Business Growth Service Manager

If you are not a current UKRI employee you can view vacancies at the externally advertised stage at the links given in the "About Us information on the right". If you wish to apply for the position below, please ensure that you comply with the requirements of the recruitment process by submitting both a full CV and application letter. Ideally, you should also advise your manager of your application.

Applications must be submitted by

Business Growth Manager

The Business Growth Service Manager is focused on the important task of building relationships with Innovate UK Domains and Products and Services teams. These relationships are the basis for the seamless integration of the service with Innovate UK’s overall offer, to ensure innovation-focused businesses are offered the right support at the right stage of their journeys.

*Please note this advert will close at 23.59 on 21st April 2024.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here .

Title :                                  Business Growth Manager

Band:                                UKRI Band E (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary:                              £43,116 gross per annum

Reports to :                   Service Design Lead – Business Growth

Location :       Field Based

Contract:                           Permanent

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance, and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Context:

The post holder will work in the Innovate UK team responsible for the delivery of Innovate UK’s business growth service Innovate UK Business Growth, as part of Innovate UK’s integrated portfolio of products and services. 

Innovate UK’s Business Growth team provides support to innovation-focused SMEs so that they are better quality, investor ready and have the very best chance to go onto grow and scale . Innovate UK Business Growth is Innovate UK’s primary business growth support service. Its 400+ innovation and growth specialists, including 30+ scaleup directors, provide small to medium sized innovation-focused companies across the UK with advice and access to resources to accelerate their growth. Its specialists are based at 21 complementary organisations in a consortium, our ‘delivery partners’, who also drive local engagement with our service.

Please find more on Innovate UK Business Growth and the businesses it serves here .

Job Purpose:

The post holder will build relationships with Innovate UK Domains and Products & Services teams, with the goal of surfacing opportunities to develop the service and increase Innovate UK’s impact. The opportunities could include new approaches to encouraging grant beneficiaries to adopt Innovate UK Business Growth support, referral mechanisms to the service for companies to prepare themselves before they access another product, referrals out to complementary initiatives created by other teams, creating tailored versions of the service, or even jointly developed initiatives.

(A different but equivalent role in the team – the external relations manager - will foster and cultivate relationships with strategic private partners and public sector stakeholders and agencies. The objectives are to build valuable collaborations to enhance the service and open conduits to our audiences.)

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Identify and liaise with the most relevant colleagues across Innovate UK teams, such as Innovation Leads and Impact and Performance Managers, to ensure they are equipped to understand the Business Growth offer and how it can amplify the benefits of project funding and other support (bringing other Business Growth colleagues to the table to explain the offer in depth)

• Work with Business Growth team Data Analyst and Impact colleagues to create relevant and compelling insights into the impact of Business Growth services, to share with Domains and Products and Services teams. Similarly, the post holder will work with Reach & Engagement and delivery partner relations colleagues to identify suitable case studies to share with Domains and Products and Services teams

• Work with the Service Design Lead to scope the opportunities to develop the service, bringing in other Business Growth delivery and operational colleagues to develop viable propositions

• Bring insights into Domains and Products & Services developments and needs back to the Business Growth team. Bring opportunities back for case studies that demonstrate joint working, to be developed by Reach & Engagement

• Run and build the Innovate UK Business Growth Champions initiative, which provides a growing community of Innovate UK colleagues up to senior management with regular updates on Innovate UK Business Growth’s development

• Work with comms colleagues on the content and targeting of broader internal comms

• Undertake event, partner and client visits as appropriate

This is not an exhaustive list and you might 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.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

Essential –

• Educated to degree-level or with equivalent experience

Experience:

Essential -

• Experience of working in a service provider for high-growth businesses, understanding their needs and challenges

• Experience in identifying and communicating impact and activity verbally and via presentations/reports, capturing both trends and significant individual findings

• Facilitation skills at every level to ensure wide understanding and buy-in  

• Demonstrated success working with, and presenting to diverse and multiple stakeholders, in a complex environment 

• Proven experience of liaison across stakeholders and senior colleagues with tact and diplomacy to complete projects

• Developing and managing effective long-lasting working relationships 

• Problem solving: Translating stakeholder requirements into actionable solutions that take account of operational parameters and evidence in various formats

• Ability to be agile, e.g., to analyse data and build reports at short notice

• Presentations delivered to online audiences or in person

Desirable –

• Familiarity with monitoring and evaluation arrangements, particularly around programme delivery 

• Experience of running procurements

• Awareness of the Government’s agenda for business and innovation

Skills:

• Ability to think strategically, and deliver operationally 

• Good listener with attention to key details

• Able to ‘deep dive’ into end-to-end processes to identify impact, opportunities and solutions 

• Strong communication (both written and oral) skills, and the ability to produce creative, clear, concise and accurate presentations, documents and reports 

• Attention to detail with an outcome-focused big picture approach 

• Adaptability and a flexible approach - ability to manage often conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders whilst protecting the integrity and ownership of the documented processes 

• Interpersonal and team working skills

• High competency of ICT skills/IT systems and applications including CRM, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access etc., and an understanding of IT and its role in transactional business processes

• Clear confidence to engage effectively and build relationships quickly with a broad range of stakeholders

• Self-awareness, flexibility and good personal resilience in fast changing environments as well as high levels of discretion and tact

• A willingness to challenge preconceptions and offer well-reasoned and considered judgements to all levels of stakeholder

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Travel Requirements:

There will 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.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online .

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.

Applications must be submitted by;