Innovation Advisor (Digital Innovation)

Hethel Innovation; Stowmarket; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative growth consultancy is seeking an Innovation Advisor based in Stowmarket to spearhead the delivery of their Innovation Programme. This role involves direct support to businesses, fostering partnerships, and driving digital innovation within the local area. Ideal candidates will possess a combination of educational qualifications and experience with relationship management and project execution.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or relevant industry experience is essential.
• Strong relationship management with various stakeholders is required.
• Experience in project management and delivering results.
• Self-motivated with a focus on delivering high-quality work.

Responsibilities

• Identify ways to support businesses through workshops and training.
• Develop strategic partnerships with local stakeholders.
• Organize networking events to foster collaboration and innovation.
• Provide one-on-one support to businesses in the scale-up landscape.

Skills

Relationship management

Project management

Sales experience

Curiosity

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree (business related)

Job description

Basic Info

Salary: £35,000-£38,000 depending on experience

Location: Stowmarket Innovation Gateway, Gateway 14, Stowmarket

Contract Term: Fixed Term Contract - January 2026-31st March 2029 (with the possibility of a 2 year extension)

Job Purpose

Hethel Innovation is seeking a dynamic and driven Innovation Advisor to lead the delivery of Stowmarket Innovation Gateway’s Innovation Programme. In this role you will deliver support directly to businesses looking to grow and adopt digital innovation, as well as act as a key relationship manager to tenants of Stowmarket Innovation Gateway and a range of education providers.

You will play a pivotal role in understanding what support needs businesses have, listening to their challenges, and developing support strategies with the businesses you work with. You will be aware of the regional support landscape, have an exceptional understanding of digital innovation, and be able to connect your clients with other support providers and funders in the region that will support their success.

Your immediate responsibility is to work with the Stowmarket Innovation Gateway team to ensure the success of the building, establishing it as a hub for digital innovation that is recognised regionally and internationally, but your remit will take you beyond the centre, establishing relationships with businesses on the Gateway 14 park and wider Suffolk region.

As part of a high-performing, proactive team, you will drive continuous improvement and ensure exceptional service delivery for businesses within our network.

Responsibilities

• Proactively identify new ways to support the businesses you work with – for example, developing new tools and training for businesses to engage with.
• Use your curiosity and knowledge of business to identify industry challenges from a variety of sectors and create challenge groups which can be solved by bringing a variety of partners together.
• Provide 121 support to businesses in the scale up landscape, working closely with your clients, adapting to their needs.
• Deliver and facilitate interactive workshops and training to businesses on to support them to adopt digital innovation.
• Organise networking events, workshops, and industry collaborations.
• Develop strategic partnerships with local authorities and industry stakeholders.
• Engage with local stakeholders including education establishments, think tanks, local councils, and other government bodies.
• Represent Stowmarket Innovation Gateway, Mid Suffolk District Council and Hethel Innovation at a national and international scale at events and meetings, developing relationships with key partners in our region.
• Support the Centre Manager with the coordination of social media channels, creating engaging content and growing the Centre’s online presence.
• Working with site team to ensure that there is always cover at the centre. This could mean that you are needed for occasional cover in the instance that there is any evening training delivered.

For a full breakdown of the job description, follow the link to our website – https://hethelinnovation.com/job-vacancies/

Qualifications, experience and skills

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree (business related) or relevant digital innovation/AI industry experience
• Experience delivering strong relationship management with a variety of stakeholders
• Experience running and facilitating large meetings and groups
• Project management experience, working closely with a set of targets and objectives and delivering them on time.
• Sales and/or customer experience
• Extensive knowledge of SME growth strategies and the ability to advise and support SMEs.
• Self‑motivated and result driven, with a focus on delivering high‑quality work.
• Capable of working independently, creating a pipeline of tasks that will allow you to reach your overarching objectives.
• Comfortable and confident leading events and chairing meetings, providing high quality presentations, and training.

Desirable

• Experience in previous roles that support the adoption of new digital technology
• Experience running cluster networks or special interest groups
• Coaching or consultancy experience
• Agile / Scrum experience
• Experience coaching and/or mentoring
• Design thinking and the Lean Start up Method.
• Knowledge of Agile Project Management and how it applies to businesses.
• An interest in entrepreneurship and innovation.
• Understanding of business clusters and their development.
• Good awareness of funding options available to businesses.

About You

• You want to be part of a small high performing team
• You are curious, you love to learn and have a real interest in business growth.
• You are ready to think outside the box, problem solving is exciting for you and you relish the opportunity to develop solutions to overcome challenges.
• You are comfortable with the uncomfortable – you stand your ground in high pressure situations and communicate clearly.
• You see beyond the challenge in front of you.
• You make things happen – you identify opportunities and act on them.
• You aren’t scared of failure but see it as a learning opportunity and have actively changed your approach to situations from previous experience.
• You are independent and autonomous. You have the confidence and skill to develop your own pipeline of projects and manage your workload effectively.
• Asking for help doesn’t scare you. You are able to pick up new projects and develop them on your own and able to identify when you need additional support and actively seek it.
• You celebrate the success of others. A win for those you are supporting (either business clients or your team), is a win for you.
• You love to engage with others, collaborating with multiple stakeholders on projects.
• You perform at your best when you are managing multiple projects at one time.
• You are motivated by meeting commercial goals and enjoy proactively planning how to meet them.

About Stowmarket Innovation Gateway

Stowmarket Innovation Gateway at Gateway 14 is a new purpose-built, BREEAM ‘Excellent’ facility designed to foster entrepreneurship, support innovation, and address skills gaps in emerging technologies in the local and regional economy.The building is set to open Spring 2026 with 44 offices, hot desking and coworking facilities, training and meeting rooms and an on‑site cafe.

About Hethel Innovation

Our company is built by staff who have a shared ambition – to be a game changer for business. Every single person employed by Hethel Innovation has a direct impact on allowing us to deliver our vision to be the driving force for SME innovation. Our team make things happen.

We are excited by making a difference to businesses – whether that is through the business communities we curate, the support and advice or connections we provide, or the high‑quality space we manage and operate at our growing network of innovation sites.

We’re inclusive and want our teams to be made up of people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.If you think that you have the mindset, skills, and motivations to be a central part of delivering on our strategy, we would love to speak to you.