Senior Partnerships and Policy Manager (PPM)

Role: Senior 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: Senior Partnerships and Policy Managers (SPPMs) 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 including defence and security activities. SPPMs support SAC to build strategic partnerships with senior national and local stakeholders including businesses, researchersand universities, government, and end-users in the space and non-space sector including in the defence and security domain. The purpose of stakeholder engagement is to unblock barriers to space business growth and find new opportunities 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 the Head of Partnerships, Policy and Place to provide specialist expertise in stakeholder engagement and ecosystems, policy analysis, regulatory mechanisms and operating environment knowledge; and place-based growth opportunities, to enable delivery of corporate outcomes and support growth across the UK space sector. The SSPM will support the Head of Partnerships, Policy and Place to lead the P3 deputising from time to time. Key Responsibilities Senior Subject Matter Expertise: Use your expertise in stakeholder engagement and public affairs; policy analysis and regulatory mechanisms; and place-based growth, to provide advice, intelligence and recommendations to shape and deliver corporate stakeholder engagement and policy activities via advocacy campaigns including to the defence and security account: 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. Use this intelligence to support SAC corporate objectives including the defence and security account and missions 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, designing and delivering policy and regulatory advocacy campaigns relevant to SAC’s high potential businesses (HPBs) and senior stakeholders. This will include topics such as emissions policy and the role for satellite data in monitoring and reporting, supply chain resilience in critical minerals, spectrum policy, drone operations regulations particularly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), licencing and insurance of space operations and wider, general space policy, and new business-boosting regulations such as multi-mission licencing, return‑to‑Earth, and rendezvous proximity operations. Stakeholder Engagement: Develop intelligence, drive engagement and foster excellent relationships with senior stakeholders in national and local government, regulatory and standards agencies, industry and trade bodies, academia, and clusters across the ecosystem to support SAC to understand and tackle challenges and identify opportunities for space business growth. This will include stakeholder mapping and profiling and active use of CRM and related business systems to capture knowledge and intelligence to support organisational decision-making and enable joined‑up delivery particularly with the Defence and Security, and Strategic Communications teams. Advocacy: Develop and deliver advocacy campaigns to shape policy and strategy in support of businesses in the sector and beyond, particularly to help missions to work with external senior stakeholders to lower barriers to business growth across the UK, for example implementation of the Defence Investment Plan opening defence contracts for space HPBs, UK policy on autonomous drone testing and use of earth observation data in nature financial disclosures policy. This will include convening senior stakeholders with purpose such as targeted 121 meeting programmes, roundtables and events, being an active participant of appropriate external advocacy fora, and coordinating responses to consultations with the Strategic Communications team. Partnership Development: Provide ecosystem intelligence and connect stakeholders to forge opportunities and develop partnerships for collaborative research and development or commercial space enabled projects including working with SAC’s Business Development team on proposals. Teamwork and leadership: Work in a multidisciplinary team and collaborate with cross‑functional matrix teams to take ownership, lead and coordinate activities and projects. Step up to deputise for the Head of P3 to lead the team when appropriate and within the bounds of the Delegation of Authority. Support departmental planning and organisational development activities. 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. Continual improvement: Proactively identify opportunities to improve ways of working, processes and tools, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement that enhances efficiency, quality and stakeholder experience. Essential Experience