Head of Product & Innovation in Bristol

Our Head of Product & Innovation is responsible for creating a world class professional services practice and developing demand for a set of propositions and capabilities to meet the needs of our clients and to support the strategic growth of our business. We believe that good design, research-driven policy, technical excellence, continuous innovation and improvement, and effectively managed change can significantly enhance citizen and user experiences, bolster the resilience of public services, and help to improve the applications that deliver essential services to our society.

The successful candidate will lead the practice to help us to develop and support the sale of a set of differentiated offerings covering Product & Innovation, for a wide range of public services. They will develop a team of Product Managers and consultants to engage with our clients on their business priorities and challenges, and they will guide and monitor client engagements across Made Tech. In addition, the Head of Practice will be responsible for engaging with our clients to understand their challenges and build lasting, trusted advisor relationships. They will also oversee client deliveries and be contributing up to 50% of time to billable project activities, to help ensure quality and drive the sharing of best practice across our engagements and industries. This role reports directly to the Head of Strategy & Design Service Line.

Responsibilities

• Grow the Product & Innovation practice at Made Tech (revenue and headcount); develop trusted relationships with our clients to identify specific growth opportunities and proactively take new ideas to our clients to help them solve their biggest problems.
• Develop joined-up propositions as solutions to client problems; establish Made Tech as an innovator and thought leader in the space, sharing our differentiated approach to improve services across the public sector.
• Lead the Product & Innovation practice; hire, develop, motivate and coach a team that understands the user/client needs as well as the technology and lasting change that we are delivering across the public sector.
• Deliver a profitable practice; balance complex client needs with highly performing, suitably leveraged and cost effective teams.
• Help to shape our Service Line and Made Tech; define and articulate the client-facing solutions that support our Industry strategies and help to turn them into client engagements through client conversations, presenting externally as a thought leader and contributing directly to bids.
• Provide subject matter expertise; lead the client conversations as a subject matter expert, and guide and support the account teams to build strategic plans that leverage the practice capability.
• Be a trusted advisor; build strategic relationships with C-Level stakeholders across our public sector client base and the wider industry.
• Oversee our deliveries and drive excellence in our engagements; take a hands-on interest in our client deliveries, guide and mentor our delivery teams and liaise with high profile stakeholders and key clients to ensure satisfaction with our contributions.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Clients: This role requires a deep understanding of public sector digital transformation and the ability to bridge the gap between commercial innovation and government challenges. You must be able to establish yourself as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders by delivering user-centric, data-driven solutions.
• Leadership: The role requires operational and people management, specifically the ability to lead high-performing consulting teams while maintaining a profitable cost centre. You will need to grow a practice through talent mentorship, supplier management, and cost-effective delivery models.
• Practice: Business development and strategic execution, requiring experience in creating market-ready propositions that solve specific client needs. It involves collaborating with sales teams to meet organisational goals and overseeing complex, multi-disciplinary digital projects.
• Product & Innovation Skills: Strategic Design, Product Management, Innovation, User experience analysis, Consulting expert, Senior stakeholder management, Product Leadership, Agile expertise.

Job Benefits

Life at Made Tech: We’re committed to building a happy, inclusive and diverse workforce. You can get a sense of what it’s like working here from our blog, where we talk about mental health, communities of practice and neurodiversity (as well as our client work and best practice). Like many organisations, we use Slack to foster a sense of community and connection. As well as special interest groups such as music, food and pets, we also have 10+ Slack channels dedicated to specific communities, allies, and identities as well as dedicated learning spaces called communities of practice (COPs). If you’d like to speak to someone from one of these groups about their experience as an employee, please do let a member of the Made Tech talent team know.

Benefits: We are always listening to our growing teams and evolving the benefits available to our people. As we scale, as do our benefits and we are scaling quickly. We have recently introduced a flexible benefit platform which includes a Smart Tech scheme, Cycle to work scheme, and an individual benefits allowance which you can invest in a health care cash plan or Pension plan. We’re also big on connection and have an optional social and wellbeing calendar of events for all employees to join should they choose to.

• 30 days Holiday - we offer 30 days of paid annual leave
• Flexible Parental Leave - we offer flexible parental leave options
• Remote Working - we offer part time remote working for all our staff
• Paid counselling - we offer paid counselling as well as financial and legal advice
• Pension - 8% employer matched

An increasing number of our customers are specifying a minimum of SC (security check) clearance in order to work on their projects. As a result, we are looking for all successful candidates for this role to have eligibility. Eligibility for SC requires 5 years' UK residency and 5 year employment history (or back to full-time education). Ideally, no more than 30 consecutive days spent outside the UK within the last five years. Please note that if at any point during the interview process it is apparent that you may not be eligible for SC, we won’t be able to progress your application and we will contact you to let you know why.

About Made Tech

Made Tech is on a mission to use technology to improve society - for everyone. We help organisations transform, deliver and manage world-class digital products and services. Today, you can see our services (and people!) in action, such as the design and build of the Homes for Ukraine service, delivered in 2 weeks. We’re helping local authorities make it easier and quicker for people to log housing repairs online. By digitalising access to NHS services we’re making it more accessible, such as children needing mental health support. All this great experience is enabling us to support new areas, like energy. We’re helping to drive better environmental outcomes by improving network performance through real-time asset monitoring, which means less wasted energy. We were recently named as a finalist in the Raising the Bar for Workplace Transparency Award in the Shift People Awards. This is a recognition of our many great initiatives, such as our open-access employee handbook that we launched 5 years ago.