United Kingdom · Innovation Intrapreneurship · Director/VP Level (16-20 years experience)

Director of Innovation & New Ventures

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

Experience bandDirector/VP Level (16-20 years experience)
Direct reports3-8 reports
Reports toChief Ideas Officer
UK framework levelUsually a director, accountable for a division and its numbers

Also advertised as Head of Corporate Venturing · VP of Strategic Growth Initiatives · Director of Innovation Strategy

Built on an analysis of 43,079 real UK job descriptions · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Start with a free Future Fluency check, tuned to Director of Innovation & New Ventures

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this role rather than a generic one. About five minutes, and no card.

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1What this role really is

This isn't just about coming up with clever ideas; it's about making them real, making them stick, and making them generate serious cash for the business. You'll be the person who figures out where our next big revenue stream is coming from, then builds the teams and processes to get us there. Expect to spend your days balancing big-picture thinking with the gritty details of getting new ventures off the ground. It’s a bit like being a startup founder, but with the backing of a large organisation – and all the political hurdles that come with it.

2What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Aha! / Brightidea (Enterprise Administration)Expert

Defining enterprise-wide innovation taxonomy, leading platform selection and negotiation, integrating idea data with strategic planning and financial systems, and using it to track portfolio health for executive reporting.

Miro / Mural / FigJam (Executive Workshop Facilitation)Expert

Designing and facilitating complex multi-day strategic workshops for senior leadership, creating custom templates for enterprise-wide use, and championing visual collaboration tools across the organisation to build executive narratives.

Tableau / Power BI (Strategic Dashboard Commissioning)Advanced

Defining the core innovation metrics for the C-suite, commissioning and overseeing the development of dashboards that link innovation activity directly to P&L impact, and using these for board presentations.

Anaplan / Pigment (Multi-Year Innovation Portfolio Modelling)Expert

Owning the multi-year innovation portfolio financial model, presenting investment scenarios to the CFO, and rigorously defending financial projections for new ventures under intense scrutiny.

Diligent Boards / Nasdaq Boardvantage (Board Reporting)Advanced

Directly uploading and presenting the innovation strategy, portfolio performance, and future growth initiatives to the Board of Directors via secure portals, ensuring data accuracy and strategic clarity.

3What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choice	Coming in	Where you are now	The step above
Innovation Project Funding (Seed Stage)	No authority. Provide data to support supervisor's recommendations.	Recommend funding for small-scale experiments (up to £5K) to manager.	Approve seed funding for MVPs (up to £50K) within approved workstream budget. Consult Director on larger amounts.
Strategic Partnership Formation	Identify potential partners and provide initial research to supervisor.	Draft initial outreach emails and support due diligence efforts.	Lead initial discussions with potential partners, draft MOUs, and recommend partnership structure to Director.
Talent Acquisition (Direct Reports)	No authority. May participate in interviews for junior roles.	Provide feedback on candidates for specialist roles.	Interview and provide strong recommendations for junior and mid-level roles. Consult Director on final offer.

4How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, honestly: the hard targets, how often each one is actually looked at, and the quiet human signals that never make it onto a dashboard.

Risk-Adjusted Innovation Pipeline Value

The total projected value of all active innovation projects, adjusted for their probability of success.

Target · Maintain a pipeline valued at >£20M, growing by at least 20% year-on-year.

If your pipeline has 5 projects, each with a £5M potential and a 50% chance of success, that's £12.5M. We need to see that number consistently growing.

Revenue from New Products/Ventures

The percentage of total company revenue generated by products or services launched within the last three years, directly attributable to innovation initiatives.

Target · Achieve 5-10% of total company revenue from new ventures within three years.

If the company's total revenue is £100M, we'd expect £5M-£10M to come from initiatives you've championed or overseen.

Viable New Business Ventures Created

The number of new ventures that successfully progress beyond initial pilots to receive Series A-level internal funding (typically £1M+).

Target · Generate 2-3 viable new business ventures per year.

In 2024, you successfully got two new ventures (e.g., 'AI-powered logistics platform' and 'Subscription box for pet owners') approved for £1.5M and £2M internal funding respectively.

Innovation Budget ROI

The return on investment for the innovation budget you manage, measured by the value generated by successful ventures versus total spend.

Target · Achieve a minimum 3:1 ROI on the overall innovation portfolio within a 3-year horizon.

If you spent £5M over three years and the ventures generated £15M in net new revenue, that's a 3:1 ROI – hitting the target.

Strategic Options Created

The breadth and quality of potential future growth avenues identified and explored, even if not all are pursued immediately.

Regularly presents compelling new market opportunities to the C-Suite. The innovation portfolio isn't just H1/H2
there are genuine H3 bets. Your team is seen as the 'early warning system' for market shifts.

Stakeholder Buy-in & Sponsorship

The level of support and active participation from key business unit leaders and C-suite executives in innovation initiatives.

Business unit VPs actively champion your projects and allocate their own resources. You're consistently invited to strategic planning sessions. Board members regularly ask for updates on your specific ventures, not just generic innovation reports.

Talent Development & Intrapreneurial Culture

The ability to attract, develop, and retain top talent within your innovation teams, and to foster a broader culture of intrapreneurship across the organisation.

Your team members are regularly promoted or move into leadership roles in new ventures. There's a clear pipeline of internal 'intrapreneurs'. You're seen as a mentor and a leader who empowers others to take calculated risks. Employee engagement scores within your direct team are consistently high.

External Ecosystem Engagement

The strength and quality of relationships with external VCs, startups, and industry bodies, positioning our company as a partner of choice.

You're regularly invited to speak at industry events. VCs proactively bring you deal flow. We're seen as a credible and attractive partner for startups looking to scale. You've successfully brokered 1-2 significant external partnerships or investments annually.

5Would you like it

The honest version. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy

Building the Future

You get a real buzz from seeing a nascent idea evolve into a tangible product or service that generates new revenue. The thought of shaping the company's next decade is what gets you out of bed.

Spending a late night sketching out a new business model on a whiteboard, knowing it could become a multi-million-pound venture.

Solving Big, Messy Problems

You thrive on ambiguity and complexity. The bigger and messier the strategic challenge, the more energised you feel. You enjoy untangling organisational knots to clear a path for new ideas.

Successfully getting two competing business units to collaborate on a new venture that neither initially wanted to own.

Empowering Intrapreneurs

You genuinely enjoy mentoring and coaching your team, helping them navigate the corporate landscape and bring their own innovative ideas to life. Seeing them succeed is a huge part of your own satisfaction.

Guiding a Lead Intrapreneur through a tough board presentation, helping them refine their pitch and anticipate difficult questions.

What frustrates people

Fighting the 'Not Invented Here' Syndrome: Business unit leaders rejecting great ideas because they didn't originate from their own team.
The Quarter-to-Quarter Tyranny: Trying to build businesses that pay off in 3-5 years, but constantly being judged against quarterly earnings cycles.
Lack of 'Patient Capital': Securing follow-on funding to scale a successful pilot can be incredibly difficult without an iron-clad executive sponsor.
The Handoff Problem: Successfully incubating a new product, only for the core business unit to slowly starve it of resources or fail to integrate it properly.

What this role does not give you

A predictable, routine work schedule – every day brings new challenges and priorities.
Guaranteed success for every project you champion – failure is a constant companion in innovation.
Direct control over all resources – you'll need to influence and persuade far more than you command.
Immediate, short-term gratification – many of your biggest wins will take years to materialise.

6Who you work with

This role directly impacts our long-term growth trajectory and market relevance. You're responsible for ensuring we're not just optimising today's business, but actively building tomorrow's. Your decisions on what to fund, what to kill, and where to invest our innovation capital will directly influence future P&L and shareholder value. Honestly, it's about securing the company's future.

Inside the business

C-Suite (CEO, CFO, COO)
Business Unit VPs and Managing Directors
Heads of Product, Engineering, and Marketing
Legal and Finance leadership

Outside the business

Venture Capital firms and startup accelerators
Strategic partners and potential acquisition targets
Industry analysts and thought leaders

7What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

Proven track record of leading and scaling multiple innovation projects or new ventures from concept to commercialisation within a large organisation or a successful startup.
Significant experience (15+ years) in strategic roles, ideally with a focus on product development, corporate strategy, or business development in a relevant industry.
Demonstrable experience managing a substantial budget (multi-million £) and achieving clear ROI on innovation investments.
Strong leadership experience, including direct management of teams (3+ reports) and a history of developing talent.
Extensive experience presenting to and influencing C-suite executives and Board members, with a clear ability to articulate complex strategies and financial projections.

8What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Data Governance & Ethics for Innovation

As innovation becomes more data-driven and AI-powered, ensuring ethical data use, privacy compliance, and robust governance frameworks for new data streams is paramount. Regulators and consumers demand it.

Data Lineage & Auditability · Privacy-Preserving Technologies · AI Explainability (XAI) · Data Sovereignty & Cross-Border Data Flows

This quarter: Review our current data governance policies through an innovation lens; identify potential friction points for new ventures.
Next 6 months: Work with Legal and Data Privacy teams to draft 'innovation-friendly' data guidelines for experimentation.
Next 12 months: Champion a project to implement a new data governance tool or framework specifically for innovation data assets.
Ongoing: Stay updated on global data privacy regulations and best practices through industry webinars and reports.

Quick win: Attend a webinar on GDPR compliance for AI/ML projects. It's a low-effort way to start building your knowledge base.

9Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up

Actively participate in industry forums and conferences focused on innovation, corporate venturing, and emerging technologies (e.g., Innovate Finance, TechCrunch Disrupt, World Economic Forum).
Maintain a strong network with venture capitalists, startup founders, and innovation leaders across various industries.
Regularly read academic research, white papers, and business publications on strategic innovation, future trends, and organisational change.
Mentor junior talent within the organisation and externally, sharing your knowledge and building a strong reputation as a thought leader.

10How the AI economy is changing work like this

Before we ask anything of you, here's what we can already say about AI and work of this kind:

The new skill this role is being asked for: AI-Driven Strategic Foresight

The sheer volume of data on market trends, consumer behaviour, and technological advancements is exploding. Relying solely on human analysis will miss critical signals. AI tools will become indispensable for identifying weak signals, predicting disruptions, and generating novel strategic options.

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Strategic Foresight

The sheer volume of data on market trends, consumer behaviour, and technological advancements is exploding. Relying solely on human analysis will miss critical signals. AI tools will become indispensable for identifying weak signals, predicting disruptions, and generating novel strategic options.

Predictive Analytics for Market Trends
Generative AI for Scenario Planning
Automated Patent & Research Analysis
Ethical AI & Bias Detection

Ecosystem Orchestration & Platform Strategy

Few significant innovations happen in isolation anymore. The future of growth lies in building and orchestrating complex ecosystems of partners, suppliers, and even competitors. Understanding how to design and manage platform business models will be crucial.

Network Effects & Multi-Sided Platforms
API Economy & Open Innovation
Co-opetition Strategies
Governance Models for Ecosystems

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

Lean Startup Methodology (Organisational Application)
Design Thinking (Strategic Facilitation)
Business Model Canvas / Value Proposition Canvas (Enterprise Level)
Stage-Gate® Process Management (Portfolio Level)
Corporate Venturing & Open Innovation (Deal Execution)

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

1
Principal, Corporate Innovation / Innovation Manager (L5)
3-5 years at L5 before moving to L6
Skills to master
- Mastering portfolio management, making tough kill/pivot/persevere decisions, building strong relationships with business unit heads, and consistently delivering viable new ventures.
You're ready to move on when
- Successfully managed a portfolio of 3-5 innovation projects, with at least one reaching significant scale.
- Consistently secured internal funding for new ventures, demonstrating strong business case development and stakeholder influence.
- Developed and mentored a team of intrapreneurs, seeing them grow and take on more responsibility.
2
Senior Management Consultant (Innovation/Strategy Focus)
5-8 years in consulting before moving to L6
Skills to master
- Translating strategic recommendations into actionable implementation plans, managing large-scale transformation programmes, and developing deep industry expertise in innovation.
You're ready to move on when
- Led multiple innovation strategy engagements for large corporate clients, with demonstrable impact.
- Proven ability to build and manage complex client relationships at the executive level.
- Experience in driving organisational change and embedding new processes within client organisations.
3
Venture Capital / Private Equity Professional
5-7 years in VC/PE before moving to L6
Skills to master
- Expertise in deal sourcing, due diligence, investment thesis development, and portfolio management, with a strong network in the startup ecosystem.
You're ready to move on when
- Successfully sourced, evaluated, and executed multiple investments in early-stage companies.
- Demonstrated ability to support portfolio companies in scaling and achieving strategic milestones.
- Deep understanding of market dynamics, competitive landscapes, and disruptive technologies.
4
Senior Business Unit Leader (P&L Responsibility)
6-10 years in a P&L role before moving to L6
Skills to master
- Full P&L ownership, deep operational experience, understanding market dynamics, and driving growth through new product development or market expansion.
You're ready to move on when
- Managed a significant business unit or product line with clear revenue and profitability targets.
- Successfully launched and scaled new products or services within their business unit.
- Demonstrated ability to identify and capitalise on new market opportunities.

11Where this role leads

The long view:This role isn't just a job; it's a launchpad for a career dedicated to shaping the future. You'll gain unparalleled experience in building, scaling, and leading new ventures, preparing you for the highest levels of leadership, whether that's within our organisation, in the startup world, or in the broader innovation ecosystem. We're investing in you to build our future, and in doing so, you'll build yours.

Pay & demand

Pay and demand for this role will appear here, each figure traced to a named authoritative source (e.g. the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, under the Open Government Licence). We don’t show numbers we can’t attribute.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Director of Innovation & New Ventures is actually changing. In about two minutes, the free confidence check asks where you stand on each of the ten. That's the whole check, and it's what makes the plan yours rather than generic.

12The team that's yours

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

Zavmo is a hyper-personalised AI learning platform. Twelve virtual tutors, each with a different way of teaching, and one orchestration agent that picks the right one for the moment. So every single lesson is shaped around you, your role, and the way you learn. Not a course everyone sits through. A conversation built for you, and no one else.

…and nine more, matched to you after your first chat. Meet all twelve

Start free and meet yours

13What it feels like

A conversation, not a course

Because your tutor knows your role, your projects and your last session, learning sounds like this. And it's different for every single person:

Strategic Enterprise ManagementLevel 7

Applied to your work in Director of Innovation & New Ventures

By completing this unit, learners will understand success factors in strategic enterprise management, governance, and relationship management, and be able to utilise enterprise planning and apply analytic techniques.

How the thinking builds

Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyse
Evaluate
Create

An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

Your actual work Every lesson is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

DemonstrateIllustration

Evidenced on your work in Director of Innovation & New Ventures

You do not finish by watching something. You finish by showing it on the work you already do, against the measures this job is judged on.

Risk-Adjusted Innovation Pipeline ValueThe total projected value of all active innovation projects, adjusted for their probability of success.If your pipeline has 5 projects, each with a £5M potential and a 50% chance of success, that's £12.5M. We need to see that number consistently growing.Maintain a pipeline valued at >£20M, growing by at least 20% year-on-year.
Revenue from New Products/VenturesThe percentage of total company revenue generated by products or services launched within the last three years, directly attributable to innovation initiatives.If the company's total revenue is £100M, we'd expect £5M-£10M to come from initiatives you've championed or overseen.Achieve 5-10% of total company revenue from new ventures within three years.
Viable New Business Ventures CreatedThe number of new ventures that successfully progress beyond initial pilots to receive Series A-level internal funding (typically £1M+).In 2024, you successfully got two new ventures (e.g., 'AI-powered logistics platform' and 'Subscription box for pet owners') approved for £1.5M and £2M internal funding respectively.Generate 2-3 viable new business ventures per year.
Innovation Budget ROIThe return on investment for the innovation budget you manage, measured by the value generated by successful ventures versus total spend.If you spent £5M over three years and the ventures generated £15M in net new revenue, that's a 3:1 ROI – hitting the target.Achieve a minimum 3:1 ROI on the overall innovation portfolio within a 3-year horizon.

These are this job's own measures, with its own targets. Nothing is marked evidenced, because nobody has started this yet. Yours would fill in from the work you bring.

Your passport

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Every credit you earn and every fluency you build adds up: evidence where it counts, carried with you. Zavmo keeps the map: where you are, where you're heading, and the next step, at your pace, around your life. From Director of Innovation & New Ventures to Chief Ideas Officer / VP of Intrapreneurship (L7), and whatever you decide comes after.

Level 7 · in progressAI Fluency→ Chief Ideas Officer / VP of Intrapreneurship (L7)→ your design

Where this takes you

This role isn't just a job; it's a launchpad for a career dedicated to shaping the future. You'll gain unparalleled experience in building, scaling, and leading new ventures, preparing you for the highest levels of leadership, whether that's within our organisation, in the startup world, or in the broader innovation ecosystem. We're investing in you to build our future, and in doing so, you'll build yours.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration

Director of Innovation & New Ventures

Lean Startup Methodology (Organisational Application)
Design Thinking (Strategic Facilitation)
Business Model Canvas / Value Proposition Canvas (Enterprise Level)
Stage-Gate® Process Management (Portfolio Level)
Corporate Venturing & Open Innovation (Deal Execution)

This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

14The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Director of Innovation & New Ventures is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

Chief Ideas Officer / VP of Intrapreneurship (L7)
3-5 years
From Director (L6) to C-Suite (L7)
- Board-level Accountability: Directly reporting to the CEO and Board on multi-year growth initiatives, defending significant investment proposals.
- Investor Relations: Communicating the company's innovation story and future growth potential to investors and financial analysts.
- Market-Shaping Influence: Driving initiatives that position the company as a market leader and disruptor, often involving industry-wide collaborations.

Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be honest, as a Director, your time is precious. You're juggling strategic vision with operational oversight, and there's rarely enough time in the day. Imagine having a personal AI assistant that handles the grunt work, allowing you to focus on what truly matters: building the future of our business.

AI isn't just for analysts anymore. It's becoming an indispensable tool for senior leaders in innovation, helping you cut through noise, accelerate strategic insights, and streamline communication. We're integrating cutting-edge AI tools into our workflows to give you a significant advantage, freeing you up to lead, inspire, and make those critical 'pivot or persevere' decisions.

Strategic Idea Triage & Clustering

Instead of manually sifting through thousands of ideas from internal campaigns or external scouting, use NLP models to automatically tag, cluster, and identify high-potential concepts based on strategic keywords. It'll flag duplicates and group related themes, giving you a curated shortlist to review. This means you spend less time being an 'idea janitor' and more time evaluating genuinely promising opportunities.

Accelerated Market & Trend Synthesis

Feed generative AI models dozens of market research reports, patent filings, and competitor analyses. Ask it to synthesise key trends, identify white space, and generate executive summaries of competitive threats and opportunities. You'll get comprehensive, digestible insights in minutes, allowing you to react faster and make more informed strategic bets without wading through endless documents.

Rapid Business Case Generation & Stress Testing

Use AI tools to generate the first draft of complex business cases. Provide structured inputs (problem, solution, target market, key metrics), and it can draft the narrative, create pro-forma financial models, and even identify key risks and assumptions. You can then use AI to 'stress test' these assumptions, asking it to identify weaknesses or alternative scenarios, giving you a robust v1 to refine and present to the CFO.

Board & C-Suite Comms Drafting

Imagine using AI to draft tailored communication for different senior stakeholders. 'Take this innovation portfolio update and turn it into a 3-bullet summary for the CEO,' or 'Rewrite this technical summary of our new venture for a marketing audience,' or 'Generate 5 potential questions the Board might ask about this investment model.' This speeds up the crucial political and social aspects of your role, ensuring your message lands perfectly every time.

Common questions

How do you become a Director of Innovation & New Ventures?

Common routes in include Principal, Corporate Innovation / Innovation Manager (L5) (3-5 years at L5 before moving to L6), Senior Management Consultant (Innovation/Strategy Focus) (5-8 years in consulting before moving to L6), Venture Capital / Private Equity Professional (5-7 years in VC/PE before moving to L6) and Senior Business Unit Leader (P&L Responsibility) (6-10 years in a P&L role before moving to L6). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Director of Innovation & New Ventures progress to?

This role can lead on to Chief Ideas Officer / VP of Intrapreneurship (L7) (3-5 years), depending on the skills you build.

What level is a Director of Innovation & New Ventures in the UK?

This role aligns to RQF Level 7 on the UK framework, a guide to the depth of qualification it maps to, not a hard entry bar.

What new skills matter most for a Director of Innovation & New Ventures?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Strategic Foresight and Ecosystem Orchestration & Platform Strategy. These are the areas where the higher-paid, future-proof work is heading.

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most of them were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

What it costs

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

A single career-coaching hour costs more than a month of this, and it ends when the hour does. Zavmo doesn't. It's £70 a month, about £2.30 a day, for a companion that knows Director of Innovation & New Ventures, works on the job you actually do, and keeps going at your pace rather than a timetable's.

Searching and planning stay free. You only pay when you start learning.
Your credits are yours. Regulated, and they don't vanish when a subscription ends.
Cancel any time and billing stops. No notice period, no minimum term.

Your path, personalised

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.

This route runs to 10 national skill standards. That is a real journey.

Zavmo shapes a learning experience as unique as you are. It fits how you learn, your pace and the work you already do. Every step stays benchmarked to recognised national standards. That’s the plan for becoming a Director of Innovation & New Ventures: personal to you, and it still counts. The first steps are free.

Independent research finds well-designed intelligent tutoring performs nearly as well as one-to-one human tutoring: VanLehn (2011), Educational Psychologist.

A private tutor in the UK averages £35–40 an hour . Zavmo is £70/month.

A Zavmo curriculum screen: a three-month plan of nine units, ninety credits, each one an Ofqual-regulated unit the learner can tick or untick before starting. — A real plan on learn.zavmo.ai: Ofqual-regulated units, credits, and a three-month run at your own pace.

Start free No commitment. See your first steps free.

15Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 7

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

Other roles in Innovation Intrapreneurship

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills you'll hone in this role—strategic foresight, building new businesses, influencing without authority, and managing complex portfolios—are highly transferable across virtually any industry. You'd be well-positioned for leadership roles in technology, financial services, healthcare, or even consumer goods, particularly in organisations undergoing significant transformation or seeking new growth engines.

Not sure this is the right direction?

Work out what you actually want from work first, then come back and see which roles fit it. Takes about ten minutes.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Build my plan, free Here's the first ten minutes: a 2-minute confidence check → your personalised roadmap → meet the tutors matched to you. No card, cancel any time. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.

Director of Innovation & New Ventures

What's rising in its place

AI-Driven Strategic Foresight

Ecosystem Orchestration & Platform Strategy

Skills this role draws on

Technical

How you actually get there, here

Principal, Corporate Innovation / Innovation Manager (L5)

Senior Management Consultant (Innovation/Strategy Focus)

Venture Capital / Private Equity Professional

Senior Business Unit Leader (P&L Responsibility)

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

Roles this leads to

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

A conversation, not a course

No two people run this the same way

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Everything else the record holds

The career path, and where it branches

Chief Ideas Officer / VP of Intrapreneurship (L7)

Where AI is starting to help

Strategic Idea Triage & Clustering

Accelerated Market & Trend Synthesis

Rapid Business Case Generation & Stress Testing

Board & C-Suite Comms Drafting

Common questions

You’ve started things before

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.