At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and deliver innovative programmes like accelerators and hackathons while mentoring entrepreneurs.
- Company: Join Plexal, a dynamic innovation hub driving the UK's tech growth.
- Benefits: Enjoy a competitive salary, annual bonus, generous pension, and private healthcare.
- Other info: Flexible work environment with opportunities for national travel and career growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in the tech world while collaborating with startups and industry leaders.
- Qualifications: Experience in tech innovation, programme management, and strong communication skills required.
The predicted salary is between 65000 - 80000 £ per year.
The Role's Purpose
This role can be based in either Manchester or London.
- Designing and delivering innovation programmes, such as startup accelerators, bootcamps, hackathons
- Facilitating innovation workshops
- Managing the team (virtually and in-person) delivering the programmes
- Providing business support and mentoring entrepreneurs
- Engaging and managing senior stakeholders (clients, delivery partners)
- Managing programme schedules and deliveries to agreed workplan
- Managing financials to meet or beat budget performance
- Focus on ensuring high-quality standards of delivery to delight customers and partners
- Identifying new ideas and themes from market intelligence and developing potential follow-on or new innovation programmes
- Coordinating regional activation activity, including events, roundtables, employer engagement sessions, insight gathering, referral pathways and partnership development.
- Translating local ecosystem intelligence into programme design, delivery decisions and continuous improvement, ensuring national programmes are adapted appropriately to regional strengths and sector clusters.
Your Skills
- A deep understanding of product development processes, commercialisation, startup growth strategies and technology incubation
- Excellent communication skills, including excellent workshop facilitation skills
- Problem solving skills that can quickly identify issues and find solutions, often in high-pressure situations
- Able to be flexible and open to change of direction and think on your feet effectively
- Advanced knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint and Word
- Relationship building skills, with the ability to build and engage networks to deliver business outcomes
- Business Development – skilled in identifying emerging themes and working to create market facing solutions to meet the demands
Your Experience
- Proven experience working with or in a technology, innovation, venture or startup environment
- Previous experience of mentoring startups and innovators
- Programme management expertise, with solid organisational skills and a structured approach to delivery
- Experience of managing programme budgets, suppliers and other third-party relationships
- Experience with managing complex relationships and stakeholders
Who You Are
- Higher education degree or relevant experience
- This role may require some national travel for delivery of projects and travel to all Plexal sites.
- Due to the nature of this position, our work, and our client engagements, you must be willing and eligible to achieve a minimum of SC clearance. To qualify for SC clearance, you must be a British Citizen or have resided in the UK for the last 5 years with no extensive periods outside of the UK. Pre-existing SC welcome.
Why us?
Plexal’s Values:
- Mission: We inherit the mission of UK government and deliver it in an agile and creative fashion.
- Collaboration: We believe in the power of working together.
- Equality: We strengthen ourselves as a team by embracing the different.
- Care: People are at the heart of what we do; we care about our customers, members and colleagues.
As a start-up, we thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment dedicated to empowering innovators. We embrace individuals who leverage technology and creativity to tackle our greatest challenges head-on. We strongly advocate for maintaining a harmonious work-life balance, our goal is to ensure every member of our team can authentically be themselves and live their best lives. We firmly believe that innovation and creativity flourish when we cultivate a diverse workforce, comprising highly skilled individuals with a wide range of perspectives to contribute.
In return we will offer you:
- Salary: £65,000 - £80,000 depending on skills and experience
- Annual bonus scheme
- A generous pension scheme (with a company contribution of up to 10%)
- Private healthcare, life assurance and critical illness cover
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
- Volunteering day
Plexal is an equal opportunities employer and we actively encourage applicants from individuals from all backgrounds. We are a Disability Committed employer and are willing to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
About us
Plexal is the innovation and growth company helping to strengthen the UK’s technology capabilities through collaboration. With teams in London, Manchester and Cheltenham, we work closely with government, industry, startups and academia to drive economic growth and reinforce national security. Founded by Delancey in 2017, Plexal delivers four core services: creating workspaces for innovators, running innovation programmes and consultancy, building regional tech clusters and helping SMEs scale strategically. By closing the gap between early-stage and established organisations – across the public and private sectors at home and abroad – we’ve impacted over 1,200 businesses, added £731m to the UK economy and helped create 9,400 jobs. Headquartered at Here East on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Plexal partners with organisations including the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the National Cyber Security Centre, Airbus, Amazon, Barclays Eagle Labs, Google Cloud, TfL, The Alan Turing Institute and the University of Oxford.
Innovation Lead, Programmes in London employer: Plexal
Plexal is an exceptional employer that thrives in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, dedicated to empowering innovators and fostering creativity. With a strong commitment to work-life balance, diverse perspectives, and employee growth, we offer competitive salaries, generous benefits including private healthcare and a robust pension scheme, and opportunities for meaningful engagement with startups and industry leaders. Our collaborative culture and focus on innovation make Plexal a rewarding place to build your career while contributing to the UK's technology capabilities.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Innovation Lead, Programmes in London
✨Leverage Innovation Hubs
Tap into local innovation hubs and research centres. These places often host events and workshops where you can meet like-minded people and industry leaders. Plus, they might have job openings that aren't widely advertised, so keep your ears open!
✨Showcase Your Projects
Turn your past innovation projects into compelling stories. Create a portfolio showcasing your creativity and problem-solving skills. This can give hiring managers a real flavour of what you can bring to the table at companies like Plexal.
✨Connect at Industry Conferences
Make it a point to attend industry conferences and seminars focused on R&D and innovation management. These events are fantastic for networking and often have job boards or career fairs where you can connect directly with firms looking for talent.
✨Use Your University’s Resources
If you're fresh out of university, don't forget to tap into your institution's career services. They often have exclusive partnerships with companies seeking new talent in R&D, especially for full-time roles. It's a good shortcut to landing a gig at places like Plexal.
We think you need these skills to ace Innovation Lead, Programmes in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Showcase Your Creative Thinking:In innovation and R&D management, it's all about thinking outside the box. Make sure your CV highlights any projects or experiences that showcase your creative problem-solving skills. Use specific examples to illustrate how you've developed and implemented innovative ideas in previous roles.
Tailor Your Experience to R&D:When you're crafting your CV, focus on your experience in research and development. Highlight any relevant projects you've worked on, including methodologies used and results achieved. This will show us at Plexal that you understand the R&D process and can contribute meaningfully to our projects.
Let Your Passion Shine in the Cover Letter:For a full-time role like this, your cover letter should reflect your genuine passion for innovation and development. Share your excitement about the opportunity to work at Plexal and touch on how your goals align with our mission. This helps us see your motivation for wanting to join our team!
Quantify Your Achievements:Numbers speak volumes in R&D! Whenever possible, quantify your achievements in your CV. Whether it’s a percentage improvement in project outcomes, the budget size you’ve managed, or the number of successful products you've launched, these figures will help paint a clearer picture of your impact and capabilities.
How to prepare for a job interview at Plexal
✨Show Off Your Innovative Thinking
In an Innovation R&D Management role at Plexal, they're going to want to see how you approach problem-solving. Be ready to discuss previous projects where you introduced a new idea or process. Highlight your ability to think outside the box and provide examples where your innovations drove significant results.
✨Familiarity with Tools and Technologies
Make sure you're clued up on the latest tools and technologies related to innovation management, such as project management software and data analysis platforms. Being able to discuss specific tools you’ve used or have experience with will show Plexal that you’re ready to hit the ground running.
✨Demonstrate Collaboration Skills
Since this is a full-time gig, emphasising your teamwork skills will be essential. In innovation, collaboration often sparks the best ideas, so be ready to talk about how you've worked effectively within cross-functional teams in your past roles. Have concrete examples at the ready!
✨Prepare for Scenario-Based Questions
Expect some scenario-based questions in your interview that reflect real challenges you might face in the role. £At Plexal, they might want to see how you handle tight deadlines or manage conflicting ideas within a team. Prepare some responses that demonstrate your critical thinking and decisiveness in high-pressure situations.
