UK

United Kingdom · Innovation · Lead (8-12 years)

Lead Open Innovation Strategist

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, 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.

See how AI is changing this job, and get the full read by email.

Start my free Emotional Intelligence module

As a Lead Open Innovation Strategist, a good place to start on AI-Driven Ecosystem Mapping & Prediction is Leading a Department's People Through a Change in Their Roles, a free Future Fluency module at Level 5. You'd practise working with the people whose roles change when your department automates part of its work.

Free to start, no card.

Keep this job description

Where should we send it?

One email: what AI is changing in this job, the new skills it asks for, where it leads, and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

Your employer, or 'self-employed'

Leading a team? Try this with up to five of them for 14 days, free.

  • Experience bandLead (8-12 years)
  • Direct reports3-8 reports
  • Reports toHead of Open Innovation
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Open Innovation Lead · Innovation Programme Manager · Ecosystem Architect

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in what real qualifications cover

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

OCNLR Level 4 Certificate in Business Administration OCN London · Level 4 · covers 1 of 4 standards
1st4sport Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Outdoor Programmes 1st4sport · Level 3 · covers 1 of 4 standards
Focus Awards Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (RQF) Focus Awards Limited · Level 4 · covers 1 of 4 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Contribute to Innovation in a Business Environment OCNLR Level 4 Certificate in Business Administration
Design outdoor education programmes 1st4sport Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Outdoor Programmes
Encourage innovation Focus Awards Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (RQF)

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Frontier Fluency the next wave, beyond mainstream AI
Change Fluency taking people through change
Your Plan Illustration

Built for Lead Open Innovation Strategist

3 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Contribute to Innovation in a Business Environment OCN London · covers 1 of 4 standards Level 4
  2. Design outdoor education programmes 1st4sport · covers 1 of 4 standards Level 3
  3. Encourage innovation Focus Awards Limited · covers 1 of 4 standards Level 4
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Lead Open Innovation Strategist?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • AI-Driven Ecosystem Mapping & Prediction
  • Web3 & Decentralised Innovation Models
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

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

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Lead Open Innovation Strategist plan as you set up, starting with the free Emotional Intelligence module. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

Ready to pay? Subscribe for £70 a month

Keep this read. One email with what AI is changing in this job, the new skills it asks for and where to start free. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

3What this role really is

This role involves finding ideas and technology outside an organisation and working out how to put them to use inside it. It means building links between startups and internal teams, and shaping how open innovation gets done.

4What you'd actually use

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

Wazoku / Brightidea / Hype Innovation (or similar) Advanced

Configuring new innovation challenges, building custom scouting workflows, training business users on the platform, and analysing platform engagement data to optimise our programmes.

Crunchbase Pro / PitchBook / CB Insights (or similar) Advanced

Building complex market maps, analysing funding trends, using the platform for active deal sourcing, and creating detailed due diligence reports on potential partners. You'll be defining our intelligence strategy.

Miro / Mural Advanced

Designing and facilitating complex virtual workshops (e.g., Business Model Canvas sessions, ideation workshops) with internal and external partners, creating reusable templates for your team.

Asana / Monday.com / Airtable (or similar PPM tool) Advanced

Building and managing project plans for PoCs and pilots, overseeing resource allocation across your programmes, creating dashboards to track the innovation pipeline, and using Airtable for flexible partner databases.

Tableau / Power BI / Advanced Excel Advanced

Connecting various data sources to build new dashboards tracking KPIs (like pipeline velocity, PoC success rate, programme ROI), and using Power Query in Excel for robust data cleaning and manipulation for your reports.

5What 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 choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Programme Design & Strategy Follows established programme templates; suggests minor improvements. Proposes adaptations to existing programmes for specific needs; executes defined programme segments. Leads the design and implementation of new, complex innovation programmes (e.g., a venture client model), defining objectives, processes, and success metrics. Consults Head of Open Innovation on overall strategic direction.
Budget Allocation (Programme Level) Tracks personal expenses against project budget; flags potential overruns. Manages project budget up to £50K; flags significant variances to manager. Manages and allocates programme budgets up to £500K; makes trade-off decisions within the programme. Seeks approval for budget increases or significant reallocations from Head of Open Innovation.
Partner Selection & Engagement Researches potential partners based on defined criteria; schedules initial calls. Evaluates potential partners against scouting briefs; leads initial discussions and due diligence. Defines partner selection criteria for programmes; makes final decisions on PoC partners; leads complex negotiations and relationship management with strategic external partners (VCs, accelerators).
Team Management & Development Manages own workload and learning; seeks feedback. Provides informal guidance to new joiners; shares best practices. Directly manages 3-8 reports; accountable for their performance, development, and career growth. Makes hiring recommendations and performance review decisions for their team.
Project Go/No-Go (Pilot Level) Provides data and recommendations for project reviews. Recommends continuation or termination of individual PoCs based on data. Makes final go/no-go decisions for pilots within their programmes, based on predefined kill criteria and business unit alignment. Communicates these decisions to relevant stakeholders and manages the fallout if a project is killed.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

PoC-to-Pilot Conversion Rate
The percentage of successful Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) that move into a larger, funded pilot programme within a business unit.
Target · >25%

If you run 10 PoCs, we'd expect at least 3 to progress to a full pilot. This shows you're picking the right partners and de-risking effectively.

Average Time from Contact to Signed PoC Agreement
The average number of days it takes from your initial contact with a potential partner to getting a signed Proof-of-Concept agreement in place.
Target · <90 days

We track this to make sure we're not getting bogged down in internal processes. If it's taking 120 days, we're probably losing good startups to faster competitors.

Successful Handoffs to Business Unit 'Landing Zones'
The number of innovation pilots that successfully complete, get adopted by a specific business unit, and receive follow-on funding for scaling.
Target · 3-5 per year

This is the big one. It means your work isn't ending up in 'Pilot Purgatory.' For instance, a successful pilot with a logistics startup gets handed off to our Supply Chain team with a clear budget to roll it out across 5 warehouses.

Innovation Programme ROI (Projected Value)
The projected return on investment for the innovation programmes you lead, based on the potential revenue generation or cost savings of scaled solutions.
Target · 3x-5x projected value on programme budget

If your programme costs £500K to run, we'd expect the innovations coming out of it to generate or save £1.5M-£2.5M over their first few years, even if it's just a projection.

Strategic Alignment of Innovation Pipeline
How well the innovation programmes and partners you bring in align with our overall company strategy and key business unit priorities.
  • Your scouting briefs are clearly linked to strategic objectives. Business unit VPs are actively championing your projects. You can articulate the 'why' behind every major initiative and how it contributes to our long-term goals.
Ecosystem Health & Engagement
The quality and breadth of our external innovation network (startups, VCs, universities) and how actively they're engaging with us.
  • We're seeing a consistent 'deal flow' of high-quality startups. External partners are proactively reaching out to us. We're getting invited to exclusive industry events or investment rounds. Your team is seen as a trusted partner by the external ecosystem, not just a corporate gatekeeper.
Internal Stakeholder Advocacy
The level of support and active participation you get from internal business units and functional teams for your innovation initiatives.
  • Business unit leaders are volunteering their teams for pilots. Legal and Procurement are seen as enablers, not blockers, and you've built strong relationships with them. Your team's projects are regularly discussed in leadership meetings, and you're invited to contribute to strategic planning.
Team Development & Mentorship
How effectively you're leading and developing your direct reports, helping them grow their skills and impact.
  • Your team members are taking on more complex tasks. They're getting positive feedback from internal stakeholders. You're regularly providing constructive feedback and creating growth opportunities. Your team feels supported and challenged, and they're hitting their own targets.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Building Something New from Scratch

You love the blank canvas. The idea of taking a vague business problem or a nascent technology and designing a programme around it, then seeing it come to life, really energises you. You'll spend your days sketching out new processes, refining scouting briefs, and piecing together the puzzle of how an external solution fits internally.

Being given a challenge like 'find us a way to reduce waste in our manufacturing process using external tech' and coming back with a fully fledged programme to scout, pilot, and integrate a solution.

Connecting People and Ideas

You get a real buzz from introducing a startup founder to a business unit leader and seeing the 'lightbulb moment' when they realise they can solve a problem together. You thrive on being the bridge, the translator, the person who makes disparate parts click. Your calendar will be full of internal and external meetings, all aimed at making these connections.

Successfully brokering a partnership between a small AI company and our customer service department, leading to a significant improvement in resolution times.

Making a Tangible Impact on the Business

You're not interested in 'innovation theatre.' You want to see your work actually change things, whether that's saving money, generating new revenue, or creating a better customer experience. You'll be driven by the metrics of successful handoffs and programme ROI, knowing that your efforts are genuinely moving the needle.

Seeing a technology you scouted and piloted get adopted at scale across the organisation, leading to measurable improvements in efficiency or customer satisfaction.

What frustrates people
  • The 'Corporate Immune System': Spending 70% of your time navigating internal bureaucracy, procurement hurdles, and legal reviews, and only 30% on actual innovation and partnership building.
  • Misaligned Incentives: Trying to convince a Business Unit leader to take a risk on your 18-month pilot when their bonus is tied to hitting this quarter's sales target.
  • The 'Janitor' of Failed Projects: Being left to manage the relationship with a startup partner after the internal business sponsor who championed the project gets re-org'd or leaves the company.
  • Pilot Purgatory: The soul-crushing experience of running a wildly successful pilot that proves the business case, only to see it wither and die for lack of follow-on funding or a clear owner to scale it.
  • The Translation Burden: Constantly acting as a translator between the 'move fast and break things' language of a startup and the 'risk-averse, six-levels-of-approval' language of the corporation.
  • Chasing Shiny Objects: Your C-suite executive returns from a conference excited about 'The Metaverse' or 'Web3' and tasks you with 'finding some startups,' completely derailing your strategic scouting priorities.
What this role does not give you
  • A quiet, predictable routine with clear, unchanging tasks.
  • Immediate gratification or seeing every single idea you champion come to fruition.
  • Direct control over large budgets or business unit P&Ls (though you'll influence them significantly).
  • A role where you can avoid internal politics or complex stakeholder negotiations.

8Who you work with

This role directly shapes our future competitive advantage by bringing in external ideas and capabilities. You'll be responsible for creating new revenue streams and optimising existing operations through external partnerships. Your work helps us avoid 'Not Invented Here' syndrome and keeps us ahead of the curve. Honestly, without this role, we'd probably just keep doing things the way we always have, which isn't a recipe for long-term success.

Inside the business
  • Business Unit VPs (e.g., Head of Retail, Head of Operations)
  • Legal & Procurement teams
  • Product & Technology Leads
  • Finance leadership (for budget approvals)
Outside the business
  • Startup Founders & CEOs
  • Venture Capital (VC) firms & Accelerators
  • University Research Departments
  • Industry bodies and consortia

9What you need before you start

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

  • Proven track record of designing and running innovation programmes or significant innovation projects (not just individual PoCs).
  • Experience leading and mentoring junior team members, even if it wasn't a formal 'manager' title.
  • Demonstrable experience in building and managing relationships with external partners (startups, VCs, universities).
  • Strong analytical skills, including the ability to define metrics, track performance, and make data-driven decisions about innovation investments.
  • A solid understanding of at least one major emerging technology area (e.g., AI, IoT, Blockchain) and its potential business applications.
  • The ability to navigate complex organisational structures and influence stakeholders without direct authority.

10What to practise next

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

Advanced Data Visualisation & Storytelling

As data volumes grow and insights become more complex, simply presenting numbers isn't enough. You'll need to create compelling, interactive visualisations that tell a clear story, making it easy for senior leaders to grasp complex innovation trends and make quick decisions.

Interactive Dashboards (Tableau/Power BI) · Narrative Visualisation · Infographics & Data Art · Data Ethics in Visualisation

  • This month: Take an advanced course in Tableau or Power BI, focusing on dashboard design and interactivity.
  • Month 2: Redesign one of your existing quarterly reports into an interactive dashboard, focusing on clarity and impact.
  • Month 3: Seek feedback from senior leaders on your new visualisations, asking specifically if the 'story' is clear.
  • Month 4: Mentor a junior team member on best practices in data visualisation, sharing your learnings.

Quick win: Start incorporating more visual elements (charts, diagrams, infographics) into your presentations and reports. Use tools like Canva or Miro to create more engaging visuals, even for simple concepts.

No-Code/Low-Code Platform Development

The ability to quickly build internal tools, automate workflows, or create simple prototypes without relying on IT will become a massive advantage. This allows you to rapidly test new ideas and streamline your team's operations without waiting in development queues.

Workflow Automation (Zapier/Make.com) · App Development (Airtable/Glide/Bubble) · Data Integration & API Basics · User Experience (UX) Design Fundamentals

  • This month: Pick a repetitive task in your team's workflow and try to automate it using Zapier or Make.com.
  • Month 2: Explore Airtable's advanced features to build a custom partner relationship management (PRM) system for your team.
  • Month 3: Take an online course on 'No-Code App Development' using a platform like Glide or Bubble.
  • Month 4: Build a simple internal tool for your team, like a quick feedback form or a project status tracker, and get them to use it.

Quick win: Identify one small, annoying manual task your team does weekly and try to automate it using a simple no-code tool. Even a 15-minute saving adds up over time.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attending industry conferences and thought leadership events on innovation, venture capital, and emerging technologies (e.g., Slush, Web Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt).
  • Networking actively with peers in other corporate innovation units, VCs, and accelerators to share best practices and build your personal brand.
  • Subscribing to and actively reading key industry publications and research reports (e.g., HBR, MIT Tech Review, specific tech blogs) to stay current.
  • Mentoring junior innovation professionals, either formally or informally, to solidify your own knowledge and leadership skills.
  • Contributing to internal knowledge sharing sessions or writing articles for our company blog on innovation topics.

12The rising capability

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 Ecosystem Mapping & Prediction

Manual scouting and market landscaping are becoming too slow and prone to human bias. AI tools are getting better at spotting nascent trends, predicting startup success, and identifying 'white spaces' where innovation is needed but not yet happening. Competitors are already using this to gain an edge.

  • Predictive Analytics for Startup Success
  • Generative AI for Opportunity Identification
  • Network Graph Analysis
  • Ethical AI in Scouting

Web3 & Decentralised Innovation Models

While still early, Web3 technologies (blockchain, NFTs, DAOs) are fundamentally changing how value is created, owned, and exchanged. This could lead to entirely new models for open innovation, such as decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) for collective R&D, or tokenised incentives for external contributors. Ignoring it means missing a potential paradigm shift.

  • Blockchain Fundamentals
  • Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)
  • Tokenomics & Incentive Design
  • Smart Contracts for Partnerships

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Technology Scouting & Landscaping
  • Lean Startup Methodology
  • Business Model Canvas / Value Proposition Design
  • Ecosystem Development & Management
  • IP & Commercial Agreement Fundamentals

14The pathway

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. 1

    Senior Open Innovation Manager (Internal Promotion)

    3-5 years in previous role

    Skills to master

    • Moving from owning projects to designing programmes, leading a small team, and influencing senior stakeholders. You'll need to demonstrate strategic thinking beyond individual initiatives.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully managed a portfolio of 3-5 PoC/pilot projects from start to finish.
    • Consistently hit or exceeded PoC-to-pilot conversion targets.
    • Actively mentored junior team members and helped them grow.
    • Demonstrated ability to influence business unit leaders to adopt pilot projects.
    • Taken initiative to propose improvements to existing innovation processes.
  2. 2

    Innovation Consultant (External Hire)

    8-12 years in consulting

    Skills to master

    • Adapting consulting frameworks to corporate realities, building internal relationships, and transitioning from advisory to hands-on programme leadership. You'll need to get used to the internal pace.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Led multiple client engagements focused on innovation strategy or ecosystem development.
    • Managed project teams and delivered tangible outcomes for clients.
    • Strong client relationship management skills, which translate well to internal stakeholder influence.
    • Experience designing and implementing new processes or operating models.
  3. 3

    Startup Founder / Head of Business Development (External Hire)

    8-12 years in startup/BD roles

    Skills to master

    • Understanding corporate internal dynamics, navigating bureaucracy, and translating startup agility into corporate value. You'll bring a valuable outside perspective.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully built and scaled a startup, or led business development/partnerships for one.
    • Deep understanding of the startup ecosystem and how founders think.
    • Proven ability to identify and secure strategic partnerships.
    • Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration, but also able to adapt to longer corporate cycles.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work can lead to senior innovation leadership, corporate venture capital, or strategic roles that shape a whole organisation's direction.

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 Lead Open Innovation Strategist is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

Also named as a next step, with no page in the catalogue yet:

  • Director of Innovation & Ecosystems (Individual Contributor Path)

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Contribute to Innovation in a Business Environment, worked against Lead Open Innovation Strategist.

Contribute to Innovation in a Business Environment Level 4

Applied to your work in Lead Open Innovation Strategist

This unit aims to provide learners with an understanding of the role of innovation in a business environment and the methods for researching and developing new approaches and solutions. Learners will be able to apply appropriate tools and techniques to research and develop ideas, and understand how to present suggestions for new approaches.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 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.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Lead Open Innovation Strategist
  • Technology Scouting & Landscaping
  • Lean Startup Methodology
  • Business Model Canvas / Value Proposition Design
  • Ecosystem Development & Management
  • IP & Commercial Agreement Fundamentals
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.

16The 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

Lead Open Innovation Strategist is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Head of Open Innovation

    3-5 years in Lead Strategist role

    Level 5 (Principal/Manager)

    • Portfolio Optimisation Making strategic go/no-go decisions across the entire innovation portfolio to maximise ROI.
    • Advanced IP Strategy Working closely with legal to define the company's overall IP strategy in relation to external partnerships.
    • External Representation Representing the company at industry forums and with key external partners (e.g., government bodies, major VCs).

  2. Director of Innovation & Ecosystems (Individual Contributor Path)

    3-5 years in Lead Strategist role

    Level 6 (Director/VP)

    • M&A Due Diligence (Technical) Providing expert technical and strategic due diligence for potential innovation-driven M&A targets.
    • Global Ecosystem Strategy Developing and executing a global strategy for engaging with innovation hubs and ecosystems worldwide.
    • Internal Consulting Acting as a high-level internal consultant to various business units on complex innovation challenges.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be honest, a big chunk of open innovation can feel like a grind: endless scouting, digging through company profiles, and drafting documents. But what if you could offload a significant portion of that to AI? We're not talking about replacing your brain, but about giving you a powerful co-pilot that frees you up to do what you do best: connect, strategise, and influence.

Our internal AI Hub is packed with tools and guides specifically tailored for open innovation. Imagine cutting down the time you spend on research and admin by a third, giving you more time to build those crucial relationships, design impactful programmes, and actually get things done. Here's a glimpse of how AI can transform your day-to-day:

Automated Tech Scouting

Use AI agents to continuously scan patent databases, academic papers, funding announcements (like Crunchbase alerts), and industry news. It'll automatically surface and categorise startups that perfectly match your specific 'scouting briefs', saving you hours of manual searching and ensuring you don't miss a thing.

AI-Powered Due Diligence

Feed a startup's pitch deck, website, and financial statements into an AI model. It can instantly generate a 'First Pass' summary, highlighting potential risks, analysing team backgrounds, assessing market size claims, and identifying key competitors. This gives you a solid head start before you even pick up the phone.

Generative Market Landscaping

Instead of spending days manually searching and compiling, use an AI research tool to generate a comprehensive 'market map' of an emerging tech space (e.g., 'Lab-grown textiles'). The AI can identify key players, value chain stages, and recent investment trends in minutes, giving you a strategic overview almost instantly.

Accelerated Partnership Drafting

Use AI to generate a first draft of standard partnership documents like NDAs, PoC agreements, or Statements of Work. Based on our internal templates and your key variables (partner name, project scope, timeline), it provides a solid v1 for the legal team to refine, meaning they don't have to create it from scratch every time.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Lead Open Innovation Strategist?

Common routes in include Senior Open Innovation Manager (Internal Promotion) (3-5 years in previous role), Innovation Consultant (External Hire) (8-12 years in consulting) and Startup Founder / Head of Business Development (External Hire) (8-12 years in startup/BD roles). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Lead Open Innovation Strategist progress to?

This role can lead on to Head of Open Innovation (3-5 years in Lead Strategist role) and Director of Innovation & Ecosystems (Individual Contributor Path) (3-5 years in Lead Strategist role), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Lead Open Innovation Strategist?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Ecosystem Mapping & Prediction and Web3 & Decentralised Innovation Models. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Read the Zavmo manifesto to understand how you will be taught Meet your tutors

Or try another one

17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

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

 More jobs in innovation

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

The work builds skills in strategic thinking, building networks, running programmes, and working across complex organisations. These skills transfer into corporate strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions, or starting a new venture. Innovation work spans many industries, including technology, finance, manufacturing and healthcare.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

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. Start my free Emotional Intelligence module What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. 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.