The Pensions Regulator
Head of Innovation
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Role title: Head of Innovation
TPR grade & pay group: Grade 4 & Digital
Directorate: Digital, Data & Technology
Salary: £95,680.00 Per Annum
Contract type: Permanent
Location: Brighton: Hybrid (8 days per month in the office)
The Role And Responsibilities
We’re looking for a thoughtful and visionary leader to join our senior team as Head of Innovation. This role is central to shaping and delivering TPR’s innovation strategy, helping us remain a modern, agile, and proactive regulator in a rapidly evolving pensions and technology landscape.
You will lead the development of a forward-looking innovation strategy that aligns with our regulatory priorities and organisational goals. Working across TPR and with external partners, you’ll embed innovative thinking into how we regulate, develop policy, and deliver services. This includes identifying opportunities for innovation, designing and delivering pilots, and ensuring new approaches are tested safely and effectively.
A key part of the role involves coordinating TPR’s response to new ideas from industry, ensuring consistency and appropriate regulatory guidance while encouraging innovation that benefits savers. You’ll also convene stakeholders from across government, industry, and the regulatory community to collaborate on solutions to complex pensions challenges.
Externally, you’ll represent TPR in national and international forums, contributing thought leadership and helping shape the broader innovation ecosystem. Internally, you’ll foster a culture of experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement, embedding innovation as a shared capability across the organisation.
This role requires autonomy, strategic influence, and a collaborative mindset. You’ll work closely with senior sponsors to co-create success criteria, ensuring clarity of purpose, alignment with strategic goals, and shared ownership of outcomes.
The role criteria
Essential Criteria
- Experience designing and delivering new business approaches in regulated environments.
- Proven ability to embed innovation and entrepreneurial thinking in established organisations.
- Ability to define success in evolving contexts and influence strategic direction through collaboration and inclusive leadership.
- Experience leading high-performing teams focused on innovation, design thinking, Agile delivery, and measurable impact.
- Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to navigate complexity and ambiguity.
- Clear and effective communication skills, with experience in stakeholder engagement, public speaking, and cross-sector collaboration.
- Experience managing budgets, risks, and governance processes in complex organisations.
- Regular engagement with Boards and Executive Committees to help shape organisational priorities.
- Ability to inspire and support diverse teams, including experience with matrix working.
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The team
Our vision is to use digital, data, and technology to revolutionise pension regulation, making it more efficient, secure, transparent, and customer-centred. We believe only our people can change things. In DDaT, we're customer-obsessed, whether the customer is a saver, scheme provider, a user in one of our teams or one of our immediate colleagues. We focus on outcomes, are willing to experiment, collaborate, and learn with our colleagues. We need brilliant people to help bring our ambitions to life.
TPR Offers
- Genuine opportunities for learning and development.
- A values-led, inclusive environment.
- Hybrid working and flexible shift patterns.
- A vibrant workplace with employee networks (Disability, Family, LGBT+, Minority Ethnic, Mental Health, Women’s).
Reward And Benefits
We offer 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, a hybrid working model, 35-hour working week (full-time), flexible working patterns, and flexitime. We also provide competitive parental leave, as well as a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%. Our dedicated benefits portal (Edenred) offers retail, gym, tech, and restaurant discounts, and a cycle to work scheme.
Find Out What Benefits a Civil Service Pension Provides.
Our culture
TPR strives to be a high-performing organisation, and we prioritise our people's growth and well-being. We offer various learning, secondment, and development opportunities, support flexible working, and foster a diverse and inclusive environment.
Equality, diversity, and inclusion are very important to us, and we strive to make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. Our modern Brighton offices are in Telecom House overlooking Preston Park, they are over two floors of a shared building facility and when designed in 2023 we followed the government’s workplace design guide to ensure accessibility by design was achieved for our section.
We're proud to have a range of networks and opportunities to bring people together with supportive and safe spaces to connect with one another.
About The Pensions Regulator
With a career at TPR, you’ll be joining an organisation with real purpose and who are proud of their diverse range of skills and experience that positively impact on millions of people. Everyone at TPR plays an important role in helping to keep more than £2trn of savings safe.
Our Corporate Strategy outlines a bold and challenging vision of how pensions regulation should continue to evolve to keep pace with a change in the scale and nature of the pensions landscape. We believe diversity and inclusion are vital to good decision-making for positive saver outcomes. We’re committed to creating a supportive, inclusive, and dynamic work environment where everyone can thrive; understanding the link between the work we do and its positive impact on society.
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Applications
To avoid disappointment, we would invite you to submit your application as soon as possible, as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can continue to provide a positive candidate experience, with each application being reviewed and considered. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Current TPR employees who want to apply for this vacancy should first contact their line manager to discuss their application.
We welcome applications on a part-time and job-share basis.
Please note that TPR is unable to offer visa sponsorship. All applicants must already hold Right to Work in the UK for the duration of their employment. For more information on Right to Work, please visit Prove your right to work to an employer: Overview - GOV.UK.
Selection and interview
If you are shortlisted for interview, we’ll be in contact with you shortly after the closing date. We aim to respond to every application; however, due to the large volume of applications, this is not always possible. If you have not heard from us within 21 days of submitting your application, please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we’re committed to the recruitment, employment, retention, and development of people with disabilities, and to improving their employment opportunities. Candidates who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria will be offered an interview. Please note that if we receive a high volume of Disability Confident applicants, we reserve the right to offer an interview to those who best meet the essential criteria.
Diversity and inclusion
TPR is committed to promoting diversity, inclusion, and equality in the workplace, creating an environment where everyone is encouraged to be themselves, enabling our people to feel supported, represented, and do their best work.
We encourage applicants from all backgrounds and with different identities and experiences to apply for roles with TPR.
Further information
Please visit our website to find out what it is like to work at TPR, our culture, interview process, and our commitment to our employees.
If you have any queries about this role, or if you have a disability and wish to request a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process, please email recruitmentteam@tpr.gov.uk.
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