacity management, portfolio overview and continuous improvement.

You do not need to be a technical specialist, but you must be able to see which data are necessary to make better decisions, set requirements for the data basis and translate information into action. At the same time, you should be able to see the potential of digitization, automation and responsible use of AI to create more robust and efficient workflows.

We expect that you

• have solid and documented experience in people management, preferably of professionally specialized employees
• have experience in leading organizational development and change processes
• have experience with prioritization, capacity or portfolio management in a complex organization
• have experience using data and management information for leadership, prioritization and follow-up
• can create structure, direction and momentum without creating unnecessary bureaucracy
• can build relationships and coherence across organizational boundaries
• can move confidently between strategy, development and daily operations
• work independently and take responsibility within your area
• have an eye for the possibilities in digitization, AI and automation

We do not require a specific educational background. The crucial factor is your proven leadership experience and ability to develop people, organization and workflows. Experience from a university college, a university or another knowledge organization and insight into the conditions of research and development work are positively valued.

You do not need to have experience with all the listed tools and task types. We are interested in how your leadership experiences and perspectives can contribute to the department's development.

A central role in the development of UCN's research and development

UCN has strong ambitions for research and development. We are working, among other things, to strengthen the strategic prioritization of FoU, create closer coherence between research, education and practice, and develop our work with impact, funding and research careers.

As the department head you will therefore join at a time when there are good opportunities to influence both the department's ways of working and UCN's future FoU support.

The Chief of Research and Development has the overarching strategic and cross-cutting responsibility for FoU, while you as department head will have a clear responsibility for daily leadership and internal development within the FoU department.

Recruitment process

At UCN we have established a recruitment committee that conducts the selection process and makes a recommendation of a selected candidate to the Chief of Research and Development.

The application deadline is November 4, and as soon as possible thereafter you will be notified whether we would like to invite you to a first interview round.

We expect to hold the first interview on November 10, 2026 and the second interview round on November 23, 2026.

There may be a personality test and case work included in the recruitment process.

The desired start date is January 1, 2027.

Salary and terms of employment

The employment is pursuant to the Circular on the agreement for the employment of managers at institutions within education and research under the Ministry of Education and Research.

Salary is agreed in accordance with UCN’s chief salary policy .

Your primary workplace will be at Selma Lagerløfs Vej 2 in Aalborg East.

Further information

UCN has an informative website www.ucn.dk. Here you can read about the organization, education and partners. We expect you as a candidate to have explored the website.

If you have questions about the job, you are welcome to contact Michael Rathleff tel. 72691338. All inquiries are treated confidentially, of course.

UCN wishes for our staff to reflect the diversity of the surrounding community, and we therefore encourage all interested people regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexual orientation to apply for the position.

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Professionshøjskolen UCN is North Jutland's largest practice-oriented education institution with six addresses in Aalborg, Hjørring and Thisted. We offer more than 30 advanced professional and vocational educations within pedagogy/learning, health, business and technology. We develop North Jutland through education, lifelong learning and practice-oriented research – always in close dialogue with our surroundings. We are a little over 900 employees. Together we do our best for the more than 9,500 students and 9,400 course participants who have chosen us.