Innovation Lead

The Details

Salary: £30,000 - £31,000

Job type: Permanent

Based in London, Manchester, or Cheltenham

Start date: As soon as possible

ABOUT PLEXAL

The Role’s Purpose

The Project Coordinator role will play a key part in supporting the successful delivery and governance of projects by providing administrative, logistical, and process-driven support across a variety of tasks. It will be a key part of the Innovation Services operations function, supporting the team with day-to-day responsibilities and more long-term continuous improvement projects. In addition to providing support on projects, the role with provide support to the Finance and Go To Market departments.

What You’ll Do
  • Lead the development and implementation of place-based innovation strategies
  • Define and operationalise the strategic pillars of clusters: sector focus, anchor assets, infrastructure, talent, and investment
  • Build and manage relationships with key stakeholders across public, private, and academic sectors
  • Design and lead cluster activation plans including convening, governance structures, and programme delivery
  • Develop thought leadership and insights to guide cluster growth and influence policy
  • Oversee business support and challenge-led programmes that integrate startups and SMEs into clusters
  • Provide strategic advisory support to clients on regional innovation and economic development
  • Shape funding bids, investment cases, and delivery models for cluster development
  • Represent Plexal as a senior partner in ecosystem-building conversations and consortiums
  • Contribute to business development efforts, including public tenders and private sector proposals
Your Skills
  • Strong programme design and delivery skills, especially in multi-partner or cross-sector contexts
  • Excellent verbal and written communication, with the ability to produce persuasive strategies and reports
  • Ability to translate policy goals into actionable plans and sustainable interventions
  • Confidence working across multiple workstreams and managing project teams or collaborators
Your Experience
  • Proven experience in innovation cluster or ecosystem development, or similar place-based innovation roles
  • Understanding of the UK’s innovation and economic development landscape, including government policy, funding, and delivery structures
  • Experience engaging senior stakeholders and convening diverse partners toward a shared vision
  • Familiarity with public funding, R&D consortia, or innovation finance mechanisms
  • Higher Education degree, or relevant professional certifications, or equivalent knowledge gained via work experience

Desirable

  • Knowledge of emerging technology markets and sector ecosystems (e.g. cyber, healthtech, space, defence, etc.)

 

Who You Are
  • A strategic thinker and systems-builder who thrives in complexity
  • Passionate about regional growth, innovation, and the role of place in economic transformation
  • Entrepreneurial, curious, and comfortable operating in an agile, high-growth organisation
  • Collaborative by nature, with a strong bias for action and partnership
  • Proactive, organised, and capable of navigating evolving stakeholder landscapes
  • Comfortable representing Plexal publicly and influencing senior decision-makers
  • Energised by big challenges and motivated by long-term impact

This role might require achieving SC clearance. Pre-existing SC welcome. For more information about clearance eligibility, please see https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/united-kingdom-security-vetting

BENEFITS PACKAGE

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 – £70,000 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

We also host a range of networking events each month, from fortnightly breakfasts and member drinks to learning and development workshops and meetups like Cyber Lates.

To apply for this position, candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK. 

Interested? Please apply now! 

Plexal is an equal opportunities employer. 

If you require this job advert in another format (e.g. large print), are unable to submit via the application below, or have any other accessibility requirements please email recruitment@plexal.com.