Horizon Scanning Manager

National Energy System Operator; Warwick; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 78,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus up to 15%

28 days annual leave

Competitive contributory pension scheme

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

A major energy corporation in the UK seeks a Horizon Scanning Manager to lead strategic initiatives and horizon scanning functions. The successful candidate will guide a team, track emerging trends and innovations, and synthesize data for senior decision-making. This role requires experience in market research, a background in the energy sector, and strong leadership skills. The position offers a competitive salary and benefits in a hybrid working environment, promoting work-life balance.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in horizon scanning, strategic intelligence, or market research roles.
• Experience working in the energy sector with understanding of regulatory frameworks.
• Ability to synthesise complex information for strategic decision-making.
• Experienced in leading teams in future-focused environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the horizon scanning function.
• Maintain awareness of emerging trends and regulatory developments.
• Support embedding horizon scanning into corporate frameworks.
• Design inputs for strategy workshops.
• Expand tools and technologies for insight delivery.

Skills

Excellent written and verbal communication

Strong visual judgement

Strategic thinking

Effective task and line management

Education

Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience

Job description

About the role

National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) strength lies in our people. Together, we’re shaping the future where clean, affordable energy is accessible for all. Every day is an opportunity to make a real difference, accelerating the progress of sustainable GB energy, keeping people connected and society thriving as we create a brighter tomorrow.

By working closely with government, the regulator and industry, NESO will play a vital and central role in advising on energy policy and strategy to ensure that it is not only optimal and deliverable but that it drives effective action and delivery plans across all industry vectors. NESO will also use its experience and expertise across the whole energy system to provide independent energy insights, supporting industry with optimal decision making and strategic direction.

The Horizon Scanning Manager is a strategically important role that ensures NESO remains forward‑looking, informed, and ready to respond to opportunities and risks across the whole energy landscape. Leading a specialist team, you will build and embed NESO’s horizon scanning capability, gathering intelligence on policy, technology, markets, and innovation to support strategic advice, business planning, and the development of whole system insights.

This role can be based from Wokingham or Warwick and we continue to offer hybrid working from office and home.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead and develop NESO’s horizon scanning function, providing credible, future‑focused intelligence that informs strategic decision‑making.
• Maintain awareness of emerging trends, innovations, disruptions, and regulatory or political developments across the whole energy system.
• Support the embedding of horizon scanning into NESO’s corporate frameworks, working with business performance, enterprise risk, and strategy teams to shape how futures, indicators, trends and signposts are incorporated.
• Design horizon scanning inputs into strategy workshops, ensuring senior leaders are equipped with forward looking intelligence that tests assumptions and informs strategic prioritisation.
• Develop and embed best‑practice approaches and channels for horizon scanning, ensuring information is coordinated, accessible, and consistently used across NESO.
• Expand the use of tools, technologies, and repositories to deliver high‑quality, timely insight and anticipate system‑wide change.
• Provide line management, coaching, and strategic direction to analysts, fostering a high‑performing and collaborative team environment.

About You

• Proven experience in horizon scanning, strategic intelligence, or market research roles, with a track record of shaping organisational awareness of future risks and opportunities.
• Experience working in the energy sector, with an understanding of industry structures, regulatory frameworks, and long‑term strategic challenges.
• Recognised for your ability to synthesise complex information and form strategic viewpoints that support senior‑level decision‑making.
• Experienced in leading teams in future‑focused environments.
• Degree‑level qualification or equivalent professional experience.

Skills

• Excellent written and verbal communicator, capable of connecting the dots across complex themes for senior audiences. Skilled at creating order out of complexity.
• Strong visual judgement with a keen eye for how information is presented, producing materials that are accurate, intuitive and easy to engage with.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to anticipate and interpret emerging challenges and opportunities.
• Effective task and line management, supporting the growth and development of high‑performing teams.

About What You’ll Get

A competitive salary between £60,000 – 78,000 – dependent on experience and capability. As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus of up to 15% of your salary for stretch performance, 28 days annual leave as standard, and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%. You will also have access to a comprehensive benefits package tailored to support your well‑being and professional success. From a competitive salary to flexible work arrangements, we promote your work‑life balance. Enjoy fit for purpose wellbeing and lifestyle offerings, ongoing skill development aligned to our Purpose and Values, and be part of a supportive community that values your individuality and where you can belong.

About Us

National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) mission is to facilitate the decarbonisation of Great Britain’s energy network and ensure the delivery of reliable, affordable, and clean electricity for consumers. We work with stakeholders across the whole energy industry to plan for future network needs, using a wider adoption of technology and changes in consumer behaviour, as well as ensuring we have the right markets, networks, and frameworks in place, to transform the way we operate tomorrow. Join us, and let’s energise progress. Your energy, our future, together.

About The National Energy System Operator (NESO)

In Autumn of 2024, the ESO transitioned to National Energy System Operator, or NESO for short. Previously denoted as the Future System Operator (or FSO), the new National Energy System Operator is the independent body responsible for planning Great Britain’s electricity and gas networks and operating the electricity system. NESO, including all of its existing roles, are now at the heart of the new National Energy System Operator. As NESO, we will build on our existing roles, capabilities, and ways of working significantly to create an organisation the energy system and its users’ need. Our new capabilities will enable us to look across vectors, including electricity, natural gas and hydrogen, and crucially consider the trade‑offs between them.

The organisation is set up as a public corporation with its own Board of independent directors, with complete operational independence from government, the regulator and any and all commercial interest. As was the ESO, NESO will be licenced and regulated by Ofgem through price control agreements and obligated to identify optimal solutions to system operations and planning in the most sustainable, affordable and secure way for all.

The time to deliver is now. As part of our team, you won’t just be touching the lives of almost everyone in Great Britain – you’ll be shaping the way we use and consume energy for generations to come.

More information

This role closes on 06/01/2026 at 23:59, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary. Interviews will be held in early January. We work towards the highest standards in everything we do, including how we support, value and develop our people. Our aim is to encourage and support employees to thrive and be the best they can be. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and offer flexible and tailored support, at home and in the office. We’re committed to building a workforce that represents the communities we serve, and a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential.