Job Description

Innovate UK has the following secondment opportunity available for employees of Innovate UK Business Connect:

Applications must be submitted by

23-06-2026

Catapult Relationship Manager - Clean Growth and Infrastructure

The Innovation Infrastructure Relationship Manger will lead on the performance management of, and be Innovate UK’s key point of contact with, the Clean Energy Catapults.

*Please note this advert will close on the 22nd of June 2026 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here

Title: Catapult Relationship Manager - Clean Growth and Infrastructure

Band: UKRI Band F (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary: £58,589 gross per annum

Reports to: Head of Delivery Innovation Infrastructure

Location: Field based

Contract: Permanent

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Context:

The role holder will operate within the Innovate UK Innovation Infrastructure team which is part of the Innovation Infrastructure Directorate. The role holder will be expected to form strong connections with the Clean Energy Growth sector teams and other relevant Growth Sector teams within Innovate UK to support the strategic alignment between these Catapults and Innovate UK / UKRI priorities.

The Innovation Infrastructure team is responsible for the operational oversight and management of the Catapult Programme, focusing on the impact of public investment and evidencing UK economic growth. Catapults provide businesses with access to the cutting-edge expertise and equipment they need to grow in highly competitive and expanding markets. Each Catapult is a separate legal entity with a Chief Executive responsible to an independent board. Innovate UK provides core funding to each Catapult and has invested £1.6bn in Catapults over the current five year funding period running from 2023 to 2028.

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Job Purpose:

The Innovation Infrastructure Relationship Manger will lead on the performance management of, and be Innovate UK’s key point of contact with, the Clean Energy Catapults. This role is responsible for managing over £250M of funding and will work closely with the CEOs and executive teams at the Clean Energy Catapults to ensure that impact and value for money is delivered for the public purse.

The current portfolio for this post are the Energy Systems Catapult in Birmingham, Connected Places Catapult in London & Milton Keynes and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in Glasgow & Blyth.

Working with the Head of Delivery and the Innovation Infrastructure PMO team they will also take an active role in influencing and implementing the new Innovate UK and UKRI strategies through Catapults in order to support companies to grow and scale to support the growth in the UK economy.

Working with the whole Innovation Infrastructure Directorate to prepare for the submission of the Business Case for the next funding period.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Provide constructive challenge to, and influence at, multiple levels in each Catapult around performance against agreed plans and progress towards impact. This will include regular proactive engagement with Senior Leaders within the Catapult including but not limited to the Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officers.
• Lead on performance management and grant monitoring of Catapult to ensure delivery of agreed strategies and plans. Including providing challenge on monthly and quarterly milestones and KPIs at CEO level.
• Support Innovate UK’s Growth Sector Leads and Director - Innovation Infrastructure, to provide higher level challenge when necessary.
• Work closely with the colleagues across all of Innovate UK’s Growth Sectors to enable strategic alignment of the Catapults activity with Innovate UK. Including leading for the Innovation Infrastructure team during grant renewals and outputs and outcomes proposal updates.
• Stakeholder identification and management in a complex and diverse stakeholder network across a number of interested Government Departments including, Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Transport, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)in both policy and operational areas as well as within UKRI. Proactively facilitating the conversations with sector teams and across government teams on Catapult delivery.
• Represent Innovate UK where required at meetings with Strategic Collaboration crossCatapult groups, influencing the agenda to support Innovate UK’s goals, driving effective cross catapult collaboration and facilitating alignment with the wider ecosystem.
• Lead the contracting process and monitor both core and other grants to the Catapults in this group. This will involve working with internal Operations teams and Legal teams to approve project and programmes through internal systems and contracting the projects when approved. For some projects the monitoring will also be the responsibility of the Relationship Manager. This will be in additional to the review of project reporting and approval of associated core grant claims.
• Where appropriate support sector colleagues in the governance of innovation infrastructure governance which is not related to Catapults.
• Working closely with the Innovation Infrastructure Programme team, ensure that the Catapults are collecting the information necessary for Innovate UK to undertake impact measurement. Working with Catapults and Innovate UK economists and communications specialists to evidence and communicate the economic and wider impacts of individual Catapults and the Catapult Network.
• Work with the Programme Team to ensure that reporting, risk management, change control and escalation processes are in place and used effectively. Taking the lead on improving or implementing new approaches as required.
• Work with the Catapults Finance Business Partner, Head of Catapult Finance and Funding Assurance team to ensure that financial information from Catapults is scrutinized and questioned where appropriate.

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 –

• Educated to Undergraduate degree level or with substantial relevant experience (S)
• Strong experience of achieving results, through influencing skills rather than direct control. (I)
• Experience of successfully managing multiple senior stakeholders with conflicting demands and priorities.(I)
• Considerable experience of managing high value grants or programmes delivering a broad range of benefits or impacts. (S&I)
• Experience of working with UK Government or the wider stakeholder community to drive business innovation. (S&I)
• Experience of measuring and reporting on economic impact. (S&I)
• Evidence of influencing senior leaders in either a strategic or operational context (S&I)
• A robust and flexible approach with the ability to thrive in an agile / changing environment (I)
• Ability to think strategically and translate that into actionable plans. (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:

Field-based: There will 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.

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 with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.

Applications must be submitted by;

23-06-2026