Innovation Consultant

Permanent employee, Full-time · London, Manchester, Cheltenham

The Role's Purpose
We have opportunities for Fixed Short-Term Contracts and Permanent Contracts in our London, Cheltenham and Manchester offices. 
 
The Innovation Consultant will play a key role in delivering Plexal-led innovation projects and working with our consulting team to deliver cross-competency work, focusing on research activity and innovation consulting. You’ll engage with a diverse array of stakeholders, including startups, scaleups, corporations, government, non-profit organisations, investors and academia. 

We are a rapidly growing team and are actively looking to recruit exceptional individuals who want to work in an adaptive, fast moving, collaborative environment.
What You'll Do
  • Quantitative and qualitative analysis and market research to on emerging technology, startups and innovation themes 
  • Forming insights into emerging technology areas, e.g. AI and data, space and telecoms, engineering biology    
  • Contribute towards and lead on the creation of high-impact deliverables, such as reports and presentations, for clients to inform their emerging technology strategies 
  • SME discovery and scouting 
  • Engaging with innovators to understand their needs, challenges and the interventions that will support their growth 
  • Ideation and solution design 
  • Supporting project delivery and management 
  • Proactively manage regular interaction, communication, and collaboration with clients and external stakeholders 
  • Supporting on and leading specific areas of business development by responding to public sector bids and creating bespoke proposals
Your Skills
  • Highly organised with a good understanding of innovation, collaboration and project management practices, tools, and methodologies, 
  • Analytical, with the ability to think critically and to understand, interpret and articulate complex concepts, 
  • A structured, concise communicator who can confidently use key tools including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as project management and brainstorming tools, 
  • Competent at taking responsibility for producing high-quality deliverables and presentations for senior external audiences,
  • Qualitative and quantitative research skills
  • Knowledge of one or more of following tech areas are a plus: space and telecoms, AI and data or engineering biology.
Your Experience
  • Able to demonstrate awareness across technology markets and sectors and provide an outside-in perspective to clients when it comes to emerging market needs, trends, opportunities, and technologies,
  • Innovation, startup, research or technology background, with a passion about emerging technology and some domain expertise or interest in technology policy
  • Experience with a range of research methodologies (both qualitative and quantitative), and an ability to critically assess this research to draw insightful conclusions and recommendations for the client, presented in an accessible and compelling narrative
  • Experience in the following tech areas are a plus: space, telecoms, AI and data, or engineering biology
Who You Are
  • Personally resilient, with the ability to stay focused on the overall objective, responding to challenges in a calm and measured way, 
  • Energised by the challenges and opportunities presented by working for a high-growth company, 
  • Passionate about the development of cybersecurity and other areas of emerging technology.
  • Educated to a Bachelor-degree level or equivalent  
  • SC or DV clearance required
  • 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. To qualify for SC clearance, you must be a British Citizen or have resided in the UK for the last 5 years with  no extensive periods outside of the UK. Pre-existing SC welcome. For more information about clearance eligibility, please see https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/united-kingdom-security-vetting
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: £50,000 - 60,000 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 company solving society's challenges through collaboration with government, startups and industry. The business is closing the gap between organisations – small and large, local and global, private and public – and working towards a common goal: using science and technology to deliver national security and prosperity. It was founded in 2017 as the innovation centre at Here East and is owned by clients of specialist real estate investment advisory company Delancey. 

Providing bespoke consultancy services and state-of-the-art workspaces for over 1,000 innovators, Plexal sources the right partners from our ecosystem of 15,000 connections. It supports entrepreneurs, startups and scaleups building emerging technologies and operates across multiple sectors including cyber, healthcare, intelligence and defence, government, public safety, financial services and telecoms. 

Expanding on its existing presence in London and Manchester, Plexal acquired a majority shareholding in Hub8 – the Cheltenham network of co-working spaces for cyber-tech, digital and creative startups and SMEs. This is part of an ongoing mission to build the UK’s most connected cyber ecosystem, with GCHQ’s more than 70-year heritage in Cheltenham. 

Plexal delivers projects for key government departments and global tech companies including the National Cyber Security Centre, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Amazon Web Services and IBM. The NCSC For Startups alumni of over 60 companies has collectively raised over £430m and created over 700 jobs, while 72 cyber startups that have gone through Plexal’s LORCA accelerators have collectively raised over £300m, generated more than £68m in revenue and hired over 800 people.
We are looking forward to hearing from you!
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