Innovation Lead, Programmes, North East

The Role's Purpose

The Innovation Lead will work collaboratively with the Innovation Services team to design, deliver and continuously improve high-impact programmes that support innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs and individuals to access new opportunities, skills, networks and growth pathways. The role is responsible for leading programme delivery, managing stakeholders and partners, and ensuring programmes achieve their objectives, outcomes and commercial targets. 
Alongside programme delivery responsibilities, the role will act as a regional Account Manager For the North East, building and managing relationships with employers, ecosystem partners, public sector stakeholders and industry networks. The post holder will identify opportunities for collaboration, support participant and customer outcomes, gather market intelligence and help ensure programmes remain relevant, impactful and responsive to regional and sector needs.

What You'll Do

Programme Delivery and Stakeholder Management 

• Lead the delivery of innovation programmes and assigned workstreams, ensuring activities are delivered on time, to budget and against agreed outcomes.
• Coordinate delivery across clients, partners, suppliers, mentors, employers, innovators and wider stakeholders to ensure a high-quality experience and programme impact.
• Monitor programme performance, risks, budgets and KPIs, implementing corrective actions where required.
• Use participant, client and stakeholder feedback, data and delivery insights to continuously improve programme performance and outcomes.

Account Management and Ecosystem Development 

• Act as a regional and sector account manager, building and maintaining relationships with employers, industry partners, universities, investors, public sector organisations and innovation ecosystem stakeholders.
• Develop and manage stakeholder engagement plans that support programme objectives, participant opportunities and long-term partnership development.
• Represent Plexal and programme activity at events, workshops, networking activities and stakeholder forums.
• Gather market intelligence and ecosystem insights to identify opportunities, risks, emerging trends and future programme development opportunities.

Community, Network and Partnership Building 

• Support the development and management of mentor, expert, partner and alumni networks that strengthen programme delivery and participant outcomes.
• Facilitate connections between participants, partners, employers and wider ecosystem stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to increase engagement, retention, collaboration and long-term community impact.

Opportunity and Business Development 

• Support engagement with employers, partners and stakeholders to identify opportunities for programme participants, innovators and businesses.
• Work with internal teams and delivery partners to develop pathways into funding, investment, commercial opportunities, skills development, employment or business growth support, as relevant to programme objectives.
• Maintain accurate stakeholder, activity and outcome records using CRM and programme management systems.

Partner and Delivery Management 

• Manage day-to-day partner relationships, ensuring delivery commitments, performance expectations and reporting requirements are met.
• Coordinate activity across consortium and delivery partners to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for programme beneficiaries and stakeholders.
• Support programme reporting through accurate record keeping, evidence collection and performance tracking.

Commercial and Performance Management 

• Support delivery against programme budgets, contractual outcomes and resource plans.
• Monitor programme performance and contribute to forecasting, reporting, evaluation and continuous improvement activities.
• Ensure delivery complies with contractual, safeguarding, equality, data protection and organisational requirements.

Your Skills

Your Experience

• Experience delivering innovation, entrepreneurship, business support, skills, employability, accelerator, incubator or ecosystem development programmes. 
• Strong stakeholder management, partnership-building and account management experience. 
• Experience working with a diverse range of stakeholders including startups, SMEs, corporates, universities, investors, public sector organisations and delivery partners. 
• Experience managing programme delivery, coordinating multiple workstreams and delivering against KPIs and contractual commitments. 
• Strong organisational, communication and relationship-management skills. 
• Experience using CRM, project management and reporting systems to manage stakeholders, activities and programme performance. 
• Commmercial awareness and experience managing budgets, resources, suppliers or partner relationships. 
• Ability to analyse data, identify insights and use evidence to improve programme delivery and outcomes.

Who You Are

• Higher education degree or relevant experience.
• This role may require some national travel for delivery of projects and travel to all Plexal sites. 
• Due to the nature of this position, our work, and our client engagements, you must be willing and eligible to achieve a minimum of SC clearance. Pre-existing SC welcome. For more information about clearance eligibility, please see https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/united-kingdom-security-vetting

Why us?

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 - £80,000 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

Plexal is an equal opportunities employer and we actively encourage applicants from individuals from all backgrounds. We are a Disability Committed employer and are willing to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

About us

Plexal is the innovation and growth company helping to strengthen the UK’s technology capabilities through collaboration.
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With teams in London, Manchester and Cheltenham, we work closely with government, industry, startups and academia to drive economic growth and reinforce national security.
 
Founded by Delancey in 2017, Plexal delivers four core services: creating workspaces for innovators, running innovation programmes and consultancy, building regional tech clusters and helping SMEs scale strategically.
 
By closing the gap between early-stage and established organisations – across the public and private sectors at home and abroad – we’ve impacted over 1,200 businesses, added £731m to the UK economy and helped create 9,400 jobs.
 
Headquartered at Here East on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Plexal partners with organisations including the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the National Cyber Security Centre, Airbus, Amazon, Barclays Eagle Labs, Google Cloud, TfL, The Alan Turing Institute and the University of Oxford.