Cape Town | Hybrid | 6-month renewable contract | ±16 hours / 2 days per week

A highly respected professional body within the financial and risk professions is seeking a Research Programme Coordinator to act as the operational engine behind its growing research function.

This is a hands-on coordination and project support role, ideal for someone who thrives on structure, governance, deadlines, and making complex programmes actually work in the real world.

Please apply here directly or you are welcome to forward your CV to ellarine@obr.co.za.

What you’ll be responsible for

You’ll be the calm conductor behind the scenes, ensuring research initiatives run smoothly, on time, and to standard.

Key responsibilities include:

• Research Project Management

  • Maintain project plans, milestones, and deliverables

  • Track progress and follow up with researchers, contractors, and partners

  • Prepare monitoring reports and dashboards for leadership and governance structures

• Governance & Secretariat Support

  • Provide secretariat support to research committees and working groups

  • Prepare agendas, meeting packs, minutes, and track action items

  • Maintain accurate and compliant governance documentation

• Information & Reporting

  • Support monitoring and evaluation of research outputs

  • Prepare internal and external reports, dashboards, and summaries

  • Maintain up-to-date records of all research activities

• Administration & Process Coordination

  • Coordinate contracts, procurement, invoices, prize adjudications, and approvals

  • Maintain central research templates, records, and document repositories

  • Ensure smooth collaboration with finance, legal, and procurement teams

• Communications & Website Coordination

  • Liaise with marketing/communications on research updates and calls for participation

  • Coordinate website updates for research content

  • Draft clear, non-technical summaries of research activity

• Stakeholder & Event Coordination

  • Coordinate meetings with research partners and institutions

  • Assist with workshops, events, and stakeholder engagements

• Research Radar & Topic Development

  • Maintain and update a central research topic pipeline

  • Conduct basic desk research to support new topic generation

  • Support annual and ongoing calls for research ideas

• Operational Excellence

  • Improve research workflows, templates, and processes

  • Identify bottlenecks and suggest practical solutions

  • Help embed consistent quality and administrative standards

What we’re looking for

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent (preferred, but not essential)

• ±5 years’ experience in a research, project coordination, professional services, or similar environment

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office 365 (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint)

• Highly organised, detail-driven, and deadline-focused

• Excellent communication skills across diverse stakeholders

• Proactive, self-managed, and comfortable juggling multiple workstreams

• Experience in project management and basic financial processes is advantageous

What’s on offer

• Competitive, market-related contract rate

• Hybrid working environment

• A professional, collaborative culture

• The opportunity to contribute to meaningful, high-impact research that influences policy, standards, and practice