Community & Partnerships Manager – I-HUB

Blenheim Chalcot; City Of London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A dynamic innovation center in London is seeking a proactive individual for a customer-focused role. The successful candidate will oversee member experiences, lead a dedicated team, and engage with key stakeholders to foster satisfaction and retention. Ideal applicants are extroverted with strong leadership skills, ready to manage complex situations. Excellent growth opportunities are available in this exciting environment.

Benefits

Excellent salary

Dynamic and friendly team

Regular learning and development opportunities

Career progression potential

Qualifications

• Experience in a multi-tenant building environment or hospitality.
• Ability to lead a team and deliver excellent customer service.
• Comfortable in a dynamic and ambiguous environment.

Responsibilities

• Deliver an excellent service to members and visitors.
• Manage the Front of House team to ensure a branded experience.
• Conduct team briefings and manage HR processes effectively.

Skills

Outgoing personality

Exceptional communication skills

Leadership experience

Ability to influence and persuade

Tools

Microsoft Office

CRM systems

Job description

Overview

This is an exciting position for someone looking for a challenging and invigorating work environment. The priorities of the role will vary from week to week. We are therefore looking for someone with a positive attitude and an outgoing personality, with exceptional communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Delivering a great, flawless experience to all users of the building, whether members or visitors.
• Delivering an excellent service to our members, building a culture of customer service excellence.
• Working with the Head of Growth and Partnerships, support members to address their scaling challenges via collaborations within Imperial, Blenheim Chalcot and other partners. This will be facilitated through events, direct connections and information sharing (e.g. via the regular I-HUB newsletter).
• Maximising member satisfaction and retention through meaningful engagement with members and the delivery of valuable targeted events and member-focused activities.
• Proactively seeking out ways to drive the member experience via enhancements to the member journey, process, communications and events.
• Representing I-HUB externally to the public and to potential members and users of the building.
• Managing the Front of House team to deliver a branded, "values-led" experience with focus and dedication to removing hassle for our members.
• Managing Showcase booking on Level 9 and day-to-day presentation of the space.
• Reporting progress, performance, opportunities, issues and proposed solutions to key stakeholders.
• Being a point of escalation for member concerns and ensuring these are resolved in a timely manner within agreed SLAs, either directly or with other service providers.
• This is a visible, externally facing role, with hospitality and service at the forefront of your mind.

Your role will include

• Delivering the I-HUB experience to our members.
• Ensuring that your team delivers:
• I-Hub priorities – Alignment of I-Hub priorities with Imperial's overall priorities.
• Building Manager – work closely with the Building Manager as part of the overall I-Hub team, noting individual roles and responsibilities within each role.
• Ecosystem – a strong focus on the wider Imperial innovation ecosystem and clear reporting of the actions and outputs.

The basics

• Constant availability of key essential member services, and being a friendly, proactive point of contact for member queries and issues.

Values-led engagement

• Manage and motivate the team to deliver member/visitor engagement in line with our values and brand and create "noticeable positive experiences", allowing the team to operate with autonomy in ambiguous situations where there is no agreed policy.

Member onboarding experience

• Oversee a smooth tailored onboarding and induction/move-in process for new members that includes building orientation, services provision and routes for users to engage.

Meaningful events and connections

• Deliver and support a series of regular, meaningful events for members, working with the Head of Growth and Partnerships on innovation ecosystem events (e.g. Imperial ecosystem fair / Scale Space careers fair) and with the Head of Events on social events.
• Link members with key parts of Imperial College London and Blenheim Chalcot, as well as external partners, to support business needs.
• Identify events across the White City Campus and engage members to participate (as participants or presenters).

Knowing your members

• Get to know your members – understand their businesses, needs, and future growth plans, and feed this information to the Head of Growth and Partnerships and Commercial Manager to address challenges as a joined-up team.
• Hold meetings with member companies to understand and document growth plans and how we can best support them, address issues, and implement improvements for high satisfaction.

Building communications

• Deliver clear, concise, community-led communications to members via emails, our member engagement tool Connect, and LinkedIn as the wider social media channel.

Continuous improvement

• Provide reports to senior management with commentary on issues and suggestions for improvements relating to member services, financial accountability across FTEs; provide visibility across conference & meeting room revenue and occupancy; events and other ad hoc services; management reporting – timely quarterly reporting against KPIs and monthly flash reports.

Staff Leadership

• Leadership of the Front of House team to the highest standards.
• Deliver regular team briefings to ensure business performance and focus areas are understood and addressed.
• Ensure clear expectations on customer service standards, with a positive can-do approach for all.
• Identify and deliver learning and development opportunities for the team.
• Ensure the team are recognised and valued for the job well done.
• Effectively manage HR processes within agreed guidelines.
• Be a visible role model and hold the team accountable to high standards.

Personal attributes

• Outgoing, friendly, proactive, approachable, extrovert.
• Comfortable with ambiguity.
• Collegiate approach to working with 3rd party service providers and colleagues at Imperial.
• Creative and high energy; desire to learn and develop; high professional and personal standards; open to change and doing things differently.

Knowledge, skills & experience

• Experience within a multi-tenant building environment (experience with deep tech and innovative businesses advantageous) or evidence of similar experience in hospitality/leisure.
• Leadership experience and ability to lead a team to deliver a great customer experience and align with company values.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; strong interpersonal communication; able to speak clearly to individuals and groups internal and external.
• Ability to influence and persuade to achieve accepted outcomes.
• Broad experience of managing clients, suppliers, direct reports; proficient in Microsoft Office and CRM systems desirable.

About Scale Space

Scale Space is a joint venture between Imperial College London and Blenheim Chalcot running three innovation centres on the White City Campus. It is a scaleup community providing access to people, services and space to help businesses succeed, fostering collaborations between tenants, Imperial College London researchers, and external partners. The I-HUB provides laboratory and office space for knowledge-intensive companies, supporting the commercialisation of scientific research.

Benefits

• Excellent salary.
• Working with a dynamic and friendly team across two sites.
• Regular learning and development opportunities and quarterly professional development.
• Rapid growth and potential for career progression within Scale Space, Blenheim Chalcot, and Imperial College.