Director of Activation - Strategy to Delivery in Swindon

The Innovate UK Director of Activation – Strategy to Delivery is accountable for leading and delivering the end‑to‑end activation of Innovate UK to enable the organisation to deliver its new strategy and operating model. The postholder will operate within the Innovate UK Executive Leadership team, manage three direct reports, and hold high‑level strategic, operational, financial and reputational risk responsibilities. The role is time‑critical, high‑impact, and provides authority to shape organisational direction. The day‑to‑day work involves ensuring all change aligns with the UKRI Shaping Our Future Programme and delivering a fit‑for‑purpose, scalable, digitally enabled organisation.

Job Purpose

The role is accountable for the design and implementation of the future Innovate UK organisation, including structures, governance, decision‑making, digital enablement, ways of working, and leadership capability. It ensures Innovate UK is fit for purpose, scalable, digitally enabled, and compliant in delivering innovation funding and business support at national scale aligned with the new IUK strategy.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and delivery of Innovate UK's activation programme, aligning organisational capability, operating model, and culture to the new strategy. Act as the single responsible owner for outcomes, benefits realisation, and delivery assurance. Translate strategic intent into coherent, prioritised change portfolios spanning people, process, digital, governance and stakeholder models. Take difficult, organisation‑wide decisions on prioritisation, sequencing and de‑scoping to protect strategic outcomes.

• 1. Organisational Design and Operating Model: Design and implement the future Innovate UK operating model, ensuring clarity of roles, accountability and decision rights. Lead structural redesign, workforce transition, capability development and leadership alignment at scale. Ensure the organisation is designed to support high‑potential business models, portfolio approaches and differentiated customer propositions. Establish sustainable ownership for business‑as‑usual following transformation completion aligned to the organisational OKRs.
• 2. Digital and Data‑Enabled Change: Provide strategic leadership for digital and data transformation underpinning Innovate UK delivery. Ensure transformation integrates effectively with core platforms, funding systems, data architecture and AI‑enabled services. Work closely with UKRI digital and technology leaders to secure alignment while protecting Innovate UK's strategic requirements.
• 3. Governance, Risk and Assurance: Establish and lead robust change governance, reporting transparently to Innovate UK Executive Chair and Executive Leadership Board, Council and UKRI Shaping Our Future programme. Own and manage enterprise‑level transformation risks, including delivery, financial, operational, regulatory and reputational risks. Ensure alignment with Managing Public Money, subsidy control requirements and UKRI assurance frameworks. Provide clear, evidence‑based advice to senior leaders on risk appetite and trade‑offs.
• 4. Stakeholder Leadership and Influence: Lead engagement with UKRI corporate functions, other councils, DSIT interfaces, delivery partners and external stakeholders where transformation has cross‑system impact. Influence at Director and Executive Committee level to resolve conflicts, remove barriers and secure collective ownership of change. Represent Innovate UK authoritatively in discussions on organisational reform, delivery capability and innovation system effectiveness.
• 5. Leadership and Culture: Role‑model senior civil service leadership behaviours and the Civil Service Code. Build strong sponsorship, ownership and accountability for change across the senior leadership cohort. Embed a culture of evidence‑based decision making, delivery discipline and continuous improvement. Ensure people impacts are managed with integrity, clarity and pace.
• 6. Scale and Complexity: Organisation‑wide impact across Innovate UK's full funding and support portfolio. Transformation spanning multiple directorates, professions, digital platforms and delivery models. Significant financial implications and long‑term value for money considerations. High public and ministerial interest environment with material reputational risk. Operates with strategic ambiguity, competing priorities and constrained resources.
• 7. Additional Duties: This is not an exhaustive list and you may 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.

Travel Requirements

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. In general, you will need to work in the Swindon office once a week and may have four to six nights away from home per month on average to attend conferences and events.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set‑out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in‑person. If you have a disability, health condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

Competencies

• Thinking and Problem Solving
• Stakeholder Management
• Communication Skills
• Influencing
• Self‑Awareness / Self‑Management
• Strategic Awareness
• Working with Others
• Project Management

Benefits

• 30 days' annual leave
• 10.5 public and privilege days
• Flexible working hours
• Exceptional defined benefit pension scheme
• Access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes