Head of Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Systems (ACTS)

Innovate UK has the following secondment opportunity available for employees of Innovate UK Business Connect:

Applications must be submitted by

08-05-2026

Head of Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Systems (ACTS)

This is a pivotal leadership role at the heart of a strategy to grow the UK as prosperous, safe and vibrant place to live and work.

*Please note this advert will close on the 7th May 2026 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here.

Title:             Head of Advanced Connectivity Technologies and Systems (ACTS)

Band:            UKRI Band G (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary:          £70,752 gross per annum

Reports to:   Director - Secure and Resilient Growth

Location:      Field based

Contract:      Permanent

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Job Purpose:

This is a pivotal leadership role at the heart of a strategy to grow the UK as prosperous, safe and vibrant place to live and work. The primary purpose of this role is to provide leadership for your team, work in collaboration with other Heads of roles, and support the Director for Secure and Resilient Growth. The role will actively contribute to the directorate vision to deliver secure and resilient growth for the UK, focusing on the advanced connectivity technologies and systems. You will be responsible for the strategic plan, financial planning, and delivery of interventions required to build capability in foundational technologies that underpin our critical technology supply chains. You will also be responsible to identify, create the business case for, and deliver interventions that connect these capabilities to grow the UK business landscape able to deliver solutions into UK Government's Priority Growth Sectors.

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Leadership team. This includes:

Leadership:

• Lead on the benefits realisation for the Directorate objectives to ensure the agreed outputs and outcomes are delivered as defined in agreed business cases in terms of SMART objectives.
• Communicating the vision such that a UK coalition of industrial and political leaders are advocating for, enabling and delivering action.
• Building momentum for and delivering strategic outcomes across the UK from the Directorate interventions. Play a strong role in the Director team by building a strong and influential coalition of partners from industry, academia, and government to deliver transformational change and growth for the UK.
• Communicating wins and approach in line with the Directorate vision and to support the overall business case developments.

Strategic Delivery:

• Providing clear thought leadership for you and your objectives to enable better delivery for the transformational changes required across businesses and industries to achieve growth.
• Accountable for delivering the intervention strategies for funding research and innovation for approval through Directorate, Innovate UK, DSIT governance structures, including which areas to fund and how best to deliver.
• Developing business cases for future, broader activities aligned with the programme strategy.

Programme Governance:

• Advise and deliver robust, transparent and open programmes that meet audit, public and government scrutiny.
• Manage the day-to-day financial forecasting for the Foundational Technologies programme.

High-performing team:

• Working with the senior leadership team and Director to manage and develop a high-performing, highly skilled programme team that can influence exceptional collaborative outcomes.
• Assist with the recruitment and development of the team

Specific Responsibilities include:

• Maintaining financial forecasts and updates for the various programme activities.
• Managing multiple managed programme interventions.
• Responsibility for the strategic plan and interventions required to identify and build necessary capability within a advanced communication technology and solutions’ sectors and markets.
• Identify, create the business case for, and deliver interventions from connecting capabilities to create a business landscape able to deliver solutions into UK Government's Priority Growth Sectors.
• Ensure any Programme Board and Advisory Group are well informed and enabled to take action through the design of agendas, Terms of Reference and papers and discussion topics at meetings. Ensure that there would be ongoing scrutiny of the Advisory Group, particularly in relation to membership and conflicts of interest.
• Contribute appropriately to the running and future development of the programme including contributing to the development of future activities, developing and enabling delivery of the evaluation, chairing team meetings, participating in the programme catch-ups, and sharing information across the programme.
• Leading on future potential proposals to develop the communication technologies and solutions programmes and interventions.

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting

(I) – Assessed at interview

(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential –

• Educated to degree-level in a relevant discipline or equivalent experience (S)
• A deep understanding of multiple technologies and solutions as found in advanced connectivity and systems such as O-RAN. (S&I)
• Knowledge across technology and solutions in connectivity and semiconductors, as well as a strategic view of how these and related technologies interrelate within the supply chains for UK Government's Priority Growth Sectors. (S&I)
• Demonstrable achievement of results through influencing skills rather than direct control.
• Successful management of multiple senior and executive stakeholders with conflicting demands and priorities. (S&I)
• Effective management of significant budgets, implementing cost-control and forecasting in a tightly controlled environment. (S&I)
• Experience of innovation or research, business competitiveness and technology policy or delivery. (S&I)
• Experience of influencing high-performance teams across multiple locations to deliver exceptional results. (S&I)

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

Field-based: There will a requirement to travel, mostly national, and there is some flexibility in this. Innovate UK staff make extensive use of telepresence tools for meetings to minimise unnecessary travel.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.

Applications must be submitted by;

08-05-2026