Plexal
Senior Lead, Government Innovation and Economic Growth
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The Role's Purpose
Plexal operates at the intersection of government, industry and emerging technology, helping organisations turn innovation ambition into practical capability, adoption and measurable impact.
The Senior Lead, Government Innovation & Economic Growth will play a critical role in shaping and delivering Plexal's growth across government. This is a nationally focused role responsible for identifying, shaping and securing high-value opportunities across central government, public sector organisations and strategic partners.
Based in the North West, the role will help position Plexal at the forefront of the UK's evolving government and innovation landscape. As government influence, investment and decision-making become increasingly distributed beyond Whitehall, the role will help Plexal identify and capitalise on emerging opportunities across government, economic growth, public sector reform, innovation adoption and place-based investment.
The successful candidate will combine strong commercial leadership with deep government insight, helping Plexal understand where policy, funding and customer priorities are moving and translating those trends into strategic opportunities, partnerships and sustainable revenue growth.
This is a hands-on commercial leadership role combining business development, strategic relationship management, proposition development and opportunity leadership, while also acting as a senior advisor to the wider GTM and leadership teams.
What You'll Do
Government Growth & Opportunity Leadership
- Identify, prioritise and lead the pursuit of high-value opportunities across UK government.
- Build and maintain senior relationships across government departments, agencies, arm's-length bodies and wider public sector organisations.
- Shape early-stage opportunities by aligning customer priorities, policy developments and commercial propositions.
- Lead complex multi-stakeholder pursuits from early engagement through to contract award.
- Navigate government procurement and commercial environments, ensuring Plexal is well positioned to maximise success.
- Develop and maintain a strong understanding of government priorities, funding mechanisms and investment strategies to identify future opportunities ahead of formal procurement.
Market Intelligence & Strategic Positioning
- Develop deep insight into emerging government priorities including economic growth, innovation adoption, AI, cyber resilience, public sector reform, science and technology, and place-based investment.
- Translate policy, market and customer insight into actionable growth opportunities for Plexal.
- Help shape Plexal's understanding of where government priorities, investment and demand are evolving.
- Identify emerging markets, funding streams and policy-driven opportunities that align with Plexal's strategic objectives.
- Position Plexal as a trusted partner capable of helping government translate ambition into adoption and measurable impact.
Cross-Government Go-To-Market Leadership
- Shape and co-own Plexal's cross-government go-to-market strategy.
- Identify priority growth areas, departments and opportunity themes aligned to Plexal's strengths.
- Support the development and refinement of propositions that respond to changing government needs.
- Build repeatable approaches to opportunity identification, qualification and pursuit.
- Strengthen commercial discipline and opportunity management across the organisation.
- Support the creation of scalable propositions that can be applied across multiple government customers and sectors.
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Strategic Relationship Management & Ecosystem Development
- Act as a senior external representative for Plexal across government, industry and innovation ecosystem engagements.
- Build trusted relationships with senior government leaders, policy makers, commercial stakeholders and delivery partners.
- Establish Plexal as a credible voice within conversations around innovation, technology adoption, economic growth and government transformation.
- Build relationships across emerging government and innovation ecosystems outside London as government investment and decision-making continues to evolve.
- Represent Plexal at senior meetings, industry forums, conferences and government-facing events.
Partnerships & Growth Enablement
- Develop strategic relationships with consultancies, technology providers, universities, ecosystem partners and delivery organisations.
- Build and shape consortium opportunities where partner-led approaches strengthen Plexal's position.
- Support priority bids, negotiations and commercial pursuits across the wider organisation.
- Share best practice across government sales, account development and opportunity shaping.
- Mentor and support colleagues across the commercial and delivery teams to strengthen capability and confidence.
KPIs and Commercial Outcomes
- Significant £m pipeline generated and influenced across government markets.
- Material revenue secured through direct and partner-led opportunities.
- Number and quality of strategic opportunities shaped prior to procurement.
- Growth in multi-year and repeatable revenue opportunities.
- Conversion rate improvement across priority pursuits.
- Growth in partner-led opportunities and consortium wins.
- Strength and depth of senior relationships across government and strategic partners.
- Contribution to Plexal's long-term positioning across government innovation, adoption and economic growth markets.
Your Skills
- Commercially driven, outcome-focused and highly proactive.
- Naturally curious about government priorities, policy developments and market trends.
- Highly credible operating at senior levels across government and industry.
- Strong relationship builder with the ability to influence and align diverse stakeholder groups.
- Strategic thinker capable of translating insight into action.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and shaping undefined opportunities.
- Collaborative and committed to enabling the success of others.
- Resilient, adaptable and able to thrive in fast-moving environments.
Your Experience
Essential:
- Proven track record of selling into UK government and winning complex public sector opportunities.
- Demonstrable success securing and growing contracts valued at £1m+ and/or multi-year engagements.
- Strong understanding of government procurement, commercial processes and public sector buying environments.
- Experience building relationships with senior government stakeholders.
- Strong commercial acumen including opportunity shaping, negotiation and deal strategy.
- Experience developing and executing go-to-market strategies in complex environments.
- Experience working with partners to shape and deliver consortium bids and strategic opportunities.
- Ability to operate effectively across strategy, relationship management and hands-on opportunity delivery.
- Strong understanding of the relationship between government policy, funding, investment priorities and commercial opportunity.
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Highly desirable:
- Experience working across multiple government departments or policy domains.
- Understanding of economic growth, devolution, place-based investment and public sector reform.
- Experience within innovation, technology, consulting, digital transformation, cyber or AI-related environments.
- Experience identifying and developing opportunities arising from policy change, government reform and market shifts.
- Existing network across UK government, strategic partners and innovation ecosystems.
- Experience operating within high-growth, entrepreneurial or scaling organisations.
- Familiarity with government priorities relating to AI adoption, cyber resilience, science and technology, productivity and economic growth.
Who You Are
- Willingness to undertake regular national travel (>40%) and occasional international travel
- Open to UK Nationals who hold or are eligible for Security Check (SC) clearance. (See more on clearance eligibility.)
- Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience
- Relevant commercial, consulting or public sector credentials are advantageous
- Commitment to Plexal’s values of diversity, equity, and inclusion
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
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 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.
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