Interim Head of Economics and Insight (Maternity Cover)

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Lead strategic insight and analysis

  • Provide authoritative analytical advice to support strategic decision-making across Innovate UK.
  • Shape Innovate UK's understanding of the innovation ecosystem, including startups, scaleups, investors and the wider business environment.
  • Identify and commission research to answer strategic questions relating to innovation support, business growth, impact and policy.
  • Lead the delivery of strategic and cross-cutting analytical projects that inform organisational priorities and strategy implementation.
  • Ensure evidence and insight are effectively synthesised and communicated to senior leaders.

• Support strategy implementation

  • Ensure the organisation's strategy is informed by a deep understanding of innovative and high-growth businesses.
  • Contribute analytical leadership to major strategic initiatives, including the development of frameworks, assessment approaches and programme design.
  • Work collaboratively across Strategy and Delivery teams to embed evidence-led decision-making throughout the organisation.

• Drive thought leadership on innovation

  • Lead Innovate UK's contribution to debate and understanding of innovation and innovation support.
  • Oversee the production of high-quality thought leadership outputs, publications and insight products.
  • Develop and maintain a strong external evidence base through commissioned research, partnerships and stakeholder engagement.
  • Monitor emerging trends in innovation, business growth, technology and international practice, identifying implications for Innovate UK and UKRI.

• Build strategic partnerships and influence policy

  • Maintain trusted relationships with government departments, UKRI colleagues, academics and external stakeholders.
  • Ensure Innovate UK's evidence and experience contribute effectively to wider innovation policy discussions.
  • Collaborate across UKRI to develop a shared intelligence picture and identify insights that cut across organisational boundaries.
  • Represent Innovate UK externally as a credible and influential voice on innovation and economic growth.

• Lead and develop the Economics & Insights team

  • Lead, inspire and develop a multidisciplinary team of researchers and analysts.
  • Build analytical capability and ensure the team continues to provide high-quality, timely and influential insight.
  • Foster strong matrix working across Strategy and the wider organisation.
  • Support the development of new approaches to strategic insight, including increased use of AI-enabled analytical tools and methods.
  • Contribute to the growth of analytical capability across Innovate UK as a whole.

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting
(I) – Assessed at interview
(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

• Essential
  • Excellent understanding of the innovation ecosystem, including startups, scaleups, investors and innovation support mechanisms (S&I).
  • Strong understanding of innovation, business growth, industrial strategy, economic development or related policy areas (S&I).
  • Sound understanding of IUK, its new strategic direction, and the evidence needs required over the coming year (I).
  • Significant experience of working within economics, analytical, research or insight functions within government, the public sector, academia, consultancy or a related environment (S).
  • Experience using evidence and analysis to influence senior decision-makers and shape organisational strategy (S&I).
  • Experience commissioning, overseeing and assuring complex analytical or research programmes (S).
  • Excellent interpersonal skills to be able to lead a team through organisational change (S&I).
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to distil complex analysis into clear and compelling messages(S&I).

Competencies:

• All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:
  • Thinking and Problem Solving
  • Stakeholder management
  • Communication skills
  • Influencing
  • Self-awareness/self-management
  • Strategic awareness
  • Working with others
  • Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

• There will be a requirement to travel, mostly national, and there is some flexibility in this. Innovate UK staff make extensive use of telepresence tools for meetings to minimise unnecessary travel. In general, you will need to work in the Swindon office once a week and may have four to six nights away from home per month on average to attend conferences and events.

Immigration:

• Please note, if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK, as part of your sponsorship application, you and any dependants travelling with you, will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some, or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs or contact Recruitment@ukri.org.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

• Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

• We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support