This study explores the challenges faced by young lecturers in managerial transformation in elite Chinese academic institutions which aim to develop into world-class universities. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews, the paper discusses how a group of lecturers on tenure-track contracts at a research university in China perceived the impacts of this managerial personnel reform. The study revealed intensified academic pressure and consequent feelings of insecurity, uncertainty and anxiety among the participants. Rigid tenure requirements pushed down research quality, and detracted from the efforts the participants could have devoted to teaching. Further negative impacts were strengthened power hierarchies and increasingly gendered nature of the academic culture.