Innovate UK has the following secondment opportunity available for employees of Innovate UK Business Connect: Applications must be submitted by 15-05-2025 Vacancy for Director of Healthy Lives As leader for Healthy Lives, you will play a key role in advancing innovations that relate to aging, health and lives. You will develop strategies that contribute to promoting healthy living over life-course. Ultimately the goal being to deliver innovative interventions that support positive health and enable people to maximise their potential at all life stages. *Please note this advert will close on the 14th May 2025 at 23.59pm. Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here. Title: Director of Healthy Lives Band: UKRI Band X (UKRI Ts & Cs) Salary: £87,565 gross per annum Reports to: Executive Director Healthy Living & Agriculture 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 Healthy Living & Agriculture Domain (HLA). We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role. Job Purpose: As leader for Healthy Lives, you will play a key role in advancing innovations that relate to aging, health and lives. You will develop strategies that contribute to promoting healthy living over life-course. Ultimately the goal being to deliver innovative interventions that support positive health and enable people to maximise their potential at all life stages. Actions to achieve and maintain good health and lives, includes the impact of healthy diet, regular exercise and The leadership opportunity of this role is to inspire and nurture innovations from a breadth of companies and service providers that have the potential to transform healthy living. As Healthy Lives Director, this role will play a crucial role in shaping and implementing strategies for Innovate UK, that accelerate social wellbeing, economic growth and productivity in the UK through fostering strong relationships with key stakeholders across the UK. The role will provide thought leadership in the Healthy Lives space both internally and externally to IUK. Collaboration and partnership across the end-to-end ecosystem will be critical to success. Stakeholders include industry, government bodies and relevant knowledge transfer networks to ensure connectivity to Innovate UK’s strategy and ensure impact. Internally, you will need to build effective working relationships with the IUK SLT and colleagues across the Innovate UK “cube” – including the Domains, Products and Services and Place. The role also provides leadership for the team providing innovation support to companies developing and delivering support that drives Healthy Living innovations. Operationally the role is accountable for a budget in excess of £150 million, a direct team of 10-15 and indirect team of up to 10. As a senior leader in HLA you will be a member of the HLA Leadership team, shaping the future strategy for the domain. Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities: You will be an experienced leader in data driven Life Sciences and a thought leader in Healthy Lives. You will develop Innovate UK’s strategy for Healthy Lives in conjunction with the HLA leadership, the Exec Director HLA, the Exec Director for HLA in IUKBC, IUK SLT and IUK Council, ensuring connectivity and alignment across UKRI. You will also deliver this strategy externally by: Connecting the innovation landscape for Healthy Lives, directly through Innovate UK teams, including Innovate UK Business Connect, and indirectly through partner organisations. Funding the innovation landscape for Healthy Lives through investment in catapults and other innovation centres. Funding the innovation landscape for Healthy Lives through investment in programmes based on Grant and Non-Grant products. Maintaining momentum in European and global activities, including EU funding programmes Working with Innovate UK’s Place team to encourage Healthy Lives opportunities across the UK. Providing managed services for third parties in support of the Healthy Living Technologies (such as other innovation organisations or government departments) Representing Innovate UK in senior interactions with industry, government, and the research community, alongside taking the lead for Innovate UK in associated leadership forums. Work closely with the Catapults to co-create strategies and then ensuring they deliver the outcomes and outputs accordingly. As a member of UKRI, you will contribute to cross council initiatives to drive greater collective impact. This is expected to include the bilateral meetings that IUK holds with the different research councils. You will be responsible for leading the team through effective management, engagement and development of staff. You will demonstrate exceptional leadership and management of the Directorate, and more broadly across the wider organisation to support effective change management. You will be responsible for delivery of the Healthy Living activities within budget (maximum underspend of 1%). You will lead on senior project work as directed by the Executive Director of Healthy Living & Agriculture. You will represent Innovate UK in parliamentary enquiries as needed. You will also be a member of the HLA Leadership and HLA Board, tracking delivery and shaping strategies. 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: You must have significant senior leadership experience in data driven Life Sciences that you can harness as a thought leader in Healthy Longevity. Leadership competencies are key and include strong strategic thinking, as well as the ability to communicate and work collaboratively with a wide range of teams. You must also have a proven track record of managing high-performance teams through periods of change. Experience & Qualifications: Degree in life sciences, healthcare or a related field. (S) Proven experience in Healthy Longevity leadership roles. You will be a recognised industry leader in an area relevant to healthy living outcomes. (S) Strong understanding of customer centric interventions to drive behaviour change – Including successful experience in developing and delivering new products or services and programmes. (S&I) Excellent Communication and interpersonal skills. You will have the proven ability to work and communicate successfully up at Board and Executive Level. (I) Delivering with Impact - You will have a strong track record of delivering against demanding KPI targets, with experience in the governance of “arm’s length” organisations. (S) Partnership and Collaborations - You will have experience managing relationships and collaborating across teams, organisations and complex networks with multiple stakeholders involved. (S&I) Operational Management - You will have effective management experience of significant, multi-million budgets, and be able to implement cost-control and forecasting in a rigorously controlled environment. (S) Team Leadership - Experienced team leader, with proven capability to develop, engage and build high-performing teams that include both direct and indirect reports during times of change. (S&I) Skills & Expertise: Innovation Process - A deep understanding of the innovation process in research and industry. Strategic Thinking - A creative and innovative strategic thinker, with the ability to translate ideas and policy into effective delivery and to propose solutions with your problem-solving skills. Team Leadership – Ability to inspire, motivate and engage teams across remote locations. Stakeholder Management - The ability to lead, influence and inspire stakeholders across a common challenge. Communication – Excellent communication skills, ability to adapt messages to audiences and provide succinct assessments and summaries for senior leadership. Excellence in Execution – Ability to integrate multiple inputs and requirements with the clarity of decision making to develop and deliver a prioritised programme with maximum RoI. Understanding of the commitment to the values of accountability, probity, openness and diversity. Within this public accountability and the associated obligations 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: The role is field based but will require regular interaction with team members and stakeholders. Most of this can be done remotely but will require some face-to-face meetings, typically either in Swindon or London. There will be the occasional requirement for national travel and the potential for international 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. 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; 15-05-2025