Senior Innovation Strategy Manger

BT Communications Ireland Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car scheme (or cash)

15% on target annual bonus

Private healthcare for you and family

Online private GP 24/7

Paid carers leave (15% or more)

Equalised maternity/paternity/adoption

BT discounts on EE/broadband

Competitive pension scheme

Holiday purchase scheme

Job summary

BT Group is seeking a Senior Innovation Strategy Manager to shape how BT identifies and scales future opportunities across connectivity, data, platforms and AI. You’ll partner with product and technology leaders to co-develop innovation strategy and unlock growth opportunities within Etc., BT’s innovation unit, spanning product, design, engineering and commercial teams.

You will lead horizon scanning, business case development and execution across multiple priorities, balancing strategic

Qualifications

• Strong strategic and commercial experience gained in consulting, corporate strategy, a start-up, scale-up or innovation environment.
• Proven experience developing and delivering growth strategies with executive influence.
• Experience applying AI, automation or data-driven approaches to improve decision-making and outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own and refine BT's product innovation strategy and long-term priorities.
• Collaborate with Product Directors to deliver integrated roadmaps and financial plans.
• Evaluate growth opportunities using market insights, ROI and business cases.
• Lead portfolio decisions and investment trade-offs to maximise commercial impact.
• Design and scale the innovation operating model and capabilities across BT.

Skills

Strategic planning

Commercial acumen

Growth strategy development

AI/data-driven decision making

Education

Relevant quantitative degree

Job description

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Innovation Strategy Manger

Job Location: GBR-London-BTHQ One Braham

Advertised Salary: Competitive salary and excellent benefits

About the role

BT is entering a new phase of growth, moving from building infrastructure to unlocking value from it. As new products emerge across connectivity, data, platforms and AI, the ability to take innovation to market and scale it effectively is critical. This role sits at the centre of that challenge shaping how innovation happens across one of the UK's largest organisations.

You will join Etc., the innovation unit of BT. Etc. is a team of product, design, engineering and innovation specialists that work with BT’s Technology Units and Customer Facing Units to identify, develop and incubate new products and ventures. Organised around growth themes aligned to BT’s strategy, Etc. operates with a start-up mindset while leveraging BT’s scale and expertise in connectivity to develop innovative connectivity, data and developer solutions for BT’s priority verticals and customers. The team is experimenting with and incubating products in areas such as drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics, physical AI, agentic AI, data, platforms, cyber security, and quantum technologies.

As the Senior Innovation Strategy Manager, your job is to increase the effectiveness and commercial impact of BT's innovation activity: helping us make better choices about where to invest, accelerating the strongest opportunities, and building the mechanisms that allow innovation to scale repeatedly across BT.

You will partner with product and technology leaders across BT to co-develop the innovation strategy and unlock future growth opportunities. This is a multi-faceted role, working at the intersection of strategy, innovation, commercial, and product.

This is a highly collaborative role, working with cross-functional innovation squads comprising product, design, engineering, growth, marketing, commercial and delivery teams within Etc. and across BT. You will also build strong relationships with leaders and teams across BT's Technology Units and Customer Facing Units, aligning priorities and driving execution of innovation initiatives.

This is a hands-on senior strategy role with a strong commercial and delivery focus. You will lead initiatives from concept through to implementation, shaping strategy, developing business cases, influencing investment decisions and ensuring material business outcomes are achieved. Success requires the ability to navigate ambiguity, balance strategic thinking with practical execution, and drive progress across multiple priorities simultaneously.

You will thrive in a fast-paced environment, using influence rather than authority to bring teams together, remove barriers and accelerate the development, launch and scaling of innovative products and developing BT’s innovation capabilities. Acting as a force multiplier, you will enable others to deliver at pace while increasing the overall effectiveness of BT's innovation ecosystem.

What you’ll be doing

Strategy and Growth

• Own BT's product innovation strategy and long-term innovation priorities, developed with leaders across the Corporate, Technology and Customer Facing Units, ensuring alignment to BT's strategic priorities.
• Partner with Product Directors and Finance to deliver an integrated product roadmap and Financial Mid-Term Plan (MTP) for BT innovation products.
• Work with the business and BT's open innovation ecosystem partners to identify growth opportunities, technology trends, partnerships and business models, and develop board-level business cases to inform investment decisions.
• Lead the strategic and commercial evaluation of opportunities across growth themes and frontier technologies including robotics, autonomous vehicles, agentic AI, quantum technologies, cyber security, developer platforms and emerging network-enabled services.
• Lead horizon-scanning activities to identify emerging technologies, market shifts, customer needs and ecosystem opportunities, translating insights into actionable growth opportunities and strategic recommendations.

Product and Commercial Scaling

• Challenge and support Etc. Product Directors to make portfolio investment decisions focused on opportunities with the strongest customer evidence, strategic fit and commercial potential.
• Partner with Product Directors to develop product roadmaps and commercial strategies that increase adoption and deliver sustainable recurring revenue growth.
• Support Growth and Go-to-Market teams responsible for sales enablement, market activation and revenue delivery, ensuring products have clear go-to-market strategies, commercial models and channel plans.

Portfolio and Investment Performance

• Create repeatable mechanisms to evaluate, select, fund and scale innovation initiatives by integrating financial targets, customer insights, competitor analysis and product performance data.
• Facilitate executive discussions on portfolio priorities, investment trade-offs and resource allocation to support BT's growth agenda.
• Define and track innovation KPIs, providing visibility of portfolio performance and risk to improve resource allocation, accelerate value creation and identify underperforming initiatives.
• Work with commercial and finance teams to translate product and commercial strategies into robust operational and financial plans.
• Strengthen investment cases through rigorous customer research, assumption validation, market sizing, business modelling, competitor analysis, pricing strategy, scenario planning and ROI modelling.

Innovation Capability and Operating Model

• Partner with the Etc. StratOps team to design, test and scale BT's innovation operating model, ideas platform and product-led ways of working.
• Support the development of BT's open innovation capability by building relationships across academia, start-ups, incubators, venture funds, hyperscalers, partners and customers.
• Build innovation capability across Etc. and BT through external best practice, tools and AI-enabled ways of working.
• Champion a high-performance innovation culture focused on analytical rigour, experimentation, evidence-based decision making and continuous improvement.

Essential Skills / Experience

• Strong strategic and commercial experience, gained in consulting, corporate strategy, a start-up, scale-up or innovation environment.
• Proven experience developing and delivering growth strategies, using strong commercial and financial insight, with experience influencing ExCo and Board-level stakeholders and communicating complex recommendations clearly.
• Experience applying AI, automation or data-driven approaches to improve decision-making, productivity or business outcomes.

Desirable Skills / Experience

• Strong commercial and financial analysis skills, including market sizing, unit economics, pricing, financial modelling and ROI analysis.
• Experience developing go-to-market strategies, operating models and long-term business or financial plans.
• Ability to work effectively across product, commercial, technology and transformation teams in complex, fast-moving environments.
• Experience working in product-led organisations or cross-functional product squads.
• Experience in business development, venture building or commercial negotiations.
• A relevant quantitative degree, postgraduate business qualification or professional finance qualification would be advantageous.
• Business development, venture building, legal agreement and contract negotiation experience.

Our Package

Tailored benefits make a real difference. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range to support your growth, wellbeing, and everyday life. You can design the package to suit you and your lifestyle. Your core benefits include:

• Company car scheme (or cash alternative)
• 15% on target annual bonus
• Private healthcare for you and your family
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family
• Market-leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off
• Equalised maternity, paternity, and adoption leave – 18 weeks’ full pay and 8 weeks’ half pay
• Discounted EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us
• Holiday purchase scheme

You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.