Innovation Manager: Industry Acceleration

Company overview

The Aerospace Technology Institute sits at the centre of UK aerospace research and technology. It is responsible for the UK’s Aerospace Technology Strategy and the promotion of transformative technology in air transport, representing a joint industry and Government commitment to R&D funding of over £5 billion to 2035. The ATI represents a single, coherent national aerospace technology development programme that aims to strengthen the links between industry and academia whilst maximising opportunities for UK industry to gain access to European R&T programmes. It is a truly game-changing initiative, whose objective is to secure economic growth for the UK’s aerospace sector, for a more sustainable future. Projects funded through the ATI programme secure jobs, maintain skills and deliver economic benefits across the UK.

The ATI establishes the pathway for technology progression for UK aerospace, which builds on the UK’s strengths and responds to the challenges faced by the UK civil aerospace sector. It also provides a roadmap of the innovation necessary to keep the UK competitive in the global aerospace market, whilst also complementing the broader strategy for the sector created by the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP).

The ATI works in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Innovate UK to offer funding streams designed to accelerate innovation in the UK to maintain global competitiveness.

A small and young company charged with a big responsibility, the ATI encourages free thinking and innovation. We need individuals with drive, passion, ability to adapt and work flexibly, and who share our ambitions for the sector and UK. Our team is collaborative, open, respectful, positive and supportive.

More information about the ATI is available on its website: www.ati.org.uk

Mission Statement

Transforming aerospace through technology and innovation.

Company Values

• We Collaborate for Success
• We provide Independent Leadership
• We are Forward Thinking

Diversity & Inclusion

We are experts in our field, trusted to be impartial in our activities, and present a fair and independent view. We are passionate about innovation and technology and understand the rewards of bringing together a diverse and forward‑thinking team to explore, enhance and shape our aerospace agenda. We are committed to equality in everything we do. We are proud to lead by example, demonstrating independent leadership and collaborating for success in all aspects of our work.

The Opportunity

Position Title: Innovation Manager: Industry Acceleration

Job Type: Permanent, Full-time

Location: London (Hybrid)

Travel: As Required

Reporting to: Head of Innovation

The Role

The Innovation Manager: Industry Acceleration is a key innovation management role within the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), sitting in the Strategy & Innovation function. The role is focused on building and maintaining strong relationships with industry partners, particularly innovation functions, to understand innovation priorities, technology needs and where new solutions could address industry challenges. A core part of the role is shaping and facilitating workshops and related engagement activity to explore industry needs and using the resulting insight to develop practical innovation interventions, such as showcases and innovation programmes. These interventions are expected to translate industry demand into clearly defined innovation programmes, partnership opportunities and investment‑facing propositions, ensuring ATI activity leads to tangible outcomes including collaboration, funding and routes to wider capital.

ATI supports innovation in the aerospace sector through its funding programmes, alongside a range of innovation and acceleration activities that help organisations build capability, work through complex challenges and collaborate more effectively. These activities include ATI Hub, ATI’s platform for innovation support, engagement and collaboration, and bring together industry, innovators, technologists, investors and other stakeholders to identify innovation priorities, create collaboration opportunities, and provide support and visibility across the sector.

The Innovation Manager: Industry Acceleration leads the development and delivery of industry‑led innovation interventions, working closely with industry partners and ATI’s technology team. The role is externally facing and delivery‑focused, and requires someone with strong innovation management capability, commercial awareness and relationship‑building skills, who is comfortable taking a hands‑on role in turning industry insight into practical interventions. The role also ensures that industry‑led activity creates clear routes for SMEs and innovators to engage with industry demand, collaborate with partners and connect into relevant funding or investment pathways.

This role involves working closely with industry partners and other stakeholders across the aerospace innovation ecosystem. It offers a strong opportunity to shape ATI’s industry‑facing innovation activity, build insight into aerospace innovation priorities, and help turn emerging needs into practical programmes and interventions for a nationally important sector. The role plays a critical part in connecting industry demand with innovation and investment opportunities, working with investor‑focused colleagues to ensure industry‑led activity helps surface credible, investable propositions.

Accountabilities

• Industry partner engagement, relationship management and insight development
• Shaping and facilitating workshops and related engagement activity, using a varied range of innovation management methodologies to identify needs, test ideas and develop practical responses
• Planning and leading the delivery of innovation events and industry‑led interventions, including showcases, collaborative sessions and other activity that supports ATI Hub and wider innovation programming
• Shaping innovation and acceleration programmes, including developing business cases for innovation activity and turning industry insight into well‑founded interventions
• Developing an industry demand and opportunity pipeline that can inform innovation programmes, funding activity, partnerships and investment‑facing engagement
• Contribution to ATI’s funding programme through application review and assessment
• Working with investor‑focused colleagues to ensure industry‑led opportunities are clearly structured, visible and capable of informing private capital engagement

Success measures

• Strong engagement from industry partners and evidence of useful insight into industry priorities
• High‑quality workshops, events and interventions, delivered effectively and well received by participants
• Clear evidence that industry insight is informing ATI Hub activity and wider innovation programming
• Evidence that industry‑led activity is creating clear routes for SMEs, innovators and partners to engage with priority demand areas
• Number and quality of industry‑driven opportunities translated into programmes, partnerships or funding activity
• Evidence of industry demand shaping ATI funding activity and informing investment‑facing opportunities
• Evidence of follow‑on activity linked to interventions, including partnerships, funding activity or co‑investment where measurable

Key Responsibilities

1. Industry partner relationships, insight and intervention shaping

A core part of the role is building strong working relationships with industry partners across the aerospace innovation landscape, understanding their priorities, technology needs and innovation challenges, and using that insight to help ATI prioritise where to focus, shape practical responses and develop a clear pipeline of industry‑led opportunity areas. This includes:

• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with industry partners, particularly innovation functions, and developing insight into their priorities, challenges and areas of interest
• Working with ATI colleagues, including the technology team, to understand priority technology areas and research themes, and to develop the focus, framing and prioritisation for industry engagement activity
• Shaping and facilitating workshops and related engagement activity with industry partners to explore needs, priorities and opportunities, and generate insight that informs the development of targeted interventions
• Shaping and leading specific industry‑led interventions, including Innovation Challenges, Showcases and related activity, with support from the wider ATI team where needed
• Establishing and building on collaborations with external partners where joint working can improve strategic alignment, strengthen delivery and increase impact, including with investors, acceleration programmes, the Catapult Network, industry associations, and research and technology organisations
• Translating industry insight into actionable opportunity areas that can be taken forward through programmes, partnerships, SME engagement and relevant investment pathways

This work helps ensure ATI’s innovation and acceleration activity is informed by industry need, grounded in real demand, and connected to opportunities for collaboration, technology adoption, funding and wider investment engagement.

2. Delivery of industry‑led activity and enabling infrastructure

The Innovation Manager: Industry Acceleration is responsible for leading the delivery of industry‑led activity and ensuring it is well planned, effectively executed and supported by the right contributors, tools, workflows and governance. This includes leading specific interventions such as Innovation Challenges, Showcases and related activity, supporting ATI Hub programming where relevant, and ensuring delivery remains coordinated, high‑quality, outcome‑focused and able to evolve over time. The role includes:

• Leading the planning and delivery of industry‑led interventions, including Innovation Challenges, Showcases and related activity, ensuring these are well designed, effectively delivered and aligned to ATI priorities
• Supporting ATI Hub programming where relevant, including identifying, coordinating and delivering industry‑facing activity that uses ATI Hub as a platform for engagement, visibility and opportunity development
• Aligning relevant external expertise, contributors and partners to support delivery, and maintaining the tools, workflows and data processes needed to coordinate industry engagement and innovation activity effectively
• Capturing feedback, participation data, outcomes and insight from industry‑led activity, and using this to improve formats, delivery approaches, opportunity development and future intervention design
• Working closely with the SME Acceleration function to ensure industry demand is clearly connected to relevant SME capability, progression routes and wider investment pathways

The role involves managing multiple activities in parallel and ensuring that delivery is well‑governed, coordinated effectively and continually improved over time.

3. Contribution to ATI’s funding programme

Alongside industry‑led innovation and acceleration activity, the role will regularly contribute to ATI’s core funding programme by acting as an assessor on applications, focusing on business cases, market opportunity and exploitation strategy, and supporting consistent, well‑evidenced recommendations.

• Reviewing applications and forming clear, evidence‑based judgements on commercial potential, market opportunity, exploitation plans and delivery credibility
• Working with Technology assessors and programme colleagues to align views and ensure a well‑reasoned and consistent basis for recommendations
• Contributing to moderation and review discussions, including surfacing risks, assumptions and key issues to support robust and balanced decision‑making
• Providing clear, constructive feedback that helps applicants understand strengths, gaps and priority areas for improvement

The Team

ATI is a small, collaborative organisation where people work closely across functions and value clarity, curiosity and teamwork. This role presents a unique opportunity to help shape the future of UK aerospace and air travel by connecting innovation activity, industry demand, SME growth and private capital. The candidate will gain a privileged perspective across the aerospace innovation ecosystem and beyond, with exceptional opportunities to build networks across innovators, investors, industry, government and research organisations.

It works hand‑in‑hand with colleagues focused on SME acceleration and investor engagement, linking industry demand with SME capability and supporting access to potential funders.

The Candidate

We’re seeking a candidate who shares our core values and brings them to life in everything they do. The candidate will need to demonstrate a forward‑thinking mindset and lead with accountability. They must believe in the power of collaboration for success by working effectively with others to achieve shared goals.

The successful candidate will be motivated by driving innovation in practice and helping organisations work through complex technical, commercial and collaborative challenges.

We are looking for someone who brings a combination of:

• Experience in innovation management, and the design or delivery of innovation support or acceleration activity
• Experience working in highly technical industries (such as aerospace), or the ability to absorb complex technical information quickly
• Experience planning and delivering workshops, events or showcase activity (e.g. innovation challenges, showcases, conferences or collaborative sessions)
• Experience of working closely with industry partners and building constructive, relationship‑led engagement over time
• A strong understanding of market and commercial considerations, including industry demand and routes to adoption

We encourage applications from people who may not meet every requirement but feel excited by the role and confident they could grow into it.

Competencies

• Strong prioritisation and the ability to manage multiple activities effectively
• Ability to translate insight and engagement activity into clear opportunities, practical interventions and measurable outcomes
• Confidence coordinating delivery across internal and external stakeholders, with a practical, hands‑on approach
• Strong workshop facilitation and engagement skills
• Clear communication and the ability to engage credibly with a range of audiences
• Ability to work across a linked innovation system, connecting industry demand, SME capability, funding routes and investment‑facing opportunities
• Critical thinking, sound judgement and the confidence to question assumptions
• Ability to use innovation management approaches to work through complex technical and commercial challenges

Education and Experience

• Experience in innovation management, industry engagement, technology commercialisation, research and development or business transformation
• Experience translating industry or market insight into programmes, partnerships, funding activity or commercial opportunities
• A higher‑education qualification in a relevant area (e.g. Engineering, Business, Strategy) is helpful but not essential

Candidates must have the right to work in the UK.

ATI Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working policy, with daily core hours
• Attractive pension scheme
• Bupa Private Medical Insurance
• EV Scheme
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Life Assurance
• Perkbox Reward & Recognition Scheme
• Professional development training
• Paid membership to one professional body per year
• 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and additional Christmas leave
• Additional one day of leave upon reaching 3,5, and 7 years of continuous service
• Birthday leave
• Workplace Nursery Scheme
• Family friendly leave policies

Assignment Process and Timeline

Short‑listed applicants will go through a two‑stage interview process with the ATI. Offers of employment are subject to the completion of satisfactory background verification checks.

This role is open for applications until 18 October 2026.

For more information on this assignment, please contact hr@ati.org.uk

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