Plexal operates at the intersection of government, industry and emerging technology, helping organisations translate ambition into adoption and measurable impact. This role is a lead commercial and client‑facing position focused on how government turns policy into procurement — and how Plexal can shape, influence and win the opportunities that follow.
The Strategic Growth Lead will build trusted relationships across government, understand where policy and spending are moving, and convert those insights into qualified commercial opportunities. You will influence procurement direction, shape opportunities before they reach formal routes to market, and lead customers through the full sales lifecycle — from early engagement to negotiation and contract award.
Candidates from large enterprises, government, secure‑government markets or major public‑sector suppliers are highly desirable. What matters is your ability to understand government decision‑making, influence procurement, and sell complex technology‑enabled services through a consultative approach.
Strategic Growth Lead
Manchester
Full-time
Permanent employee
The Role's Purpose
What You'll Do
Opportunity Origination & Procurement Influence
- Build relationships across government departments, opening new conversations beyond Plexal’s existing network.
- Understand how policy, funding and organisational change translate into procurement — and use that insight to shape opportunities early.
- Influence procurement direction by aligning customer priorities with Plexal’s capabilities and market positioning.
- Identify opportunities that can reach £1m+ contract value and lead multi‑year engagements.
- Lead customers through the end‑to‑end sales lifecycle: discovery, shaping, qualification, negotiation and contract award.
- Sell technology‑enabled services through a consultative, problem‑led approach
- Help government clients adopt critical technologies by translating needs into credible propositions and delivery pathways.
- Shape opportunities before formal procurement, ensuring Plexal is positioned with the right partners, capabilities and commercial strategy.
- Lead complex multi‑stakeholder pursuits, including negotiations and commercial structuring.
- Build repeatable approaches to opportunity identification, qualification and pursuit across the organisation.
- Maintain deep understanding of government priorities, spending routes, procurement behaviours and investment strategies.
- Translate policy, reform and market signals into qualified opportunities Plexal can credibly win.
- Position Plexal as a trusted partner for government organisations adopting critical technologies.
- Build relationships with consultancies, technology providers, universities and delivery partners to strengthen routes to market.
- Shape consortium approaches where partner‑led models improve Plexal’s ability to win priority opportunities.
- Represent Plexal at senior government‑facing events, forums and industry engagements.
Your Experience
Essential
- Deep understanding of how government translates policy into procurement, including funding routes, commercial processes and decision‑making.
- Proven ability to influence procurement, shape opportunities early and lead customers through the full sales lifecycle.
- Experience negotiating and winning complex government contracts (ideally £1m+).
- Strong consultative selling capability — able to diagnose problems, shape propositions and sell technology‑enabled services.
- Background in government, large enterprise, secure‑government markets, consulting or major public‑sector suppliers.
- Ability to operate autonomously, build senior relationships and convert insight into commercial outcomes.
- Experience shaping multi‑stakeholder or consortium bids.
- Understanding of government priorities relating to technology adoption, digital transformation, cyber resilience or economic growth.
- Experience working in scaling or entrepreneurial environments.
Who You Are
- Commercially driven, outcome‑focused and proactive.
- Highly credible with senior government stakeholders.
- Strong relationship builder with excellent negotiation skills.
- Strategic thinker able to translate policy and market signals into action.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and shaping undefined opportunities. Collaborative, resilient and adaptable.
- Willingness to undertake regular national travel (>40%) and occasional international travel
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: £80,000 - £100,000 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
About us
Plexal is the innovation and growth company helping to strengthen the UK’s technology capabilities through collaboration.
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.
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.