Chief Capabilities Officer

The Company

Roke Manor is a multi-sector product and service development technology powerhouse. At the core of everything they do and value is the desire to improve people’s lives and make the world a better and safer place. They pride themselves on being innovators and inventors; a company that believe in improving the world by delivering imaginative and highly specialised solutions. In short, they bring the physical and digital together in ways that revolutionise industries.

The business is built upon 4 major business units: Futures, Defence, National Security and Intelligence. Each business unit has a clear identity developed over time, and they have the trust and the freedom to embed themselves in problem-solving and providing first-class flexible solutions for their customers. They have been described simply as “An innovation business that creates products and services that they can leverage over their business units.”

Role Overview

The Chief Capabilities Officer (CCO) will be given an unrivalled opportunity to support the redefining and positioning of this business unit’s technical capability. They will be the senior technical expert within the business and will be responsible for collaborating across Roke to ensure that strategic planning, product /service investment, and the use of science, technology and engineering is coordinated in line with the NS business unit and its customer base. The successful candidate must be a leader, have the gravitas, confidence and entrepreneurial mindset to engage internal and external stakeholders, ultimately responsible for evangelising the technical strengths of the NS business.

Candidate Specification

Key Responsibilities

• Provide clear, inspiring and visible technical leadership across the NS Business Unit, owning the effective coordination of science, technology and engineering disciplines to develop new capability for commercial exploitation.
• Own the NS technology strategy to deliver the business outcomes and ROI from innovation.
• Drive NS capability development to build products and services which meet the strategic goals for the Business Unit in terms of revenue growth and profitability.
• Identify opportunities to invest in new capabilities capable of delivering a return on investment relevant to the market conditions in UK homeland security.
• Manage the effectiveness and efficiency of science, technology and engineering processes including adoption of new systems or practices, to ensure NS stays relevant with market conditions and delivers strategic value for clients.
• Work in support of the Roke brand to lead technical client engagement, help drive Roke’s position in the market and champion development of Roke capability into the core mission of our accounts.
• Take a leading role in shaping NS value propositions in terms of solution development, technology strategy and use of partners to win new business.
• Work alongside NS Client Managers as ‘voice of the end customer’ and NS Commercial Lead to represent ‘voice of the product’ into capability build and the commercial exploitation of IP.
• Provide strategic direction and leadership into NS science, technology and engineering teams to co-ordinate best practice, promote knowledge sharing and skills development.
• Line manage the NS product development team, including career development, objective setting and performance management reviews.
• Perform technical security risk assessment and assurance on behalf of the NSLT.
• Own the technical direction for all engagements with internal and external stakeholders, evangelising Roke’s position on latest trends and technologies relevant to our clients.
• Oversee technical risk management for NS-delivered capability.
• Ensure compliance with Roke policy and process based on deep appreciation of our client’s business, technology and operational context.

Requirements

• Experience of pulling through early-stage technical capability, which resulted in the sale of products and services (s/w & h/w) into Government.
• Deep technical skills and experience in a complex engineering environment, with depth and breadth in at least three of:

• • Cyber and networks exploitation
  • Data Science & AI
  • Radio Frequency
  • High assurance cyber
  • Future computing

• Proven track record of engineering in UK National Security core missions with proven experience of relevant technologies to deliver product innovation as part of a market growth strategy.
• Primary interface with Roke Corporate Services to assure infrastructure and capabilities required by the NS technical community.
• Experience in delivering enterprise grade technology programmes with NS clients.
• Knowledge of the NS supplier ecosystem and experience in partnering with or selling through high technology suppliers relevant to the core mission.
• Demonstrate technical thought leadership and customer advocacy in the NS core mission.
• Experience of leading teams to deliver complex engagements at high tempo across NS or law enforcement clients.

The Benefits and Perks

• Flexi-time: Working hours to suit you and your life
• Annual bonus: Based on profit share and personal performance
• Private medical insurance: Includes cover for existing conditions
• Holiday: You’ll receive competitive annual leave plus bank holidays. We also offer the opportunity to buy and sell annual leave
• Chemring Share Save: Monthly savings into a 3 or 5 year plan.

Clearances

Due to the nature of this role, we require you to be eligible to achieve DV clearance. As a result, you should be a British Citizen and have resided in the U.K. for the last 10 years.

The Next Step

Click apply, submitting an up-to-date CV. We look forward to hearing from you.