Technology, Product and Innovation Lead (Incubation Lead)

Full Time Salary £69,555–£81,147 (dependent on experience) + London Weighting £3,500 - Hybrid working (3 days a week in the Farringdon Hub).

Help shape the future of geospatial innovation and the next generation of location‑powered products. Geovation is OS’s externally facing innovation, research & development function — working with start-ups, founders and partners to explore new applications of location data and help ideas become reality. Our Farringdon hub is a vibrant, collaborative environment where entrepreneurs, technologists and geospatial specialists come together to solve meaningful, real‑world problems.

As we continue to grow our ecosystem, this role sits at its innovation focused core: guiding research‑led experimentation, accelerating the development of innovative products, and translating insights into outcomes that drive OS’s future success.

Why this role matters

Geovation exists to expand OS’s impact beyond the traditional geospatial world. We nurture early‑stage start-ups, build partnerships and uncover emerging technologies and markets where location data creates unique value. This role owns Geovation’s Open Innovation, Research & Development capabilities — which we call our Incubator. It’s where embryonic ideas are explored, emerging markets are discovered, and critical insights are developed that will shape OS’s future direction.

By ‘Innovation, Research & Development’ we mean finding and developing new applications of location data – that we can learn from - so we make better products and more impact. The ‘Open’ bit is that it’s open to the wider world – not hidden away in a secret lab. In fact, these ideas aren’t our ideas at all – they’re the ideas of entrepreneurs. We’re here to help those entrepreneurs try to realise their visions by helping them build new products that solve big problems that really matter.

In this role you’ll be equivalent to our Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO), with the role blending technical leadership, innovation strategy, product thinking and programme management. It drives the discovery and development of new applications of location data while supporting start-ups with practical, experiment‑driven development programmes.

What you’ll be responsible for

• Leading Geovation’s Incubation Team as an Innovation, Research & Development capability.
• Own and deliver Geovation’s Incubator programme, ensuring it generates insight, market development outcomes and value for startups and partners.
• Identify which startups to work with and shape bespoke support packages tailored to their needs and growth stage.
• Design and oversee hypothesis‑led proof‑of‑concept experiments that deliver tangible learning for OS and value creating, meaningful IP for startups.

Technical and innovation leadership

• Provide credible thought leadership at the intersection of geospatial data, emerging technology and new markets.
• Communicate complex technical and market concepts clearly to a wide range of audiences.
• Design and deliver technical development projects with clear outputs and learning objectives, using best‑practice agile approaches.
• Contribute to consultancy revenue generation (approx. £50k–£100k per year).

Programme and ecosystem development

• Develop and lead agile, design‑led and sprint‑based development programmes within the Incubator.
• Strengthen Geovation’s research, experimentation and product‑development capabilities.

Representing Geovation and OS

• Act as Geovation’s product and technical representative (a bit like Geovation’s CPTO), showcasing our expertise to OS’s Executive Leadership team, partners, founders and the wider ecosystem.
• Build networks, strengthen partnerships and help expand Geovation’s growing innovation community.

Technical management

• Ensure Geovation’s technical tools, skills and processes are maintained, modern and effective.
• Support team members in developing their technical capabilities.

What you’ll bring

Essential

• A strong technical background with experience of geospatial and/or software development using a range of tools and languages.
• Strong ability to identify and communicate emerging trends in technology and geospatial data.
• Proven ability to lead and deliver innovation, research or technical development programmes.
• Product‑led and design‑thinking mindset; able to flex between product, technical and strategic approaches.
• Practical experience of setting up, managing and delivering agile development projects with clear learning outcomes.
• Ability to design and run practical experiments that generate insight and validate hypotheses.
• Proven leadership ability.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, comfortable interacting with both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Desirable

• Experience mentoring, coaching or advising startups, founders or product teams.
• Experience working within a startup accelerator, incubator or innovation‑focused environment.
• Exposure to geospatial technologies, data or location‑powered applications.
• Experience building partnerships, networks or ecosystems within a technology or innovation context.
• Experience in securing and delivering revenue generating technical consultancy work.
• Experience as a thought leader in a technical space.
• Background in programme management or delivering externally funded programmes.
• People leadership experience.

The Rewards

We want you to love what you do. That is why our benefits package rewards a job well done. Check out how we support and invest in our employees.

• Salary – £69,555–£81,147 (dependent on experience) + London Weighting £3,500.
• Performance related bonus up to 10%.
• A competitive pension scheme (OS contributes up to 12.07%).
• 28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays on joining, (3 taken over Christmas) increasing by one day per year, to a maximum of 5 years.
• Enhanced family leave, including up to 12 weeks paid partner (paternity) leave.
• Free subscription to OS Maps.
• Access to online learning platforms.
• Coaching and Mentoring schemes.
• Plus, a suite of excellent additional perks and benefits.

At OS, we believe looking after your health and wellbeing means more than posters and events. We empower you to manage your work and life the way you need it by offering things like:

• An extra days’ leave for each year you work, up to 33 days.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• We adopt flexible working and can consider different working hours dependent on the role and your personal circumstances.
• Eyecare Vouchers.
• OS Explorers Nursery discount.
• Cycle to Work scheme.
• We believe that as a company we should give back wherever we can, so we give you 1 day a year to volunteer for charities that are important to you, as well as offering a match funding scheme.

The stages that proceed successful application are as follows:

• Stage 1 – Telephone screening call via MS Teams.
• Stage 2 – Competency based interview & Psychometric Assessment.

Location

This role will be offered Hybrid on a UK Remote worker and with OS hybrid working at the Farringdon Hub.

Closing date Friday 13 March 2026 at 23:59pm.

We welcome and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. Research shows that candidates — especially women, disabled people, LGBTQ+ individuals, neurodiverse people and ethnic minority groups — may self‑select out if they don’t meet every requirement. If you’re excited about this role but don’t match every single point, please apply anyway. You may be exactly who we’re looking for.

Skills required for this role: Computer Programming, Engineering Practices, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geospatial Data, Secure Software Development, Secure Software Development Lifecycle, Security Software, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).