Innovation Associate, Partnerships

Permanent employee, Full-time
· London

This role will support the Plexal proposition, Growth Partnership. This role will support start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs with a 1-to-1 growth support programme where they will be embedded in a small number of high potential companies.

Plexal is driving a new category of intervention in support of the UK Government’s number one mission of economic growth. You can read more about the Growth Partnership here:

As an Innovation Associate, you could also work collaboratively with the Innovation Services team to deliver other cross-competency projects. This may include working on programme delivery, research activity, or innovation consulting. You’ll get the opportunity to engage with a diverse array of stakeholders, including startups, scaleups, corporations, government, non-profit organisations, investors and academia.

• Engaging with SMEs to understand their needs, challenges, and interventions that will support their growth
• Identify, create and implement effective growth plan and strategy for the SME
• Managing and delivering bespoke support to SMEs, in line with their growth needs. This could be to help secure investment, drive sales acquisitions, improve brand and awareness, drive marketing strategy, improve product management or work on team organisation and culture, as examples.
• Undertaking quantitative analysis, market research and data collection to stay informed about key technology trends, emerging startups and innovation/growth themes and develop acute market awareness
• Supporting the design and delivery of innovation programmes and related content at Plexal to engage SME’s, clients, and the wider ecosystem
• Continuously monitoring the start-up and innovation landscape, seeking out opportunities to engage with promising innovators and entrepreneurs
• Proactively managing regular interaction, communication and collaboration with external stakeholders
• Support administrative aspects of innovation project management, such as maintaining project documentation and handling financial queries.
• May require business travel across Plexal sites.
• Ability to manage and influence through both face-to-face and virtual team environments.
• You may be asked to undergo Security Clearance (min. requirement: British Citizen or min. of 5-year residency in country, no significant gaps out of UK). Pre-existing SC welcomed.

• Highly organised with an understanding of barriers to startup growth and innovation practices
• Effective customer and stakeholder engagement
• Understanding of business strategy
• Effective planning and prioritisation skills with the ability to keep track of multiple tasks and deliverables
• Analytical, with the ability to think critically and to understand, interpret and articulate complex concepts and requirements
• Competent at producing high-quality deliverables and presentations for external audiences
• Excellent Project Management, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint skills
• Higher Education degree, or relevant professional certifications, or equivalent knowledge gained via work experience.

• 2 years' experience working in an innovative environment such as a startup. incubator, accelerator, VC, or consultancy.
• Experience with working with multiple stakeholders, such as startups and corporate clients, but also understanding the practicalities of working in a growing company
• Experience in facilitating and delivering external workshops or events to a high standard, both virtually and in-person.
• Experience and understanding of innovation processes such as lean startup
• Experience in startup mentorship

• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and operating in constantly changing environment
• Energised by the challenges and opportunities presented working for a high-growth company.
• Excellent communicator with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to interact with diverse stakeholder groups
• Team player and motivated self-starter who can take initiative with workload and tasks
• Passionate interest in digital and emerging technologies with a drive to continually learn

Plexal’s Values:

• Mission
  :
  We inherit the mission of UK government and…