Impact & Performance Manager (Business Growth) - Maternity Cover

This maternity cover role will work as part of the Innovate UK Business Growth team ensuring that the impact of Innovate UK’s business growth services is captured and reported to key stakeholders, both internally and externally.

Our business growth support services are instrumental to achieving Innovate UK’s delivery plan and supporting the UK economy. We have a growing need for tools, metrics, reports and insight from the portfolio of work that we deliver. Effective management of the impact and performance data of our Business Growth portfolio will ensure we deliver the full potential of our high-growth support services to the UK now and in the future.

This role will involve the development and coordination of our impact data capture across the portfolio exploring the benefit to companies of business growth services. Creating reports and dashboards to show the impact and delivery of our programmes. Working closely across all areas of the Business Growth Team to create reports and metrics for the team, our consortium, Innovate UK and UKRI Councils, DSIT, HM Treasury and other key stakeholders.

• Development and maintenance of strong relationships with primary stakeholders including Innovate UK Business Growth consortium partners, Innovation Leads, other Impact and Performance Managers and the Innovate UK Impact and Evaluation team.
• Develop a strong understanding of the Innovate UK Business Growth portfolio, developing, facilitating, collecting and reporting key impact metrics to internal and external stakeholders and providing portfolio trend analysis to colleagues within the organisation.
• Embed the Innovate UK Business Growth impact management framework within the wider delivery team, working on our data platforms (e.g., Customer Relationship Management system) to gather and report on company impacts.
• Work with the Innovate UK Business Growth Data Analysts to develop impact metrics and create compelling reports, dashboards and visuals that demonstrate the impact of Innovate UK Business Growth services.
• Work closely with the rest of the Business Growth delivery operations team to understand partner delivery and performance to enable a portfolio view for reporting of impacts.
• Work with the Innovate UK Business Growth team and consortium colleagues to identify and develop potential success stories, coordinating the development of related communications and publicity with specialist team members.
• Support the delivery of an external evaluation of the IUK Business Growth Service taking place from spring 2026.
• Work closely with Innovate UK’s Impact and Evaluation team on evaluation/assessment activities, impact management tools (and platforms) to enhance the visibility and usability of our impact management data.
• Coordinate with other Impact and Performance Managers & business systems colleagues across the organisation to ensure a joined-up approach and effective information flow.
• Undertake project and monitoring visits as appropriate in support of Innovate UK Business Growth delivery operations and management team.

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Experience & Qualifications:

• Educated to undergraduate degree level or with substantial relevant experience.
• Experience of working with high-growth businesses, understanding their needs and challenges.
• Problem solving – data gathering, analysis and creative presentation of results/recommendations.
• Ability to ‘deep dive’ into end-to-end processes to identify impact, opportunities and solutions.
• Ability to think strategically with an outcome-focused big picture approach, yet still able to deliver operationally with good attention to detail.
• Understanding of portfolio reporting, showing individual strands but ultimately, the big picture view.
• Experience in identifying, tailoring and communicating impact verbally and via creative, clear, concise and accurate presentations, documents and reports.
• Facilitation skills at every level to ensure wide understanding and buy-in.
• Proven ability to work with and present to diverse stakeholders in complex environments, tailoring communications and outputs to meet the needs of different groups.
• Developing and managing effective long-lasting working relationships.
• Able to rapidly produce appropriate reports and impact analyses while managing competing demands, and protecting the integrity of documented processes.
• Familiarity with CRM systems (e.g. Salesforce), surveys (e.g. survey monkey) and manipulation/visualisation (e.g. MS PowerBI) tools and dashboards, both their inception, ongoing development and data management.

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as: Thinking and Problem Solving, Stakeholder management, Communication skills, Influencing, Self-awareness/self-management, Strategic awareness, Working with others, Project management.

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria listed in the person specification.

Field-based: There will be a requirement to travel, mostly national, and there is some flexibility in this. Innovate UK staff make extensive use of telepresence tools for meetings to minimise unnecessary travel.

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met.

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.