Innovate UK, Managing Director
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Salary: £145,000 - £155,00 per annum, plus potential discretionary performance related bonus.
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent – This role will consider a secondment or fixed term contract for the right candidate
Location: Field based with regular travel to London and Swindon offices, and stakeholder events
Reporting Line: Reports directly to the Executive Chair, Innovate UK
Closing Date: Sunday 31st May 2026 at 23:55.
Proposed Interview Date: w/c Monday 29th June 2026.
About Innovate UK
The UK has one of the strongest research bases in the world. But we do not have as many globally scaled companies as that strength should produce. Why? What is stopping our big ideas from becoming big businesses?
The UK excels at making discoveries, generating intellectual property (IP), spinning out and starting up. Yet when it comes to scaling, too many innovative businesses fail, stall or move overseas. Innovation is in our blood. We must focus on industrialising that innovation, because fast-growing businesses are built on innovation and are what drive real economic value.
That is the gap Innovate UK exists to close.
Our vision is a UK where breakthrough ideas, from research, from labs, from anywhere in this country, can become industry leaders. Industry giants. Where those with potential, realise the potential. We are here to back the UK’s most promising innovators: to give them the support, validation, connections and capital pathways that, together with others, help them to start, scale and stay in the UK.
The world is becoming more uncertain and more competitive. But it is also filled with opportunities. The UK must seize the opportunities of the transformational technologies coming through today, not only using them, but creating and shaping them. Innovation, done right, can be the UK’s real strength.
That is what we are here to deliver.
This is the start of the next chapter for Innovate UK. We are recalibrating. Read our latest strategy here: Innovate UK: turning breakthrough ideas into industry giants – UKRI
About the Role
As the most senior executive role under the Innovate UK Executive Chair, the Managing Director plays a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the UK’s national innovation agenda.
This role partners with the Executive Chair to lead Innovate UK’s strategic direction and funding portfolio, with full accountability for execution and performance across innovation programmes, strategic investments, and organisational leadership.
The Managing Director is a high-profile representative of Innovate UK, engaging directly with government ministers, business leaders, and national stakeholders to drive UKRI’s innovation mission and the UK’s global competitiveness.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership and Accountability:
- Lead business and organisation performance, embedding a cross-team matrix structure that will deliver the new Innovate UK strategy, effective programme primacy and business-first prioritisation.
- Partner with the Executive Chair to co-lead the development and execution of Innovate UK’s strategic vision in alignment with UKRI and national industrial strategy.
- Take direct accountability for the successful delivery of Innovate UK’s multi-billion pound innovation portfolio across sectors including AI, clean energy, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, creative industries and defence.
- Lead Innovate UK’s operational and programme performance frameworks, ensuring targets are met across investment outcomes, economic impact, and policy objectives.
- Collaborate with senior UKRI leaders, providing leadership on business innovation across UKRI strategic priorities.
People and Organisational Leadership:
- Provide executive leadership to the entire Innovate UK organisation, with overarching responsibility for organisational effectiveness. This includes accountability for an organisational wide core budget of £1bn and oversight of an additional £800m in externally managed programmes, ensuring alignment of resources, people, and operations to strategic priorities.
- Directly manage a senior executive team, including Directors and programme leads, overseeing a talented and multidisciplinary workforce and a wider community of experts totalling more than 1,000 people across the Innovate UK group of companies.
- Champion a high-performance culture, inclusive leadership practices, and cross functional collaboration.
- Drive organisation-wide capability development, succession planning, and talent strategy in coordination with UKRI corporate services.
Influence:
- External Influence at ‘C’ level and Policy Engagement across multidisciplinary stakeholders
- Serve as Innovate UK’s lead representative to ministers, special advisers, select committees, and cross-departmental groups - shaping the innovation policy landscape.
- Act as a public ambassador for UKRI’s innovation mission, leading strategic engagement with FTSE CEOs, investors, academia, and mission-driven partners.
- Influence the positioning of Innovate UK in UK-wide and global innovation ecosystems.
- Advocate for UK national policy and regulatory changes as a consequence of programme results and findings to accelerate UK high potential businesses.
Decision-Making and Governance:
- Lead strategic decision-making in politically complex environments, balancing economic, social, and scientific priorities.
- Oversee governance, risk management, and assurance processes for innovation programmes and investment decisions.
- Maintain full accountability for regulatory compliance, financial stewardship, and public value delivery.
If you would like to find out more about the role or to submit an application please click 'apply' to visit our careers site.
Your Skills and Experience
(S) – Assessed at shortlisting
(I) – Assessed at interview
(S&I) – Assessed at shortlisting and interview
Essential Criteria:
- Proven track record of senior executive leadership within government innovation agencies, major research funders, or within high-profile industrial, corporate R&D, or innovation-led organisations. (S&I)
- Demonstrable authority and credibility in influencing senior stakeholders, including briefing ministers, boards, investors, and regulators, and contributing to innovation strategy and policy development at a national or international level. (S&I)
- Deep experience leading complex, cross-sector innovation initiatives with national or global impact, involving significant public and/or private investment. (S&I)
- Strategic leadership of multi-disciplinary senior teams, with a strong track record of embedding a culture of delivery, performance, and excellence within complex organisations. (S&I)
- Recognised as a leader in innovation ecosystems, including innovation funding, public-private partnerships, corporate venture or R&D investment, and the delivery of industrial or commercial strategy. (S&I)
Desirable Experience:
- Sector expertise in one or more frontier technologies: AI, engineering biology, quantum, advanced connectivity, cybersecurity, or semiconductors.
- Experience navigating UKRI or similar governance frameworks and participating in cross-organisational initiatives. xwzovoh
- Postgraduate qualifications or equivalent senior executive leadership training desirable.