Partnerships and Policy Manager (PPM)

Role: Partnerships and Policy Manager (PPM) Reporting to: Head of Partnerships, Policy and Place Base: Harwell (with UK travel) Contract: Permanent / Full Time Department: External Affairs Please note, we may look to interview before the advert close date due to the urgency of the role. The advert will close if a suitable candidate is found before the deadline. About The Satellite Applications Catapult As one of Innovate UK’s network of nine Catapults, the work we do at the Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) aligns with UK government priorities for economic growth. We support our best companies to accelerate the invention and adoption of space data and technology. We work closely with businesses to reduce and remove the technical, business development, commercial, financial, or regulatory challenges and barriers that can block their growth. Our three missions, Resilient Earth, Autonomous and Connected Earth, and Beyond Earth, are high-impact areas where the UK has world-class expertise and align with the government’s priority space capability areas. Role Purpose The Partnerships and Policy Managers (PPMs) work as part of the Partnerships, Policy and Place (P3) team within the External Affairs department and collaboratively across the organisation to support mission and corporate objectives. PPMs support SAC to build strategic partnerships with national and local stakeholders including businesses, researchers and universities, government, and end-users; advocate for and inform effective policy development; and drive local engagement, especially with the UK’s network of space clusters, local authorities and devolved governments. Working closely with Mission Managers, PPMs provide expertise in stakeholder engagement and ecosystems, policy analysis, operating environment knowledge and place-based growth opportunities to enable delivery of mission outcomes and support growth across the UK space sector. Key Responsibilities Mission Support and Subject Matter Expertise: Provide expertise in stakeholder engagement, policy analysis and place-based growth advice, intelligence and recommendations to mission teams to shape and deliver mission-assigned stakeholder engagement and policy activities: Stakeholder Engagement: Develop stakeholder intelligence, drive engagement and foster excellent stakeholder relationships with stakeholders in national and local government and regulators, industry and trade bodies, academia, clusters, across the ecosystem to support our missions and the Catapult to understand and tackle challenges and identify opportunities. Actively use CRM and related business systems to capture knowledge and intelligence to support organisational decision-making and enable joined-up delivery particularly with the Strategic Communications team. Ecosystem Policy Specialist: Maintain a solid understanding of the stakeholders, capabilities, policies and regulatory developments related to the relevant mission and associated parts of the UK space ecosystem, and use this intelligence to support SAC corporate and mission objectives to identify barriers and opportunities that enable growth. This includes undertaking relevant research which balances depth of knowledge and speed to produce briefings and other outputs to inform strategic decision-making and designing and delivering policy and regulatory advocacy campaigns relevant to the mission’s high potential businesses (HPBs). Advocacy: Engage stakeholders to shape policy and strategy in support of businesses in the sector and beyond, particularly to help missions to work with external stakeholders to lower barriers to business growth across the UK, for example UK policy on autonomous drone testing and use of earth observation data in nature financial disclosures policy. This will include being an active participant or convener of appropriate external advocacy and coordinating responses to consultations with the Strategic Communications team. Partnership Development: Provide ecosystem intelligence and connect industry and academic stakeholders to forge opportunities for collaborative research and development or commercial space enabled projects including working with SAC’s Business Development team on proposals. Teamwork: Work in a multidisciplinary team and collaborate with cross-functional matrix teams to deliver projects both within and outside of missions. Performance Tracking: Report progress against goals, milestones, key performance indicators and metrics to maintain momentum and ensure accountability. Evaluate campaigns effectiveness and apply lessons learnt for continual improvement. Essential Experience