Incubation Manager

Ordnance Survey; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 48,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and pension (OS up

Performance-related bonus

28 days annual leave

Hybrid and flexible working options

Learning and development support

Free OS Maps subscription

Volunteering leave and matched funding

Job summary

Ordnance Survey’s Geovation hub in London seeks an Incubator Manager to lead startup recruitment, bespoke support programmes, and community engagement. You will collaborate with the Incubator Lead, technical teams, and external partners to drive impact for early-stage ventures using location data.

You will build relationships with founders, balance priorities, and shape partnerships across Geovation, OS, and the wider network, while ensuring a safe, inclusive hub environment and active

Qualifications

• Experience creating bespoke development programmes based on needs; demonstrated ability to tailor to founder audiences.
• Outstanding interpersonal, relationship-building, coaching and mentoring skills for first-time founders and serial entrepreneurs.
• Ability to make sense of complex or ambiguous situations and turn insights into clear priorities and actions.
• Experience scouting for startups based on briefs and building relationships to assess fit with Geovation.

Responsibilities

• Scout for startups to invite to apply to the programme; manage recruitment, selection, and due diligence processes.
• Be the main point of contact for startups within the programme.
• Design startup-by-startup support with the Incubator Lead to align with team strategy.
• Lead non-technical support with Ecosystem team and partners to accelerate startup growth.
• Advocate for the value of location data and OS capabilities in new markets and opportunities.
• Identify connections between founder needs, OS capabilities, and Geovation ecosystem activities.
• Help maintain a vibrant Geovation Hub with safety responsibilities and events support.

Skills

Start-Ups

Work Collaboratively

Tools

MS Office

Beauhurst

Nexudus

Slack

Canva

Copilot

Job description

Geovation Incubator Manager Full Time | £47,655.00 - £55,598.00 + London Weighting (£3,500) Hybrid - London Ordnance Survey is one of the Britain’s most impactful technology and data companies. We’re part of everyday life, with our data being used up to 40 times by the average person. We operate an invisible layer that enables the digital world to understand the physical world. Geovation exists to expand this impact further, we want to push the boundaries of what is possible with location data. We’re passionate about bringing entrepreneurs, innovators and geospatial experts together to solve real world problems in new ways. Our Farringdon hub is a vibrant space where first-time founders collaborate with experienced entrepreneurs and geospatial specialists. It’s a place where ideas become reality. We host events, encourage creativity, and help build the next generation of data-driven applications. Our incubation team builds and experiments directly with start-ups, helping them turn their ideas into products and building viable businesses around them.

About the Role

As the Incubator Manager at Geovation you’re responsible for making sure the startups we take into our programme can use it as a launch pad for their ambitions. You’ll play a leading role in finding and selecting which startups we support, and it will be up to you to develop bespoke support programmes that enable them to build sustainable businesses around the products that the technical part of the team helps to build. You will work closely with the Incubator Lead and our technical and ecosystem teams along with third parties and OS experts to deliver this support. You’ll also have a role in the wider community – as one of the key people in the team who really ‘gets founders’ and know what they need. You will build strong relationships with founders and understand the challenges facing their business, but you will also be responsible for making sure the detail behind the programme works. We’re looking for someone who thrives on building relationships, influencing others and making things happen. You’ll take the lead on some of our key strategic partnerships, building strong relationships across Geovation, Ordnance Survey and our external network. You’ll need to be confident working with senior stakeholders, balancing different priorities and bringing people together around shared goals. Leadership experience would be an advantage, particularly as you’ll help shape direction and support others to succeed.

In this role, you will

• Scout for startups to invite to apply to the programme in response to target areas set by the Team Leads, manage the recruitment and selection process and facilitate the administrative sides of the process, including appropriate due diligence and finance.
• Be the main point of contact for startups within the programme.
• Work with the Incubator Lead to design support on a startup‑by‑startup basis to ensure support aligns with the wider strategy of the team.
• Lead on the design and delivery of non‑technical support jointly with the Ecosystem team, utilising programme alumni, Geovation, OS employees and third parties.
• Be an advocate for the power of location data, the impact that startups have on creating new markets and industries for OS data and advocate for the specific startups we support.
• Look for connections between different founder needs, OS capabilities, market opportunities and activity happening across the wider Geovation ecosystem.
• Be a key part of making the Geovation Hub is a vibrant creative place to work and a safe, inclusive, welcoming, and well‑maintained space for members and visitors. This includes involvement in events and activation as well as some formal Fire, health&safety responsibilities for the Geovation Hub and ad‑hoc tasks required as part of a small team running a busy coworking space.

About you and how we work

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about startups and knows what they need, ideally you will have worked in or with start‑ups in the past and can bring that experience to bear. We want someone who’s comfortable tailoring the message for the diverse audiences we work with, helping communicate the value of our community that we’ve created over the last 15 years. You’ll need to demonstrate: Experience of creating bespoke development programmes based on an understanding of needs, sometimes developing and delivering workshops themselves. Outstanding interpersonal, relationship building, coaching and mentoring skills and the ability to deploy them in with first time founders and serial entrepreneurs even when things aren’t going well The ability to make sense of complex or ambiguous situations, connect different pieces of information and turn those insights into clear priorities, actions and opportunities. Experience of scouting for leading edge startups based on specific briefs – and building relationships with those startups to understand and ‘sell’ their fit with Geovation. An experimental and continuous improvement mindset, willing to try things out with the aim of learning and proving / disproving a hypothesis. The desire and ability to be part of a flexible, small team that collaborates to achieve joint goals, regardless of the exact work to be done. Particularly useful experience Any of the following would be beneficial but are not essential: Experience working with startups, whether through an accelerator, incubator, venture builder, startup programme or within a startup itself. Experience supporting early‑stage founders through coaching, mentoring, advisory work, scouting or selection. Experience coordinating partnerships, programmes or activity across multiple organisations or stakeholders. Experience improving operational processes, systems or ways of working.

The tools we use on a day‑to‑day basis

• MS Office
• Beauhurst
• Nexudus
• Slack
• Canva
• Copilot

The Rewards

We want you to love what you do and feel supported to do your best work. Our benefits include:

• Competitive salary and pension (OS contribute up to 12.07%)
• Performance‑related bonus (where applicable)
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays (increasing with service)
• Enhanced family leave, including paid partner leave
• Hybrid and flexible working options
• Learning and development support, coaching and mentoring
• Free subscription to OS Maps and access to wellbeing support
• Volunteering leave and matched fundraising

Location

The role is based at Geovation with a minimum of 3 full days in the Geovation Hub to provide direct support to start‑ups working from the hub. There may also be specific needs to be present in the Geovation Hub as part of Fire, Health and Safety responsibilities – which may affect hours required in the Hub.

Closing date: Wednesday 4th November 2026 at 23:59pm

What if your next role helped shape the way millions of people experience the world?

Every day, our location data powers essential services, supports businesses, drives innovation, and helps keep communities safe. For over 225 years, we've been helping people navigate the world around them. Today, we're combining that heritage with cutting‑edge technology, data science, and digital innovation to solve real‑world challenges. From laptops to hilltops, blue lights to streetlights, and congestion to relaxation, our data helps people make better decisions, find their way, and respond to the challenges that matter most. Whether it's supporting the emergency services, enabling businesses to grow, or helping governments plan for the future, the work we do has a real impact on everyday lives. If you're looking for meaningful work, exciting challenges, and the opportunity to make a genuine difference, you'll find it here.

If you’re enthusiastic about this role but your experience doesn’t perfectly match every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the ideal candidate for this or other roles within Ordnance Survey.

Skills required for this role

Start-Ups, Work Collaboratively