National Security Innovation Consultant

Plexal; Cheltenham; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Pension scheme (up to 10%)

Private healthcare

Life assurance

Critical illness cover

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Volunteering day

Job summary

Plexal is seeking an National Security Innovation Consultant to join our rapid-growth team and help deliver Plexal-led innovation projects. You will work with our consulting team on cross-competency work, focusing on innovation consulting, hypotheses testing and research activities for diverse stakeholders.

You will engage with startups, scaleups, government, academia and industry, and be willing to travel nationally. A minimum SC clearance is required, with pre-existing clearance welcomed.

Qualifications

• Educated to bachelor level or equivalent.
• Experience in innovation, startup, research or tech with an interest in technology policy.
• Ability to design robust experiments and present findings clearly.
• Interest/experience in spaces such as space, telecoms, AI, data, quantum, semiconductors, PNT.

Responsibilities

• Develop innovation hypotheses and associated experiments to test them.
• Deliver experiments and interventions to yield evidence-based outcomes for clients.
• Design practical models and frameworks to help clients deliver change.
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative research on emerging technology and innovation themes.
• Form insights into emerging technology areas such as AI, data, space and telecoms.
• Create high-impact deliverables like reports and presentations for clients.
• Engage with National Security clients to understand needs and challenges.
• Manage regular communication with National Security clients and external stakeholders.
• Support business development by responding to client requests and drafting bespoke proposals.

Skills

Organisational skills

Analytical thinking

Communication

Microsoft Office

Project management tools

Research skills

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

PowerPoint

Project management tools

Job description

The National Security Innovation Consultant will play a key role in delivering Plexal-led innovation projects and working with our consulting team to deliver cross-competency work, focusing on innovation consulting, hypotheses testing and research activity. You’ll engage with a diverse array of stakeholders, including startups, scaleups, corporations, government, non-profit organisations, investors and academia.
We are a rapidly growing team and are actively looking to recruit exceptional individuals who want to work in an adaptive, fast moving, collaborative environment focused on National Security.

What You'll Do

• Development of innovation hypotheses and the associated experiments and interventions which will test them
• Delivery of above experiments and interventions to yield evidence based outcomes and guidance for clients
• Design of practical models , frameworks, and approaches that help clients deliver change and transformation
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis and market research to on emerging technology, startups and innovation themes
• Forming insights into emerging technology areas, e.g. AI and data, space and telecoms, engineering biology
• Contribute towards and lead on the creation of high-impact deliverables, such as reports and presentations, for clients to inform their emerging technology strategies
• Engaging with National Security clients to understand their needs, challenges and the interventions that will support their growth
• Proactively manage regular interaction, communication, and collaboration with National Security clients and external stakeholders
• Supporting on and leading specific areas of business development by responding to client request and creating bespoke proposals

Your Skills

• Highly organised with a good understanding of innovation, collaboration and hypothesis testing tools and methodologies
• Analytical, with the ability to think critically and to understand, interpret and articulate complex concepts
• A structured, concise communicator who can confidently use key tools including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as project management and brainstorming tools
• Competent at taking responsibility for producing high-quality deliverables and presentations for senior audiences,
• Qualitative and quantitative research skills

Your Experience

• Able to demonstrate awareness across technology markets and National Security and provide an outside-in perspective to clients when it comes to emerging needs, trends, opportunities, and technologies,
• Innovation, startup, research or technology background, with a passion about emerging technology and some domain expertise or interest in technology policy
• Experience with a range of hypotheses testing approaches and an ability to critically design robust experiments for clients and present findings in an accessible and compelling narrative
• Experience in one or more of following tech areas are a plus : space, telecoms, AI, data, quantum, semiconductors, Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT)

Who You Are

• Educated to a Bachelor-degree level or equivalent
• Personally resilient, with the ability to stay focused on the overall objective, responding to challenges in a calm and measured way
• Energised by the challenges and opportunities presented by working for a high-growth company
• Passionate about the development of emerging technology
• This role may require some national travel for delivery of projects and travel to all Plexal sites. Due to the nature of this position, our work, and our client engagements, you must be willing and eligible to achieve a minimum of SC clearance. Pre-existing SC welcome. For more information about clearance eligibility, please see https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/united-kingdom-security-vetting

Why us?

As a start-up, we thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment dedicated to empowering innovators. We embrace individuals who leverage technology and creativity to tackle our greatest challenges head-on. We strongly advocate for maintaining a harmonious work-life balance, our goal is to ensure every member of our team can authentically be themselves and live their best lives. We firmly believe that innovation and creativity flourish when we cultivate a diverse workforce, comprising highly skilled individuals with a wide range of perspectives to contribute.
In return we will offer you:

• Salary: £45,000 - £60,000 depending on skills and experience
• A generous pension scheme (with a company contribution of up to 10%)
• Private healthcare, life assurance and critical illness cover

As a start-up, we thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment dedicated to empowering innovators. We embrace individuals who leverage technology and creativity to tackle our greatest challenges head-on. We strongly advocate for maintaining a harmonious work-life balance, our goal is to ensure every member of our team can authentically be themselves and live their best lives. We firmly believe that innovation and creativity flourish when we cultivate a diverse workforce, comprising highly skilled individuals with a wide range of perspectives to contribute.
In return we will offer you:

• Salary: £45,000 - £60,000 depending on skills and experience
• Annual bonus scheme
• A generous pension scheme (with a company contribution of up to 10%)
• Private healthcare, life assurance and critical illness cover
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Volunteering day

Plexal is an equal opportunities employer and we actively encourage applicants from individuals from all backgrounds. We are a Disability Committed employer and are willing to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

About us

Plexal is the innovation and growth company helping to strengthen the UK’s technology capabilities through collaboration.
With teams in London, Manchester and Cheltenham, we work closely with government, industry, startups and academia to drive economic growth and reinforce national security.
Founded by Delancey in 2017, Plexal delivers four core services: creating workspaces for innovators, running innovation programmes and consultancy, building regional tech clusters and helping SMEs scale strategically.
By closing the gap between early-stage and established organisations – across the public and private sectors at home and abroad – we’ve impacted over 1,200 businesses, added £731m to the UK economy and helped create 9,400 jobs.
Headquartered at Here East on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Plexal partners with organisations including the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the National Cyber Security Centre, Airbus, Amazon, Barclays Eagle Labs, Google Cloud, TfL, The Alan Turing Institute and the University of Oxford.